2 First Encounter

In a semi-conscious state, Faith felt the water's embrace, slowly drifting him under the lightest of currents. The muffled sounds of rustling water were rougher, and it was colder than he remembered.

He failed to notice the subtle change in his surroundings until water droplets suddenly crashed onto his face, and then trickled down his entire body. It was light, but the feeling jolted him right out of his sleep.

"Hm? What the..."

Faith slowly opened his eyes, his pupils drifting left and right, fully aware of his surroundings as he sought to find the source of the droplets. He was still calm, calm enough to maintain his reclined position. Apart from the water droplets, the surroundings seemed familiar, yet peculiar. While the environment matched the setting he had programmed within the chamber before his sleep, it also somehow felt different. It wasn't until he drew a breath that he discerned the cool air.

'Is this wind?'. Faith's entire exposed body felt the wind caressing his skin. By now he realized that the water droplets were from up there, the forest canopy.

'Is this the Chamber's doing?' He marveled at the seamless technology of this chamber, capable of seamlessly projecting random elements and simulating the unpredictable weather of a rainforest. His gut feeling, however, told him something was wrong.

Remaining inclined and floating, his neck twisted left and right to get a better view of his surroundings. Initially, there was nothing wrong, but then Faith saw it. A figure was staring at him from the banks. Caught off guard, Faith stared back, motionless, processing the phenomenon like a deer caught in headlights. Perhaps the AI that brought a 'local inhabitant' for an ultra-realism experience? Still, it was unsettling, as he didn't request any of it. 

The figure was about is draped in massive leaves, interwoven into a thick, protective shroud that covered the wearer from rain. It was as if the coat or whatever it was, was intentionally made to blend with the environment. As he tried to catch a glimpse of the figure's face, it remained concealed behind a leafy green mask.

It is undoubtedly humanoid, as he could make out one of its arms extending out, holding onto a huge trunk of ferns for support. It was only then he realized that this figure was shouting at him. The voice is unmistakably feminine and the language is alien to him. It kept repeating the same words at Faith. Each shout grew louder and more desperate. 

Faith meanwhile kept staring at her, still floating, confused, and most of all, conflicted. 

'What was this?' Part of him felt that this was still part of the simulation brought by the Chamber's AI, and it would be shameful for him to cower for something trivial. But another part felt it was real, urging him to act.

Seeing that Faith did not heed the figure's call. It slowly unveiled its mask, revealing a young lady with light brown skin and raven-black hair. Touched by a hint of sweat, she appeared extremely desperate, persistently shouting at Faith, gesturing him to 'come here.'

And so Faith did, curious of this figure. As he was about to stand up on the water and approach the lady, the water felt deeper than the waist-height pool inside the Chamber.

'What the...' Faith's soles finally touched the mossy rocks beneath instead of the smooth Chamber floor he remembered. The water was also chest-deep.

'Rocks?' Panic grew on him as he struggled to understand the situation.

"Chamber! How did you change the floor to rocks? Why did you add features without my knowledge? I want everything off now! Turn it off!" Faith repeatedly ordered the Chamber to stop, but nothing changed.

Hoping that to crash into the edge of the Chamber's walls, he ran around in circles around the water, finding no sort of door or invisible barrier. It wasn't until he registered the lady's shout that brought back his senses. This time, she was 'shooing' him away from her, occasionally casting glances behind.

"Excuse me, lady! Excuse me! Where is this? Where are we?" Faith shouted as he climbed up the bank. Before Faith could reach her, the lady immediately dashed away from Faith, vanishing from his sight.

"Hey, lady! Wait! Lady! I'm not going to hurt you!" Before he could chase the young lady, however, he could hear several sounds getting closer and closer to him.

"Excuse me, Excuse me! Over here!" He decided to wait to be approached, Faith took a moment to survey his surroundings. The dense, unfamiliar rainforest stretched around him, with towering mountains in the backdrop.

"Where the fuck is this? This isn't Theliane!" Faith's exclamation echoes as he realizes there are two suns above him. Theliane, however, wasn't located in a binary star system. 

'No... no... no... That's impossible. Is this an assassination plot? A prank? Is this really a different planet?' Faith thought of several possibilities.

His disbelief was abruptly shattered as seven figures dashed towards Faith. 

"Excuse me, sirs, where-"

To his dismay, unlike the fleeing lady, these were not humans. They were remarkably similar but with distinct orange skin, long ears, and a unique facial complexion.

Without hesitation, one of them closed in on Faith, lunging at his lower half, attempting to tackle him down.

"The fuck?!" Faith exclaimed, his instincts kicking in. In the blink of an eye, he employed his titanium-bone knee with inhuman speed, delivering a direct head-on strike to the individual's face. With a resounding crack, the individual lost its momentum, its head crushed, and its body deformed from the immense force.

The second individual, immediately behind the first, attempted to lunge at Faith's upper body, but before it could comprehend its companion's demise, it met a forceful hook right to the side of its head. With superhuman speed and titanium-bone knuckles, it resulted in a loud crack as the individual's body crashed, its head turned into paste.

"Shit!" Faith exclaimed, not expecting to be showered with brain matter and fragments of bones. 

