Chapter 1
Annie was wondering around the edge of the station, looking down, she saw dark clouds and unending barren land.
These is the result of greed, she though.
Until this time, Earth didn't managed to heal back itself. The Union sent some of its scientists and experts to the ground to conduct a study and to find any possible solution to help the planet from dying. But still, these individuals returned back, heads down while hopelessness was painted to their face. Clearly they don't have the answer yet.
According to the scientist, the surface of the planet was highly radioactive. One second being exposed and you are dead next week. Not only that, hurricanes and typhoons with the wind speed of five hundred kilometres per hour are always roaming around. It is like a guards who is willing to kill on sight who ever trespassed. Only this time, trespassers will face the barrage of glassy shards stone accompanied by poisonous rain.
Her train of though was distracted when someone poke her shoulder.
It was Clyde, her vice-captain. Currently she was the captain of an old starship called Angel. The ship was already too old, about a hundred years old. But because of the war, it is being called back for service despite the fact that some of its components are a little bit unreliable.
This good looking man was standing right her, pretending he saw what she sees. In the end, he just raised his hand for surrender. "Why are you still hoping that she will come back?" he paused "I mean, look at her, a piece of waste land. " he shrugged.
"Yeah, you can said that because you don't see what see." she countered.
"Yup, I saw it, piece of brownish shit" he smacked.
It is true, Earth is completely different from before. Blue skies, white fluffy clouds, animals running here and there, endless forest, now it was replaced by boundless desserts.
"Are you ready?" Remembering what is Earth before, she immediately change the topic because it will only make her heart bleed.
"Yeah" he replied casually.
"Then, let's go" she said.
The two arrived at the director's office.
On their front is a metallic door with a carvings on the center depicting the sea and an island while busked in the rays of sunrise.
The door automatically opened when they step in. Inside, behind the mahogany table was a middle age man who is drowned by the stacked of papers. He was the director; Director George Lee.
The duo entered and when they got a certain distance from the table, they bowed for respect. "Director".
"Come, seat down" Director George Lee beacon them to seat.
Annie seated on right side while Clyde was on the left. Both facing the director.
"Annie Starfield, right? I heard a lot of things about your father. " Director George said blatantly. His tone was calm but anyone can said, there is a hidden message with it.
Annie didn't expect that the director's first word was about her father.
"Yeah, I guess, he just destroyed our base at Plutus twenty two years ago." she countered with a mocking tone.
The wrinkles of the director squinted hearing her words. "You got I quite tongue lady, did your mother taught you the right conduct?" he said while making sure that Annie gets what he wanted.
"Well guess what, she died too on that accident" Annie said while smiling "so to speak, I am an orphan and thanks to your ed... " she was interrupted when Clyde cough.
Seeing the two who nonstoply sending projectile to each other, Clyde decided to interrupted them by clearing his throat. These is because any moment, someone might lose her temper and he know who it is. From kids till now, he knows Annie. She valued her parents more than anything. So while he saw that she was smiling while talking about her parents, he know it already.
Annie on the other hand only realized what she just did "Sorry, Mr. Director."
Director George waved his hand indicating that he does not want to pursue the issue.
Clyde raised his head "Sir, why did you summoned us in a very short notice?"
"Oh! yeah" the director rub his chin and pulled back himself " I called you two for a mission"
He waved his hand and the hologram of a blue gemstone materialize on their front. Annie squinted her eyes to look carefully, but she found nothing special. It is just like a normal stone.
"This is what we found at planet Angy two days ago. Its origin is still not certain, accompanying with this stone was a corpse of the unknown specie" the director waved his hand and the hologram shifted to a corpse" when our exploration team stumbled down a cave, they found...umm this thing while holding the stone."
The corpse was completely deformed, some of its part was burned while others are gone missing. So, it very hard for Annie and Clyde to identify what it is. What the duo was confused about is the fact that, it was not rotten. The corpse was completely dried up like it was baked under the hot sun. But it is inside the cave.
"I think, it is human corpse" Annie commented.
Clyde was confused, he looked to her asking for explanation.
"Look, I think it is a human hand" Annie pointed the part of corpse where where a finger nail like is still hanging.
"Partly" said the director" this corpse share the same gene to us, but it is barely 0.01%, the rest is still unknown." he continued.
"Maybe it was mutated." Clyde remarked
The director pondered for a moment "possible, but it needs a thousand or maybe a million years to do that base only the capacity of Leon's radiation"
"So, what did makes it special and you, yourself gave us this mission." Annie asked.
Clyde nodded on approval.
"Yeah, right. When we brought the gem and the corpse to our base at Plutus, our enemy the Arzock attack us, claiming the stone."
"Maybe we should gave it to them" Annie said.
"No we cannot, until we will know what this thing can do." the director said seriously.
"Make sense" while pondering.
'I will send you the details about the mission, for now you can go." Director George said.
Annie and Clyde simultaneously stand and make a bow before they walked out the office.