A Dead Earth[IC-Semiopen]

That sense of danger had been there ever since they had first landed on this planet. Even if the planet was dead, and had to be dead, after one of the worst nuclear holocausts in history, it always felt as if... somebody was watching them, following them. Even so, there was no way Alexander could have imagined that anything like this could ever happen.

While he was still standing up, the Colonial suddenly noticed a large, dark brown creature, maybe of the size of a large dog. It took him a few good moments to realize that the creature seemed to be some sort of a cockroach. But even so... a mutated cockroach? He vaguely remembered something about the fact that cockroaches could survive nuclear explosions, but even so...

While Alexander stood up, Haruna took care of the first cockroach, but just as he was unsheathing Mosrael, two burst out of the ground. He was able to see as the cockroach used its feeler to bring Haruna down, and then a second cockroach pinned her onto the ground, and started to bite her, everything happen a little too fast for Alexander to be able to fully react.

Taking out Mosrael, Alexander focused as its blade was engulfed in dark red flames. As always, Mosrael was a little harder to control. Even among the demons, Mosrael was regarded as one of the more.. wild and unstable demons, a fact excellently signified by how he had to use a burning sword in order to fight.

Prinz fired her sidearm at the first cockroach, stopping him from also jumping over Haruna. While the cockroach turned around, Alexander started to run towards it. The cockroach attacked him using its feelers, trying to do the same thing it had done to Haruna, but Alexander was prepared, parrying the attack of the first feeler and burning it using the side of his blade, and cutting the other in two. In pain, the beast stepped back, and tried to jump at the Colonial, but in midair, it was hit by Mosrael and cut in two, the two now burning parts of it falling dead and limp on the ground.

Finishing the first cockroach, Alexander immediately turned to the second. Prinz was hesitating to fire, from the fear not to hit Haruna, so this time, it was only him against the mutated monster. Running towards it, Alexander practically kicked it off the golden eyed girl beneath it. Now really angry, the cockroach turned against its second target, jumping at Alexander and taking him a little by surprise, forcing him to defend himself with his left hand. Catching the opportunity, the cockroach jumped at his left hand, biting Alexander's wrist. Even if the black haired man was protected by the nanosuit, it probably still hurt.

Now, with the cockroach biting his wrist, Alexander used the side of his sword to hit its head, forcing it to open its jaws, the cockroach falling at the ground. Quickly, Alexander pierced it with the tip of his burning sword. After a few short spams, the beast went limp, dead.

"What the... what the hell was that...", Alexander said, breathing a little heavily. Even if those cockroaches weren't necessarily some sort of supermonsters, this happened way to fast, taking them by surprise. The Colonial stopped the fire that was engulfing his sword's blade, but stayed with Mosrael in his hand, ready to defend himself if needed."Hey, are you okay?", he asked, kneeling down next to Haruna, and trying to help her back up.

"Mutations or not, those cockroaches were scary as hell.", Alexander said as Haruna rubbed his wrist, ensuring him that everything was alright with,that he wasn't wounded. "Yeah, I know, these suits are really good. The Colonies used similar suits for a long time, even during the Secession Wars, but the discovery of veranium and the subsequent discovery of smart veranium allowed this specific model to be created. They're easy to produce, resistant, light, easy to transport, and easy to use. It's the standard nanosuit for the Colonial Star Guards. I'll make sure to talk with the Science Division so that we can share them with Jupiterra, after all, we have technological agreements."

After that, Alexander looked at the city, worried. He didn't like it... he didn't like it at all. "Yeah, we should head to the city. But both of you, be careful. I have this bad feeling... I have this bad feeling that there is something more waiting for us in the city... something else than radioactivity and mutant cockroaches."

With Alexander in the front, Haruna and Prinz started to walk towards the city in front of them. Even if they all had a bad feeling, the city seemed to be dead. And it looked even more dead from so closer. Its roads were cracked, rusty old cars being visible everywhere, permanent shadows being visible here too. Most of its buildings seemed to be on the verge of collapse, after centuries with no maintenance. But the worst part... was the silence. A complete, silence. No one else seemed to be around. The city was dead and quiet, with the only things heard being the breathing of the three, and the beeps of their sensors, that were guiding them towards the source of the signal.

