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Starbound: A Space Odyssey

As red tentacles burst from the ground, the whole planet trembled and fell into chaos. It was the beginning....the beginning of the end. Earth was destroyed with the attack of the mysterious creature. The Terrene Protectorate, the defenders of the universe, were left in shambles after the attack on Earth. Only a few people were able to flee from the planet before its complete destruction. John Connor, an 18 years old fresh graduate Protector, was one of those lucky enough to survive and escape. Armed only with his dubious expertise and a few tools, he will have to avoid the dangers the universe without the Terrene Protectorate can offer, repair his ship, restore the symbol of a defunct organisation and carry the burdens of the fate of the world that lies on his shoulders. Surviving in this turbulent era won't be easy for our inexperienced John Connor. With the end of the Terrene Protectorate, numerous factions that were once dormant, will rise and start to fight for power. Outlaws, fanatics, greedy corporations, and governments, the conflict of interests of those groups and factions will lead to an incredible amount of deaths. Follow John Connor as he explores the wonders of the endless universe, and discover how harsh and unforgiving reality can be. --------------- Chapters will be about 1000 to 1500 words. (Except for some special chapters.) ------------------ * YOU CAN READ THIS WITHOUT EVER PLAYING THE GAME OR KNOWING THE LORE! EVERYTHING IS EXPLAINED THROUGHOUT THE CHAPTERS, AND EVEN HAVE SOME AUXILIARY CHAPTERS WITH MORE DETAILED EXPLANATION. I also had to change a lot about the lore of the game to fit in the format of a novel, I really mean a lot, since the game itself doesn't give a lot about its lore and neither have detailed storytelling, since the focus of the game was in exploration and doing whatever the player wants. ------------------- Disclaimer: This Novel is based on the videogame Starbound by Chuckle Fish. The image is from the artist LemanRush; I downloaded it from the site DeviantArt. Also, sorry about my English, it isn't my primary language. Enjoy... :D

ArthurHFSS · Sci-fi
Not enough ratings
185 Chs

Lenny's Situation (5)

Looking on top of him, Lenny saw a small square trapdoor.

He tried to push open, but unsurprisingly, it was locked.

After that, he went to the panel that was beside the door. Roaming over everything, he soon found a small key that reads "Emergency Exit." Without hesitation, Lenny pressed it.

*Clang*

The sound of metal coming from atop him caught Lenny's attention.

Looking up, he saw that the trapdoor was not locked anymore.

With a light push, Lenny effortlessly opened it.

Grabbing at the corner of the opening, Lenny propped himself up and left the claustrophobic elevator.

As soon as he left the cabinet, Lenny was met with the sight of the dark space that the elevator moved up and down, filled with thick cables that connected to the machine.

There were some platforms that he could use to climb up since going down was impossible because there was only one elevator, and it was on the way to go down.

Grabbing on the metal supports, Lenny climbed up until he found one of the floor's elevator doors.

Lenny tried to force open the sliding door, but it was closed tight.

Without an option, he had to resort in explosives to pry it open.

Reaching into his PIPS, Lenny retrieved some outdated C8 charges.

Different from the weak C4 used by Humans before the war, C8 explosives were almost ten times stronger than a C4. While there were stronger plastic explosives in the market, C8 were still largely used because of the low price.

He glued them in the door and took over a few meters atop the door.

*Click*

Lenny pressed the button on his remote control.

*BOOM!!!!*

The area was shaken by the explosions created by the C8 charges.

Lenny climbed down and glanced at the result of the explosion.

While it didn't completely blew the door open, it still opened a hole large enough for him to pass through.

After passing through the hole, Lenny realized that he had entered a corridor similar to the one on the top floor. The only difference was that it was wider and had a lot of doors on both sides.

The weak emergency lights poorly illuminated the place.

Lenny controlled his body and dimmed the light that his body produced.

While he could be easily seen because of his glowing yellow body, at least he wasn't a beacon of light right now.

Lenny took a revolver from his holster and carefully walked forward.

Reaching a bifurcation, Lenny was unsure of where he had to go.

Looking around, he searched for a sign, anything that could help him locate himself and see where it was located the emergency stairs.

He caught sight of a sign on top of him. Glancing at it, Lenny found out that the emergency stairs were at his right.

He followed the sign and went to the right.

The floor was strangely quite. While he could hear the sound of some machinery coming from some of the closed rooms, he held his curiosity on check and continued to walk through the right path.

The moment he reached the door and grabbed the knob, he heard voices and gunshots coming from behind the metallic, thick door.

He leaned his head over the door to hear better.

"Floors 1 to 10 had been cleaned. The target isn't there."

Lenny heard a few people speaking with each other.

"We need to go higher. There's a high possibility that the target is in one of the last floors."

"Besides the target, leave no one alive. Also, make sure to erase your tracks. We cannot let the ISU found out that we did this assault."

Lenny hastily retreated as he heard the footsteps getting closer to the emergency stair's door.

It was three sets of footsteps that mean that there were three invaders coming up to his floor.

Facing them without a strategy wouldn't be a good idea, so Lenny wanted to stealthy get away without entering in conflict.

He reached for the closest door of one of the rooms and entered.

Lenny carefully closed the door as not to make any sound.

After entering, he scanned his surroundings and found out that he was in a simple bedroom.

[The scientist's quarters...] He realized where in the space station he was.

Although it wasn't of great use right now, it was better to know where it was than not knowing.

"Check out the rooms. Be careful. I heard an explosion coming from this floor earlier."

When he heard that, Lenny instantly froze, [Fuck.] He cursed inwardly.

Lenny moved his body and hid behind the door.

His left hand slowly reached for the knife sheathed on the right side of his waist.

With a revolver in his right hand and a knife on the left, he waited for the invaders' next move.

While he did not have a heart, he could still feel his plasma pumping faster as he listened to the footsteps getting closer.

The footsteps stopped by the door.

The person slowly opened the door and carefully peeked in the room. He had seen some light coming from beneath the door, and he wanted to make sure it wasn't someone hiding in the room.

Lenny could see the muzzle of the invader's rifle that had a flashlight attached just beneath it that provided enough light to illuminate the whole room.

As the person entered the room, Lenny readied himself.

The moment Lenny had sight of the person's head, he immediately launched himself on him.

Lenny's knife gleamed with a sharp and deadly light as it found its way in the weak spot of the invader's armor, right between the helmet and the chestplate.

The knife cleanly pierced through the neck.

Lenny didn't end with only this.

"Ghlargh..." The invader wanted to fight back while gnarling sounds came from his mouth.

Lenny pushed him, and both fell on the floor with a loud thud.

Twisting his knife, Lenny managed to finish him off.

"Contact! Contact!"

Lenny heard another invader shouting from outside the room.

Without hesitation, Lenny stood up from the corpse and rolled to the side, getting as far away as possible from the door.

*Bang, bang, bang...*

Multiples gunshots could be heard as Lenny saw the bullets piercing the metal door and hitting the corpse on the ground.

Crimson blood sprayed from holes made by the bullets.

"Dead?" One of the two invaders outside asked.

"I don't know. Don't lower your guard. 0367 is dead. His heart had stopped beating."

Lenny frowned when he heard the invader knew the fact that his companion was dead.

[Are they monitoring the heartbeat through the PIPS?] That was the plausible conclusion that Lenny could come up with.