The Reaper Wars 03: Winter Wind

Cooper awakened wearily to an all-consuming cold. A temperature so extreme it crept inside her body with icy fingers, wrapping around her bones and nerves with a numbing grip. Forcing her into a suicidal slumber as the hypothermia comforted her with a deceitful warmth. She slipped in and out of consciousness as a voice struggled to shake her from her final sleep.

"Lieutenant! Lieutenant snap out of it! You're going to die here!" The voice screamed from a million miles away. Every time she opened her eyes, all she saw was her breath emanating in a cloud of steam before darkness took her again. As she slept, the dream was always the same.

She was ascending past the heavens to the familiar black canvas of space littered with the white of distant stars. She was breathing in relief at a chance to escape the hell that was Tokyo. But a star shot towards her in the blink of an eye and in that instant her vision was swamped with warnings and klaxons firing away as her vessel descended uncontrollably back down to Earth. The next few minutes appeared as disjointed flashes as she struggled to regain control of her clipped wings.

One moment she was wrestling the titanic weight of her chariot above an entire continent and before she could process her situation, she was a thousand feet above the ground staring at dark trees littering the snow-covered ground. It was a direct contrast, a photo negative of her salvation. Before she knew it she could identify individual branches among the hundreds of trees she passed. Feeling them crushed under her ship like a roadkill massacre until the white collided with her.

She opened her eyes again as a small explosion emanated from behind her, the force of the blast shaking her bruised and battered body as something collided with her. Whatever it was landed on her back and the weight pressed down with enough pressure that her ribs couldn't expand to breathe. She coughed back into the present, looking around in shock and complete confusion.

She was lying face down on the cold metal beside her pilot's chair. As she rolled the weight off her back with a weak grunt and her vision started to clear, she saw that it was her co-pilot Ford. At least the unmarred half of him she recognized: one side of his face was burned down to the sinew and bone, his flight suit scorched and torn by the explosion.

She cried out in fright, scuttling back against her flight console as she stared in horror at the co-pilot's corpse. All the while coughing up phlegm and struggling for breath as a headache pounded away behind her eyes with nauseous power.

"Lieutenant, can you hear me?" The voice spoke again, she recognized it but couldn't place it's owner in her memory as she looked around to ascertain its origin.

"Yes. Yes I can hear you." She gasped, staring into the flames that lit the back of the flight deck. She looked at them as she would in any other situation; a hazard. But she could not have known that the heat it generated was the only reason she was still alive.

"Lieutenant, listen to me very carefully. Your ship has crashed and you're in imminent danger. You're high in the mountains of Siberia. The headache and breathing difficulties are an early symptom of altitude sickness. It's imperative you listen to my instructions and get to a lower altitude. Unless you'd prefer to lie here and die that is?"

Cooper listened intently but her eyes still darted wearily to seek the source of the voice until she realized it was coming from her flight console. She raised herself onto unsteady legs like a new-born foal and leaned on the console staring at the speaker dusted lightly with snow.

"You're memory is affected by the concussion from the crash; you're lucky to be alive. I'm Edwards, you're ship's assistant AI. I'll explain more later, but right now you need to prepare. You've got a long journey ahead of you and there's not much time." The voice spoke slowly so she could soak in each word despite her near delirious state.

"What do I need to do?" She asked in between more heaving coughs.

"You need to extinguish that fire first to access supplies. There's an emergency survival kit in what remains of the crew quarters. After that gather up as much food, water and clothing as you can then return here. I'll have finalized my transfer into a datapad for transportation by then."

"Okay." She saw a portable fire extinguisher underneath the console and wrenched it out of its housing before turning to face the fire blocking her access to the remains of the ship.

"Wait!" Edwards called. "Once that fire has gone the temperature in here will drop drastically." He paused for a moment. "Just be sure to move quickly acquiring your supplies and don't forget to come back for me. You'll never make off this mountain alive without me."

