Consequence - 12 A.C. - Edited 2.11.2010

Chapter 1
         The water chilled him within his suit and sand oozed into the cracks. As his gaze rose from the orange sand in front of him, he was confronted with the sensation of familiarity. He struggled to his feet, sand slowly dripping from his breastplate revealing the call sign ‘BISHOP’ displayed in bright blue OLEDs. As Bishop stood he turned around and removed what was left of his helmet to gaze upon the tropical paradise he once called home.
         “Nine years”, he thought to himself. The setting sun over the deep blue ocean near the high cliffs of Salvus, the waves as they clashed with the rocks that lay low in the water and the wonderful smell of salt in the air. This small beach was refuge to many memories and signified Bishop’s personal perfect world. This evening, however, it was anything but.
         In the distance lay the wreckage of the U.S.S. Signus. The sight of a heavy cruiser burning in the shallow coastal waters was breathtaking. Deep red-blue coolant leaked from the stern of the ship; the warm atmosphere coaxing vibrant steam from the streams. Blue flames consumed the super-concentrated oxygen leaking from the life support systems. She was the flagship of Sol Planetary Federation. The most advanced ship in the fleet, and she was fresh out of the orbital hanger. Now it lay defeated upon the world its crew died to protect, which Bishop thought he had done as well. But there he stood, upon his devastated home world staring at the ship which once carried his friends, fellow citizens and the pride of Sol.
         Bishop began to walk towards the wreckage slowly, grasping at it despite it being obviously out of reach. He had stumbled into the ocean up to his knees when several explosions ripped through the ship’s hull. The loud claps of fading hope snapped Bishop out of his daze. He walked back to shore and grabbed his helmet. Sliding it on he heard several chimes as the helmet synced with his neural implant. Small icons flickered into his vision as if they were right in front of him, his eyes deceived by a clever technology. Bishop scanned the com channels for any sign of a local camp or even some held up survivors who may point him in the right direction.
         Nothing.
         Bishop took a deep breath, inhaling the fresh ocean air through his cracked faceplate. The salty air continuing to remind him of time spent. Laden was just a small town in the Salvus territory on Ceres XIV. The moon circled a deep red gas giant in the Atlantis system. The star's real name is Gliese 876 but Atlantis stuck seeing as it was the only habitable system in the Aquarius constellation. Aquarius soon rose to be the recreational epicenter of humanity. Many people made the long one year journey to the system looking for the paradise that lay on the five livable moons.
         Bishop reminisced – he saw his mother’s face when she greeted him after school. Every
Friday they would go to this beach at the edge of town to watch the sun set, but this time the
sun was not veiled by clouds or dipping below the horizon. It was eclipsed by towering white
metal, slowly breaking apart like chalk. The view soon became obstructed by the beachfront
trees as Bishop made his way inland to hopefully find anyone. As long as he could figure out the
situation on the ground, he might be able to make a decision on how to get back into this fight.
         Bishop stumbled a bit as he pushed his way through the bushes. Regaining his balance he noticed the composite material of the street. His view rose and he scanned the scene. If it weren’t for the occasional trash heap, wrecked car and complete absence of human existence you would have thought nothing was off. This aggravated Bishop. He pulled his sidearm from its torso compartment and checked its condition. The semi-automatic weapon was in perfect condition and the weapon uplink was functioning properly as he tested the digital sight’s operation with a quick look behind him through the HUD. The digital scope wasn’t just useful for firing, but a great tool for looking around corners or into rooms. You could toss the weapon and use it as second set of eyes.
         Bishop holstered the weapon and started toward the most likely place he would find people, or at least clues: the Carrior Tether. Space tethers were the public’s access to inter-system travel. The military had ships capable of atmospheric launch alongside the government and high ranking citizens. The tether rose to the sky from a good twenty kilometers north. Bishop eyed the setting sun. The enemy’s technology was well adapted to assassination and stealth. One could presume it was equally excellent at detecting such methods. The only option Bishop really had was finding a vehicle. If he couldn’t hide he could at least move faster and cut his travel time down. He spied a parking structure a few blocks down over a few trees and decided it would be his best bet.
         An hour passed and Bishop finally gave in. Something had killed all the vehicles power supplies. He needed a way to start up their Immer Während’s or else he wouldn’t get anywhere. Without an initial power source there was no way to initiate the perpetual generators. The German name certainly was clever although misleading; “No End” wasn’t necessarily indicative of their start process. He safely guessed that all the vehicles on the surface were in a similar state. Any power source on the surface during the initial attack could be considered useless. Every recorded attack was headed up by heavy EMP waves resulting in anything from seconds of blackout to extreme power surges. If the goal was to silence all ground electronics then there was no reason to continue this search.
         Bishop called up a topographical map of the area, the lines and grids crawling across his vision. He plotted the safest route with several nav points and shooed the map away with a thought. Bishop looked in the direction of his goal, blatantly revealed to him due to the glaring sparkle of the setting sun. The indicators then repositioned themselves in relation to the horizon in front of Bishop.
         He stared at the path for several seconds, his vision beginning to blur. He grasped for something to prop him up as his legs collapsed from exhaustion. Feeling a familiar grasp, he looked up. He observed the hand of his wife as she helped him up from the ground.