Finally though, Alexander, Haruna and Prinz reached something that looked like an old plaza. In the very middle, there was something that probably was a fountain somewhere in the past, even if there were hundreds of years ever since water had lastly been in this fountain. In the middle, on a pedestal, there was the same black eagle of the Colonies, with the black cross and the twelve golden stars, a statue representing the emblem of the Colonies. But there was something... strange about it, something different from the emblem Haruna had been seeing on the Colonial ships. The current Colonial emblem was holding two swords in its claws. This one, on the fountain, was holding olive branches, old and cracked, symbol of a lost peace.

What immediately attracted their attention though was something else. A body, laying on the floor with the face down, wearing something that looked like an old Colonial nano-suit. Seeing it, Alexander immediately rushed to its side. The body had something that looked like a primitive spear, piercing its back.

"A member of the expedition?", Alexander said, speaking more for himself. "This guy... he certainly didn't have a natural death. The spear... someone pierced his back with it, removed it, than pierced again, pushing harder. It was done.. with the clear purpose of making him feel as much pain as possible. But who? What happened?"

Unfortunately for him, Alexander had been just too absorbed by inspecting the dead body, and failed to be careful at what was happening around him. Seeing a dead body killed with a spear on a planet that was supposed to be dead for the past centuries certainly wasn't something that you could see every day, and it just attracted most of the Colonial's attention. Had it not be for Haruna, he probably would have been short without managing to respond in any way.

Now on the ground, with Haruna on top of him, Alexander desperately tried and managed to unsheathe his sword, gently pushing Haruna from the top, before they dragged themselves on the ground and hid behind one of the many old cars on the road, so that the sniper, whoever he was, couldn't fire at them. Someone was clearly approaching, and Prinz, hidden behind, tried to blindly fire, but a shot was immediately heard, and the blonde ship model dropped her weapon, probably shot in her hand. No matter how much Alexander would have wanted to help her right now,  getting out of cover to reach her would have been suicide. However, using one of the car mirrors that were on the ground next to them, Alexander and Haruna managed to look at the people who were coming to them.

Much to their surprise... they were human, or at least, they looked human. Of course, they were a little tanned, but that was not the point. Most of them... their hair.. their hair had colors that would have been strange even for a genetically modified human. Most of them seemed to have hair colors that alternated between colors like orange, black, and while, all mixed up and that. They were wearing tattered and torn clothes, using improvised weapons, and looking almost.. tribal and primitive. They also didn't seem to be affected by the radiation, with most of them seeming to be rather young, both men and women, or better said, boys and girls.

One of them,a girl, started to speak in what sounded like a really rough dialect of Colonial Standard.

"We knew that you were going to come eventually again, traitors! You abandoned us here, but we finally got you! Surrender, and you won't be killed!"

As soon as Haruna stood up, the strange people all aimed their improvised gun at her, looking at her with hostility. Alexander, still down and hidden behind the car, hesitated to stand up, ready to push Haruna out of the harm's way if possible. Prinz, on the other hand, also slowly stood up, raising her hands. Her right hand was unfortunately bleeding.

"Yes, you are traitors", the same girl from before said. She seemed to be fairly similar to all her kin, but her hair was more black and white,with only a few locks of her hair orange.
"All our forefathers told us, the story transmitted through generations. After the mushroom bombs fell, they abandoned us, alone in this hell. The. .. the Federal Government." The girl seemed to have difficulties pronouncing the last two words." You abandoned us here. You're traitors. "

Hearing what Haruna was saying, the strange people really seemed confused. Meanwhile, hearing that, next to her, Alexander suddenly realized how easily she could have made that confusion. Well, she didn't knew too much about Colonial history, so that could have been expected.