She didn't reply or turn to acknowledge his words. Cooper merely just glanced at the now comforting flames for a moment, soaking in their heat as she prepared herself. Part of her didn't believe it could get any colder as uncontrollable shivers reverberated through her whole body. She delayed the moment for as long as she could before she began extinguishing the flames. As the tool gained ground in the battle against the fire, Cooper felt the cold further intensify. The billowing smoke attacking her strained, bloodshot eyes. Coughing loudly again, she crossed into the smoke-ridden barrier and through the door still not entirely aware of how dangerous her crisis was.

The shivering she experienced before turned into a vicious tremor that ran through her body as she raced through the frozen, lifeless corridors. Thankfully Edwards was able to operate the ship's loudspeaker systems though his voice was distorted and cut out occasionally.

"This part of the ship is running on an auxiliary power generator but it won't last long. Lucky for us the reactor was simply ripped from the ship and is safe from detonating. This entire mountain would be swept clean if it did."

"Thanks Edwards, that's really comforting." Cooper replied. She finally found the survival kit, lodged behind a hardened glass barrier, criss-crossed with red and white paint. On the outside it merely looked like a large backpack but inside were all the utilities she would need to survive most hostile environments with an atmosphere close to Earth's. If she'd crashed on any other planetoid absent of an atmosphere hospitable to human life, she would have been better off dying in the crash. The kit contained a self-inflating tent along with a portable heating unit, a loop of composite rope with the tensile strength of chains as well as two high pressure oxygen tanks and a handful of signal flares. Last but not least there was a pistol for personal defense, it didn't make Cooper feel any better and part of her contemplated leaving it behind.

"Make sure and use the oxygen regularly but don't overdo it. It'll help keep your symptoms at bay and maintain your functionality long enough to escape this altitude." Edwards pointed out as she hefted the heavy pack out of its housing.

"Terrific." She coughed again before taking the mask attached to the tank and sucked in a lungful of oxygen. It was almost too much and she had to steady herself against the nausea for a moment. "I think I'd rather take the reactor going off than dying out there in the cold."

She stared down the corridor to the first true sight of what awaited her outside. Fifty meters from where she stood the corridor disappeared into the Siberian tundra; it was if a giant had broken her ship in two. The other half was just simply gone as a howling wind whistled inside the ship. Past the breach she could see the massive tear in the forest, caused by the ship ploughing through an army of trees older than living memory leaving a debris-laden path to salvation.

She could see bits and pieces of her ship littering the wake of her tragic descent: it stretched for miles along the woodland and for another brief moment she took in the view. She had seen trees before but they were always smothered by metal walls inside nearly every spaceport she'd ever visited. No one really cared that the only reason those trees were alive was due to the great number of chemicals and preservatives pumped into them. Bastardizing something wild and beautiful to give those homesick souls in deep space an engineered reminder of a home many had never set foot upon. Outside that torn breach was the long forgotten frontier of the old wild, Mother Nature's last surviving bastion on Earth and it was a bittersweet sight.

"Lieutenant you don't have the time to stare at the view." Edwards interrupted. Cooper was too absorbed in her thoughts at the price of industrial progress to remember that minute by minute she was slowly dying.

She was about to move when she saw something else moving, far into the distance. She couldn't distinguish what it was because of how far it was but her eyes registered that something was definitely moving.

"Edwards there's something out there." Cooper said, her eyes never leaving the anomaly.

"Stand by I'm trying to access the exterior topside camera. Edwards said as she continued to watch. Outside the ship the camera emerged from its protective recess, its mechanical joints straining to break the thin layer of ice that formed around it. Edwards struggled to attain a clear image through the ice layered over the camera's lens but he saw enough to recognize yet another danger to his last surviving charge.

His voice returned after a few moments. "It's an East Siberian Brown Bear. One of the last of its kind. Tread carefully Lieutenant it's a carnivore and the local logging outposts have suffered casualties from the surviving handful of bears in this region. You better take that pistol with you, firing a warning shot into the air might drive it off. Pepper spray would be the preferable deterrent but we'll have to just improvise."