         “I know you had a hard day at work today, but let’s try not to spoil this for her,” she looks down at their daughter. Bishop fights the urge to collapse and begins to walk back to where he landed. He could only manage three steps before he collapsed again. On his hands and knees he looked up, watching his wife and daughter looking back at him. She smiled, then turned and began to walk towards the beach without him. He grasped towards them as he did the Cygnus, but with more desperation and longing than his previous awe. His hand stretched out as they continued to move further away until he finally lost his balance and collapsed heavily on the sidewalk.
         Bishop rose from the ground, a bit confused. He spent a few moments to become acquainted with his situation, noticing he had passed out from his previous exertions. Falling from a ship and then working for an extended period without water or food had taken its toll. He propped himself up on the wall beside him as he reached for his camelback. He took a drink and looked towards his previous objective, realizing this may be a bit more difficult than he originally hoped. He began to stand, a bit refreshed after his few hours of unconsciousness, only to be overcome with a powerful static in his helmet. Only one thing would cause that.
         Bishop slowly crawled to the side of parking structure he had collapsed in. He looked through the barrier, his eyes and his HUD screaming in agreement with his previous suspicion. It was a squad of Leviathans. They were rummaging through the cars in the lower section, scanning them and dismantling them in an effort to understand the extent of human technology, or at least that was what Bishop hoped. This behavior was a bit hard to understand for Bishop, since all his missions were never long enough to observe them outside of battle. Everyone either dies, or SMIC (Sol Military Intelligence Corp) pressures them into silence.
         Bishop continued to scrutinize their actions. Were they really just examining the technology, or could they be looking for him? Not that he was important enough to send a whole squad after. Still, surviving an encounter with a Leviathan was unlikely, let alone three of them. He continued to spy on the group of aliens as they moved past the parking structure’s entrance. Bishop decided to begin his decent down the stairwell. There was a bridge which joined this structure with the one across the street in the opposite direction from the alien patrol. He would use that to put some distance and cover between him and his enemies.
         He slowly moved to the stairwell and slowly moved downward. The stairs were metal, unusually old-fashioned for this type of structure. He carefully tried to keep the metal from straining under his steps and alerting the creatures outside. He finally made it three flights down to the same level as the bridge. Bishop moved as quickly as possible to barrier near the bridge entrance. At this angle he had no idea what the things outside were doing, all he could do was hope they hadn’t noticed him. Bishop got onto his stomach and started to crawl across the bridge, as he did he felt a breeze blowing in. At first Bishop thought nothing of the cool atmosphere, but soon it became more violent. He looked up and saw a Leviathan scout craft, a Fluorspar scout ship was hovering above.
         It’s blue hull shimmering under the rippling shields, the craft moved forward. Bishop froze, knowing that he hadn’t cleared the overhang and the ship most likely wasn’t aware of his presence. The ship began to rise out of view, silently moving over the building. When the wind had passed, Bishop had changed his mind. He stood up promptly, and rushed as quickly as he could across the bridge without being seen. Staying there any longer would be a very bad idea, Bishop needed to get away from them and to the tether.
         Bishop breathed heavily as he tried to calm down on the other side of the street. He panted from fatigue and stress as he headed down the last flight of stairs. As he entered the ground floor he again froze.
         “This can’t be happening,” he thought.
         The Leviathan ripped the door off of a large oil truck and began to scan the inside. It looked at the device and then proceeded to scan the next car, as if unconvinced by whatever evidence he had been given. His movements were smooth and methodical, it’s emerald armor stained with some oil and other mechanical fluids.
         Bishop leveled his pistol and toggled his safety. The sound of the metal switch alerted the alien and it swung round, grabbing the pole arm laying to its side. The blades activated and turned red with a golden atmosphere. It cocked its faceless, tear shaped head as it took what Bishop could only assume was a combative stance. Bishop fired three rounds, the alien raising its hand in response. The three rounds sheered into sparks mere millimeters from his hand, complying to the Leviathan’s halting gesture. The alien had his chance now. He moved towards Bishop with a lunge, swinging his bladed weapon at an angle towards Bishop’s torso. Bishop tucked and rolled firing two more rounds at the creature. The alien strafed the rounds and as he rose from his evading action another swing came towards him. He fell onto his back, the searing air crying in his ears as it traveled past his head.
         He rolled to avoid the third and the fourth. now where the Leviathan had stood when Bishop first saw him, the thing vanished in front of him, the static in his helmet almost unbearable from the proximity of the alien’s jump. When Bishop recovered from the noise, the alien was standing before him with its four fingered grey hand holding him down upon the car. The other hand held the pole arm, ready to deal the final blow.
         This would be Bishop’s chance. Leviathan’s have few emotions, but one of the most noticeable is pride. Observations on the battlefield have revealed that they will traditionally admire the final victim of their slaughter just before killing them; relishing in the victory. As the blade flew towards him Bishop forced himself from the alien’s grasp and ducked the weapon being thrust towards him. He rolled away and as he turned to look behind him he saw the alien covered in black lubrication oil. The alien slipped in the fluid as it tried to remove its weapon from the metal. When it failed at its task it turned and began to run towards Bishop as he kneeled on the ground.
         Bishop aimed his pistol and fired one round. The alien did as expected and raised his hand to block the .357 caliber explosive slug. The Leviathan’s shield rippled to life and shredded the bullet, sparks flying from the collision. The alien then continued to walk towards Bishop, billowing with flames and smoke from the burning oil. A few feet from Bishop and the alien started to clasp at its neck, like it was being strangled by an unseen foe. It slowly fell to its knees until it finally collapsed onto its back. Bishop let out a large breath, relieved that he had survived what he thought to be an impossible situation.