Why were they trying to take him down? Those two... Were weak. Were they just regular people? If it were an assassination plot, why send weak individuals?

Perhaps this is just a diversion, and someone more potent is waiting for him. He quickly glanced at his surroundings but found no one else there except the remaining five.

Did he overdo it then? Is this a prank? Or perhaps he was a trespasser, and they were doing their job? Did he just kill them without knowing their reason? He immediately regretted his rash decision.

In the meantime, the remaining five had just barely processed the events in front of them. 

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to kill them. It's a mis-"

Before Faith could finish his sentence, one of them, closest to Faith, drew a sword from its waist and tried to swing it.

"Slow." Faith dodged the sword and returned with a jab to the sword wielder's chest. His fist cleanly pierced through.

"Fuck... I shouldn't kill him either."

"Hoek." Blood spilled as it lifelessly slumped to the ground. 

'No aura on that swing. No traces of special elements are on the sword either. Is it just bland steel?'

Faith turned his attention to the remaining four, whose faces now covered in fear. 

"Don't do anything stupid and answer my ques.."

It was then Faith realized that all of them held some sort of long rifle. He only noticed because one was already aiming at him with it.

'Shit... They have a gun.'

In a split second, Faith weighed his options. He immediately dashed with incredible speed towards the rifleman aiming at him.

Simultaneously, the rifleman pulled the trigger, releasing the flint, and creating flash and smoke on the pan. Before the primary charge could ignite, Faith reached the rifleman, grabbed the rifle nozzle, and pointed it away from him. The rifleman barely had time to process.

"BANG"

"CRACK"

While the bullet discharged with a bang, so to the fragments of bone from the rifleman's head as it received a punch from Faith.

Immersed in the high-speed do-or-die encounter, Faith did not process the nature of the gunfire nor the rifle's mechanism. The remaining three barely have time to process the rifleman's demise as Faith takes the dead rifleman's gun and plants his finger on the trigger, aiming at the remaining three.

'Click'

As he pulled the trigger, expecting a similar bang, nothing happened. It was a dud.

'Shit! It's not cocked' Faith quickly pulled the flint back and pulled the trigger again.

'Click'

The flint sparked, but there was nothing. He then cocked it one last time.

'Click'

The rifle didn't fire. An awkward stare ensued between Faith and the remaining three. As Faith realized what kind of rifle was in his hands. So did the remaining three take action.

Several armed men faced off against one man with spent ammo, a situation where most soldiers find despair. Faith, however, knew survival required every trick and resource available.

As the three were about to aim their rifle at Faith, he swiftly snapped the rifle into two—the barrel and the stock. He threw the stock at one of them and the barrel like a javelin at another.

The stock hit the second nearest individual's head with such force that it collapsed to the ground. Simultaneously, the barrel pierced through the furthest individual's chest, causing blood to spill rapidly. With the two supposedly out of action, Faith lunged towards the nearest individual.

He easily tackled the last individual with brute force, wrestled away its rifle, and broke its hands as it cried out in excruciating pain.

"Now now... If your boys played nice earlier, it didn't have to be this way. So tell me, where is this? What planet? What star system? What galaxy? What year? What are you?" Faith interrogated, frustration evident in his voice.

Bombarded by questions, the last remaining individual kept crying and shouting unfamiliar words at Faith.

"Sshh shh, be fucking quiet or I'll break your neck. I don't want you to attract attention." Faith warned, pressing his finger on the individual's lips while gripping his neck.

"Good... Now do you speak Yinglsh? No? Zhnghen? Yerabih? Yndi? Roccish? Anything for fuck sake?" The creature only stared at Faith in fear, not understanding a single word.

"Star, what star?" Faith pointed his fingers up towards the sun, seemingly more aggravated. But the creature kept staring at Faith, unsure what to say.

"WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU FROM GODDAMNIT?!" Enraged, Faith punched the wet ground beside the creature's head until a deep depression appeared.

"Ok then fuckface, do you have any communication devices on you?" Faith asked as he searched the individual's body.

Observing the clothing and weaponry of the creatures surrounding him—laced shirts, loose-fitting trousers, bandoliers, leather hats, and boots—all seemingly crafted without modern machinery, he couldn't shake the realization that this was a remarkably primitive civilization. Questions flooded through his mind. Had he been abducted, teleported to some distant realm, or was this still part of the Federation?

The possibility of an uncontacted civilization or even a planetary zoo crossed his thoughts. With these primitive civilizations, habitable atmosphere, and unique flora and fauna, it is possible that this place is a planetary zoo. Planetary zoos are designed to conserve exotic civilizations as money-making tourist destinations or personal collections. Planetary zoos were not unheard of across the empire, and it was the most plausible explanation in his head. Countless places harbored such curated environments for the amusement of the privileged.

But the young lady he encountered before, was undoubtedly human. Was she the 'zookeeper' or part of the local civilization? Then again, it is possible that a human civilization, deliberately made into a primitive state, is placed together with other alien civilizations in a planetary zoo. With quadrillions of humans across the Federation, it was undeniable that countless rich and powerful individuals had eccentric hobbies and collections.

If this place is indeed a planetary zoo, then Faith needs to find a human civilization, attract the attention of potential 'zookeepers', and somehow get the hell away from this place.