"A week ago? What are you talking about, Federal?", the same girl asked, not less confused than the rest of her kin. "The stories say that the great storm has come and gone over a hundred times ever since the mushroom bombs fell, ever since the Twilight. Our elders know it from their elders, that knew it from their elders. Generations have passed ever since the Twilight, and none of us has ever seen the so called Sun, always covered by the black clouds of doom. A week? A war? What war?"

The girl then made a short pause, pointing at the Colonial emblem on Haruna's nanosuit afterwards." We only know about Federals like you from the stories of our elders.... traitorous people wearing the lying eagle, the lying eagle who abandoned our ancestors so long ago.."

As Haruna stammered, Alexander sighed. He was fully aware that Jupiterra and Sol in general had been living in their own little world for the past centuries, ignoring parts of their history and what was happening outside of their borders, but even so.. well, it wasn't like it was Haruna's fault. Alexander should have really mentioned the fact that Terra Nova fell between the First and the Second Secession War- the one they had just won was already the Third Secession War between Terra and the Colonies.

Much to Alexander's surprise though, Haruna suddenly collapsed on the ground, without being able to say anything else. Not even caring that there were enemies a mere few meters away from them, pointing their guns at them, Alexander stood up, and rushed to Haruna's side, trying to help her, followed soon by Prinz."Hey, what happened?!", the Colonial asked he was trying to realize what was wrong. The natives strangely also didn't do anything, also seemingly surprised by the strange turn of events, some of them even lowering their weapons.

The situation changed so quickly, that many of the people around didn't even manage to understand what was happening. Hearing Haruna's warning, Alexander practically took her up, pushing her behind that same car, so that she would be as safe as possible from the unknown mutants that had just appeared, riding mutant cockroaches. The so called natives, after the death of their sniper, also didn't seem to be in too friendly relations with the new arrived mutants. Even if a few minutes ago, they were ready to fire at the so called Federals, now, they also jumped behind those very cars, opening fire at the ones who had just arrived.

One of the mutants riding cockroaches immediately fell under the bullets of the human-looking natives, while the others started their charge. The girl that had been speaking previously managed to shoot one of the mutants in the head, but the cockroach, without its rider, jumped over the car and on her, and she would have probably ended up bitten and mauled if not for the quick reflex of Alexander, who used his sword(not burning this time), to cut the cockroach in two.


Meanwhile, Prinz, despite the wound of her right arm, attempted to fire at one of the incoming enemies, trying to protect Haruna. Unfortunately, she only managed to hit and kill the cockroach, and the mutant above with the knife in his hand, jumped over her, trying to stab her. The native girl, despite having a few bite wounds on her hands from that cockroach from before, saw that, and fired, the large caliber bullets fracturing the mutant's spine, who fell dead over Prinz, the blonde girl desperately pushing the dead body aside.

Two of the mutants attacked Alexander, and the Colonial managed to parry the slash of the first one, cutting his head, before piercing and killing the cockroach. The other one, unfortunately, was moving to fast, and his knife somehow managed to slightly cut Alexander's hand, but two other natives opened fire, and the mutant was killed, leaving Alexander to slash the cockroach in two.

The two remaining mutants, seeing that the battle turned against them, retreated, one of them being shot in the back, falling and dying a few meters further away. The last one whoever, escaped, but he was wounded, and he probably wasn't going to make it out far. The short but intense fight was over.

Breathing heavily, Alexander fell down, leaning against one of the cars while trying to catch his breath, some blood lightly flowing from the cut on his arm. The native girl was also sitting next to him, also trying to catch her breath, while trying to ignore the few bite wounds she had, her multi-colored hair being also lightly stained in blood from the cockroach who was killed above her.

"You fight pretty good... for a supposedly cowardly Federal..", the native girl said,lightly smiling. Alexander tried to calm himself down, the adrenaline still present. "You and your people are also fighting pretty good, for primitive natives..".

Standing up, Alexander then sat down next to Haruna. "We come here to visit, and already, half the natives want to capture us, the other half want to kill us and take our brains. Is it just our luck?", he asked, sarcastically.