Prologue
#1 of Talon Chronicles
This is a very rough draft of a small section of a universe I had rolling around in my head for a very long time. I have never written anything similar to this before. To say I need help with it is a bit of an understatement. Talon Chronicles is a name I came up in around 10 seconds, so it might be changed later. This itself will probably be edited a few times within the week, as I expand on it. Hopefully I can come up with more installments that will be much longer than this.
Consumed by the darkness. To the left, nothing. To the right, nothing. The man sat up, head pounding, confusion leeched its way into his mind. "What happened?" he thought to himself. Memory escaped him. He held a hand up to his head and winced. He removed his hand and looked at it. Stained red. Then, a screeching noise. He looked around for its source. Nothing but black. The screeching slowly increased in volume. It made his head hurt even more. It quickly became louder. "What the hell is that racket!?" He cupped his hands over his ears, with no success. "Captain!" called a voice from the distance. "Captain, wake up! Your crew is dying and life support is failing. I can't survive this for much longer!" As if on cue, consciousness quickly returned to him.
He opened his eyes and stood there, bewildered.
Alarms, smoke, explosions, sparks, heat, all assaulted his senses at once. Memory found its way back to him. That's right, he was knocked out by a nearby terminal exploding. They were under attack by the flagship of a hostile alien flagship. His dragon, his friend, was under attack. He shouted at one of the few displays still functioning. "Talon! Damage report!" "Hull integrity is at 31 percent and falling. Life support is no longer functional. I strongly recommend abandoning this vessel immediately. Recovery will be impossible. I've taken the liberty of using what little reserve power we had left to make a DGD jump to the nearest inhabitable planet. At least you and the remaining crew will have some chance of survival there. It's all I can do for you." Responded the voice from before. "Talon, I don't want to lose you! And you're the last..." shouted the man. "The plasma beam weapon has one shot left, and I have the DGD set for a random jump. It'll take some time for me to restore basic functionality after such a complete energy drain, but I think I'll survive." "How long?" "12 years, 46 days, 16 hours till basic functionality is restored." "It is unlikely we will survive that long on a planet as barren as this. Find my son, tell him what happened, and give him the message I recorded. I hope he doesn't resent me for not being there for him while he grows up. I left him with a crystal. You should be able to use it as a homing beacon. Have you teleported the crew down to the surface already?" "Yes, along with all supplies and emergency shelters. Goodbye captain, it was an honor serving with you." "Goodbye Talon, don't get yourself killed."
The man looked down at the ground, then up at the alien sky, his future uncertain. Metal debris burned all around him raining down from the heavens. How he hoped that that wasn't his friend. Shouting orders at the tattered remains of his comrades, all that was left now was to survive. And survive he shall.