"You're fucking joking right? There's not a chance in hell I'm going that way with that beast." She looked to the roof as she spoke, appearing to converse with the dead ship itself.

"You have to. The nearest settlement is a logging camp in that direction. No more delays, you need to collect supplies. Now please move." It was impossible for Edwards to order her but it didn't change the feeling of pressure and urgency those words provided.

Cooper spent the next ten minutes collecting everything she could as fast as possible. She had to remember and not break herself into a sweat. She remembered reading somewhere that perspiring sweat would freeze as an icy layer over her bare body, dooming her no matter what clothing she wore. Finally she was back in the flight deck with two extra rucksacks filled with supplies and a messy pile of clothing littered around her.

"Add as many layers as you can without restricting your movement too much." Edwards advised and she followed. A certain level of perspiration was inevitable and she donned a synthetic cotton undershirt to help wick away the worst of it.

Her options for further insulation were limited: there was no clothing in what remained of crew quarters suitable for these conditions so she had to improvise. Luckily enough there was a serviceable jacket that she wore over the three layers of long-sleeved shirts insulating her slim frame. The pair of welding gloves would have to do and she was forced to wrap her thin boots with shirts to seal her feet from the worst of the snow.

"I've calculated that it should take an average of three days to reach the settlement. Luckily the ship paved a gap in the trees directing you towards there so you shouldn't get lost." Edwards said.

"It's something at least." Cooper was double checking her clothing preparations, wrapping everything as tightly as she could hoping against hope that it would be a suitable barrier against the hostile conditions that awaited her.

"There's also one other thing." The AI pointed out

Cooper stared towards the speaker. "What?"

"The cargo you were carrying. The refugees. Some of them might be still alive."

For a moment Cooper sat in a state of disbelief. "How? With the flak we took from the Gatekeepers and the crash how could they possibly survive when Ford didn't?" She stared at his body for the second time since she had awoken, she couldn't face looking at the horrifying damage his body suffered as that empty eye socket stared back into her. Still taken aback by the sight she continued arming herself with woven warmth.

"The cargo unit they resided in was a separate module. I estimate that the structure itself suffered minimal damage as it detached from the ship. I used what remained of the scanners to ascertain its position and it's along the route to our destination, so it's imperative that you check it out."

Cooper was finalizing a makeshift hat and scarf as she processed yet another development that was being added onto her grim situation. "Like you said Edwards I'm in a dire enough scenario as it is, if any of them are alive they're better off dead. They'll only slow me down and drain my supplies, fuck 'em."

"Might I remind you that contractually they are under your duty of care until you deliver them to safety. I'll have no option if you neglect this but to note it to the company upon our return if you survive." She could hear his voice attain a certain tone of perceived authority.

"Fine. I'll check it out but I guarantee you they're dead. Can't believe I'm taking orders from a goddamn robot voice in a speaker." Cooper complained as she prepped the supply bags with the loop of rope. There was no way she could carry them so she had no option but to drag them along with her. The bags would have to shelter the supplies as she dragged them along behind her.

"My transfer to the datapad is now complete. I'd recommend taking your headset so I can see what you see through the on-board camera and also you'll hear me in case of a storm." As Edwards said that the datapad connected to the flight console flashed into life with a green hue and a rudimentary face formed on the 8-bit screen with a lifeless, mocking smile.

Cooper walked over to it clumsily, the extra layers definitely hindered her but she wasn't exactly trying to tempt Ford into bed again. She pulled the pad from its connecting slot and stared into the digital face.

"Ready to go?" He said as a fluctuating soundwave appeared below the simple face.

Cooper connected the headset with its accompanying camera and faced it towards her.

"How do I look?" She asked

"Huge." Edwards replied, it sounded almost like he was genuinely smiling. Was that for his benefit or for hers?

"Fuck you." She donned the headset wrapped her makeshift hat over it. She let out a deep breath before staring down at what remained of Ford one last time. She tried her best to ignore his brutalized state and instead recalled on the memory of him. As far as time outside of the sleep chambers was concerned she'd only known him for a matter of months but you learned a lot about a person in such intense periods of isolation from the rest of humanity. Friends outside of the profession were hard to come by, most especially relationships.

