A New Ranger Appears

Posted on Wed Apr 19th, 2023 @ 6:40pm by Julian Blackford

1,485 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Invasion
Location: Imperium Prison ship

Julian sighed as he opened his eyes, looking around the small cramped cell he was sitting in. He’d given up on counting how many days he’d been here a while ago. It was difficult to tell how many days had passed when there was no night and day cycle to count the hours by. He still had no idea why he was here. He was chalking it up to bad luck, and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. One minute he’d been enjoying a nice, sunset walk along the beach, and then the next thing he knew he was being shoved into this dark, horribly cramped prison cell. Talking with his fellow prisoners, it transpired that most of them were involved, in one capacity or another, with the Earth Defense Patrol. Mostly soldiers and scientists. Which begged the question of why he was here. Sure, his father was a soldier in the EDP, but that was all the way back in Wales. Surely they didn’t think Julian had any idea of any top-secret EDP projects or missions. No. This had to just be a mistake.

Letting out a sigh, he quickly looked up as the sound of footsteps drew closer to the cell door. Everyone glanced around at each other nervously. So far, whoever had taken them had been taking one person each day, to God only knew where. And they never seemed to come back. As the door swung open and three guards walked, people shrunk back against the wall, and the soldiers in the group instinctively moved forward. One of the guards looked around, his eyes eventually settling on Julian. “Bring him.” He commanded, and the other two hurried forward, grabbing Julian's arms and dragging him forward. Part of Julian wanted to resist and fight back. But he knew from experience that that would only cause more pain. For him, and for the rest of the cell. So, instead, he shrugged the hands off, muttering, “I can walk myself.” And striding towards the door, offering a weak smile to the rest of the group, before he was pushed out the door, and it swung shut behind him.

The lead guard walked off, not saying anything, the other two pushing Julian, forcing him to follow. As he made his way through the ship, he found himself glancing into other rooms, but he couldn’t make out anything of interest.

Eventually, he was forced into one such room, the door swinging shut behind him, sealing itself. The room was mostly bare, except for a few small trolleys containing vicious-looking instruments, and a single chair in the centre of the room that reminded Julian all too well of a Dentist’s office.

“Don’t suppose you’re giving me a free dental examination?” He said, smirking at the guard. This evidently wasn’t the right thing to say, as it earned him a swift gut punch. “Guess not.” He muttered as he doubled over, grabbing his stomach. One of the other guards grabbed him, quickly pushing him towards the centre of the room, and into the chair. As soon as he was seated, manacles sprang up, locking him in place. Julian swallowed nervously as the lead guard approached, holding one of the tools.

“You humans are all the same.” He said. “Arrogant and cocky. But, we have ways of getting what we want to know.”

Julian smiled weakly. “Sure. What do you want to know? How to play Digimon? Or are you more of a Pokemon fan?” The guard growled as he approached Julian. “Maybe D&D? I mean, I can teach ya, but it’ll take a while.”

“Silence!” Julian winced, his voice faltering. “Enough prattling. Tell me what you know of the EDP’s defenses.”

“I don’t know anything dude!” Julian exclaimed. I don’t even work for the EDP!”

“There’s no point in lying to us. We know who you are. Lieutenant Augustus Blackford.”

Julian couldn't help it. As soon as he heard the name, he let out a snort of laughter. “Wait, wait. Hold up. That’s who you think I am?!” He laughed again as the guard growled menacingly. “Oh. You guys really need to do your homework. Augustus is my father.” He laughed again as the guard narrowed his eyes. “Oh my god. I use my father's name as a stage name. I’m not in the EDP. I’m an Actor.”

The guard lowered his tool, glaring at Julian. “Well then... I guess you are of no further use to us.” Turning around he started heading for the door. “Dispose of him.” He instructed to the guards remaining in the room.

Julian’s eyes widened as they approached him. “Whoa. Come on now fellas. I’m sure we can work something out. Have you guys ever seen Hamilton? I’ve got great tickets. Two rows back from the front. They could practically sweat on you! You can have them!” As they approached, they unlocked his manacles, and Julian sprang out of the chair, pushing a trolley into one of them, dodging out of the way of the other, grabbing his arm as he moved past, forcing it down onto the chair, grabbing one of the trays near him, smacking him over the head with it, then throwing it at the other one as he tried to get back up. Both of them fell to the floor and didn’t get back up. “Yeah. Like I’d give away my Hamilton tickets.” He muttered, before heading over to the door, which swooshed open as he neared it.

Stepping out into the hallway, he glanced around, desperately trying to figure out the best way to go. Voices seemed to be coming from the left-hand corridor, so he quickly ducked down the right-hand side. Hurrying down the corridor, he suddenly came to halt outside one of the doors. There seemed to be someone behind it. And they seemed to be in pain. Julian glanced around again, before pressing what he hoped was the open button, letting out a small sigh of relief as the door swung open. Stepping inside, the door closed behind him. Looking around he spotted another chair, with another figure strapped to it.

A young woman, who appeared to have been very badly injured lay there. As he approached, she groaned softly. “Hey. It’s okay. I’m here to help.” He said softly, stopping next to the chair, and looking down to see if there was some way he could unlock the manacles. As he did, she groaned again, like she was trying to say something. “What’s wrong?”

“She said, ‘Trap.’ As in, ‘It’s a.’” Julian spun around, eyes widening as a fist came out of nowhere, connecting with Julian’s temple, and then the world went dark.

When Julian awoke, he was once again strapped to a chair, and the same guard from before was stood near him, holding a small box. “You humans. You’re all the same. You hear someone in danger, and you just have to help out. Do you really think escape would be that easy? No. We just needed you to think you had a chance. We have been trying for so long to get this Crystal to bond with someone. It will only bond with someone it deems worthy, after all. The results of trying to forcibly bond it to someone haven’t been... successful. But, with each failure, we get closer to unlocking it. Your compatriots haven’t been so lucky. Maybe you will be.” He opened the box, drawing out a small, silver, Crystal. As he approached, Julian realised that a small contraption had been placed on his right arm. He tried his best to pull free, but it was futile. Within seconds, the Guard had grabbed his right arm and inserted the Crystal into the small slot on the contraption. Julian closed his eyes, waiting for... Something to happen. But it didn’t. Opening his eyes again, he looked over at the guard, who almost seemed to be smiling. The manacles suddenly unlatched and Julian cautiously stood up, doing a double take as he caught a glimpse of himself in the reflective surface of a nearby tray. He was suddenly wearing what appeared to be silver armour with a cobra helmet.

“It worked.” The guard muttered. “Finally.” Julian spun round, surprised that no one had tried to attack him yet. Julian quickly hurried forward, instinctively reaching down to his waist to grab the weapon parts hanging there, hands moving of their own volition, creating what appeared to be a spear. Shrugging, he swung it at the guard as he approached, he seemed unable to defend himself, and quickly fell to the floor. “Alright,” Julian muttered as swung the spear behind his back. “Let’s try this again.”

 

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