sci-fi

Life was hard on Furnace - pyroclastic doom roiled outside; inside life consisted of sweat, grime, and toil.

The ship shuddered as it vented air from the rupture. "Lock down deck seven!" the Captain growled.

"Sir, not every one has been accounted for!" his first officer exclaimed.

The little drone chirped and buzzed. The lion cub growled back and took a playful swipe at its hovering watchman. The drone's thrusters "wooshed" and it shifted to the right before it dipped and rose into the morning air.

The void between stars was surprisingly, not empty. The _Alexandria's_ sensors had picked up a faint mass signature as they had sped by in hyperspace and he'd ordered them to turn about and investigate. What had on first inspection appeared to be a boring asteroid, proved to be far more interesting under the scrutiny of the black-ops Interstice suite that they'd been secretly outfitted with.

Nick exhaled long and steady as the door to the chamber sealed and disappeared - he floated alone and free in a vast spherical vault of midnight black. The HUD of his suit claimed his heart rate was one hundred five - excited but acceptable. Nick commanded the maneuvering jets to take him towards the only thing in the kilometer wide chamber.

The vault was built for the Entity; a sentient swam of nanotech that looked like a great glittering cloud to his suit's enhanced optics. Nick closed the distance, and the cloud began to shift, coil, and spike.

"What you have here," the Sergeant said as he held up a squirming rat-lizard-insect about the size of a large cat. It hissed and glared at the Drill Sergeant and the assembled cadets balefully with its multi-faceted eyes. "Is an example of someone trying to be funny. Well, you know what I find funny?!" The large man threw down the thing and followed it with a lightning quick stomp - the crack and the liquid squelch turned a few of the cadets green. "I find a ten mile run in full gear and pack, funny! In the yard in fifteen, Cadets! And Menendez, clean that up!"