"Goodbye Ford," A single tear trickled down her cheek and absorbed into the scarf that covered her face. "At least you went quickly, that's all that anyone can ask for I guess."

She turned away and exited back into the remains of crew quarters. She felt like a child leaving home for the first time into an unknown, terrifying world. For as long as she could remember this ship was not just her livelihood but her only home. She couldn't even recall the last time she stepped onto the surface of a planet. Such was the life of most cargo haulers who wanted to keep a sustainable rate of work.

She walked down the last corridor to its torn exit, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel brought no comfort and for every step she took she could further hear the infinite tone of the mountains: a whistling wind that blew through the standing army of trees, the eternal voice of Mother Nature. Finally she exited and the unobstructed sun glared all over this barren realm of white. As her eyes adjusted to the sight her breath caught in her chest as she gazed around, taking in the view. She knew it was beautiful but all she could think of was that she'd feel less alone and isolated in the middle of space.

"It's a magnificent sight but you must push on. Storms here come thick and fast." Edwards's voice rang through her ear piece.

Thankfully she only had to follow the trail of destruction left by the crash and the compacted snow that had been hammered down by tons of speeding steel. She didn't dare imagine the effort she would have to exert to walk on the unmolested snow that flanked her in walls that towered at head height.

She was thousands of feet above the ocean yet the effort to simply breathe felt more like a constant drowning. She reached for the oxygen mask only when she knew she couldn't bear it any longer, she didn't want to risk using it all too soon.

Continuing on she could do nothing but think and remember. Slowly the full picture of the disaster was rebuilt in her mind. She kept asking herself why they didn't try and make it for the EEV but then she recalled that the gravity drive was disabled by the rail gun fire they took. Ford floated around after the calamity, trying desperately to reach his seat but he didn't get there in time.

As the ship re-entered Earth's atmosphere the G force punched him into the back wall. The impact must've broken his neck as Cooper didn't hear him cry out. Maybe he did, it all happened so fast that every cell in her body was focused on leveling the ship so they didn't hit the surface nose first.

"Edwards, why the hell did they shoot us down?" Cooper asked between panted breaths.

"Before we took incoming fire, I intercepted communications between the Gatekeeper stations. A quarantine has been initiated on ships leaving Asia, military vessels were coming in but nothing was getting out." Edwards replied.

"You intercepted communications? I didn't think you were capable of that."

"Well technically I listened in. They didn't exactly try to hide their comm traffic."

"What about the other refugee ships? They couldn't have shot them all down."

"I'm not sure."

"That's a first." She remarked.

Cooper walked on for what felt like forever, progress seemed non-existent as she gazed around at an environment that was eternal and indifferent to her daunting situation. Centuries could pass and these mountains would be a mirror image of what they were now. Edwards's silence didn't help the passing of the time either. The only indicator was the movement of the sun. As she gazed towards the glaring star she saw dark clouds moving toward her position with a seemingly malicious haste. It was accompanied by an ominous fog in the distance formed by a thick snowfall that obscured the horizon.

"Edwards I think we're in trouble." Cooper muttered underneath her scarf.

"I see it. It's too early to stop, you'll have to move through it for now at least until it worsens. I'll keep you on the right path."

Just as he replied the first flakes of snow started to fall gracefully from the dark heavens above. Despite her exhaustion, Cooper reluctantly moved forward and her feet began to crunch under freshly laid snow. Subtly the winds began to increase until eventually nature's harsh symphony overtook the panting sounds of her own labor.

The snowfall intensified as her visibility faded. Individual flakes of ice battered against her exposed eyes as it pushed against her progress. She pointed her face down to try and best avoid the punishment and she recognized the deep impressions left by the bear. They must've been fresh otherwise the heavy fall of snow would have covered them. They pointed back from where she was headed from, her heart dropped further.