The man stepped into the customs division along with the rest of the passengers. The hall was large, with steel and polymer constructs built right into the lunar rock. A multitude of cameras observed the proceedings while two large, bipedal, squid shaped combat drones stood in solemn guard.

A platoon of Croc guards shepherded the visitors in line to the customs. The man was fourth in line. Before him were two women and a bald, short man. A Necker officer questioned the man.

The Necker spoke in an inaudible tone, at a frequency incomprehensible to humans. A floating Meissner ball beside him, translated his questions to Terran English.

“Where are you from? What’s your purpose here, why are you...”

As the Necker droned on, the man in black spied the location of the cameras and floating drones.

After questioning the bald man, his thumb was pricked for DNA analysis. While the computers cross matched his data across intel agencies, government databases and banking records, something strange started to occur.

The computer in front of the officer burst into fire, sending the being reeling back. The cameras started to malfunction, as they turned on and off until several of them burst. A guard’s Mag rifle discharged onto a comrade, puncturing a hole through his torso and leaving his guts to slide out.

The rest of the guards and the drones moved to corner the befuddled guard as he looked around in shock. The people screamed and ran for cover as the massive drones moved into search mode.

In all the commotion, no one noticed that a passenger from the flight had disappeared from sight.

#

Cassie lied on her back, staring at the metal wall above as the state of euphoria slowly faded away. The light switched to a yellow hue when she reminisced about her past.

The memories from her early days were hazy. She never knew her father, only a slew of men either arguing or kissing with her mother. She had blue eyes and brown hair. That’s all she could remember of her, other than faint images of her screaming and pulling Cassie’s hair.

The memory of her at the old building was clearer. The grey polymer building was lit to an eerie red by large LED lamps and a stream of men could be seen entering it. She never saw her mother after that day.

The next memory was of a man with viper-like eyes, patting her on the head and giving her chocolate. The memories afterwards were so hazy that all she could remember was being transported to a grey planet on a freighter.

There I met him and…

The lights went out.

Do they want me to sleep or, then she noticed the air conditioning had stopped as well.

She crouched up, it was subtle but she could feel the air growing heavy. She gulped and knocked at the AI compartment. “Is there something wrong? Mr. Computer, I really don’t like the dark and the air conditioning stopped as well. Could you turn it on again please? “

There was no response. She knocked several times but no response came. She gulped and curled up against the wall. The air now became noticeably colder and heavier. She started to shiver as tears ran down her cheeks. She remembered the brown puppy she used to meet at the building.

“Mr. Whiskers, where are you? “, she sobbed while grasping her arms tightly. Her breaths started to freeze and soon the air grew thick and suffocating. She knocked on the walls in panic and approached the AI again and then the compartment to her left opened.

However no AI panel or mechanical arms emerged from it. A bright light shone forth, lighting the cell in white. Her eyes hurt from the light and she tried to withdraw to the darkness of the walls but a hand gently grasped her on the shoulder.

Her nerves fired up.

“Cassandra von Mann? “, a male voice asked.

She looked into the light again, this time it hurt less, “Ye-Yes “

He turned the light off and extended a hand, “we’re with F.U.G and we’re here to get you out “

Her heart fluttered.

#

The man now stood inside the colony of Terra-12.

The sprawling city extended for miles upon end, its grey polymer buildings obscured the sight of the horizon. Above the forest of great grey towers, was a maze of magnetic train lines, running to and fro, from the vertical docking stations scattered across the city.

He stood in the commercial sector of the city. Its black, concrete streets were populated by tall, grey rectangular buildings. They displayed names as famous as Redstone, Green, Merchant and Steelholm.

Neckers, Arachs and humans populated the lanes going in and out of the buildings. The streets were divided into two great tram lines that frequently hauled in giant, two story trams along their magnetic rails. Passengers who got on the tram, first had to undergo a DNA scan that deducted fees from their bank account.

The man resumed walking along the pavement as security drones flew over the streams of pedestrians, carrying out random laser scans of the denizens. The scans cross checked the facial patterns and sub-dermal health chips of the residents with banking and medical databases. They all had the logo of a half sliced orange on their chassis.

The scanners however, could not penetrate his black helmet, nor would they detect any health chip. He dodged several such scans as they traversed in set patterns. However, a drone from the opposite side of the street caught him in its scanner.

Before the black, crab shaped object could home in, its sensors started malfunctioning. Pneumatic pressures emerged within its shell, playing havoc with its wiring. It did a quick reboot and regained hold of its sensors within a few seconds. It homed in on the spot, but the suspect was nowhere to be found.

#

The masked man grasped Cassie by the hand and pulled her out. Upon emerging from the cell, her eyes were assaulted by a peculiar scene. They were in a large warehouse like structure, with no windows or lights. Only a few emergency LEDs illuminated the chamber below.

The whole edifice was stacked with hundreds, if not thousands of pods, identical to the ones Cassie was kept in. Each had two wires and three pipes emerging out of them and disappearing into the darkness above.

“Are all these…” she struggled to breathe, the air all of a sudden grew very heavy.

“Put this on “, the man put a large helmet on her face, a few mechanical seals clicked and her breathing resumed to normal.

“We’re on Terra-12, the air here is CO2 heavy, so humans have to wear this “, he pulled her forward.

“Terra-12? “, she struggled to form her thoughts as the man did a full body laser scan on her.

“Turn around, there’s a microchip beneath your spinal cord. “, he commanded.

As she turned to face the container, she noticed writing on the container. It read- CK BOX 9000 and a smiley face image with the name YOLO was plastered beneath it. What the hell? She felt a tickling feeling on her neck as the man moved a magnetic disruptor over it.

“Done, now let’s go “, he started running with her in hand before she could utter a word. The warehouse was deserted, save for several armed Crocs, lying motionless against containers.

“Are they…”

“They’re unconscious, we funneled in a sleeping gas through the ventilators that knock Crocs out. “, he grunted. They neared the end of the edifice and saw a masked man kneeling over another masked human.

“Steve what are you doing here, why aren’t you guarding our exit? “

Steve pointed at the man on the ground, he was still moving, although quite winded. “Eli, there was a human guard here, the gas didn’t knock him out, so I hit him with a stun round but he’s still conscious “

“Shit! “, Eli cursed as he looked at the twitching man.

“He saw us Eli, I think, we…we might have to kill him bu-but he’s a human “, Steve struggled to maintain eye contact.

“Kill him…” Cassie’s skin crawled at the thought. The man was lying on the ground twitching, defenseless.

Eli brought out a pistol and aimed at his head but his hand shook. “Shit! “, he screamed and holstered it. “Let’s just move fast! “, he ran towards the exit with Cassie and Steve in tow.

They opened the steel door and emerged onto the courtyard. A reddish-yellow light greeted her on the outside as they stepped onto a courtyard. She looked up and saw a bright sun-like object far above, bathing the land below with dim, warm light.

The courtyard had two unconscious guards lying on the ground. Both of them had an insignia on their right shoulder that read: Dark water securities. Are they some kind of army or police, who are they? Then her eyes fell upon two heavily armored turrets, lying de-active before them.

The whole thing was so bizarre, she wanted to ask so many questions but the two men rushed her out the gate where a hover car appeared.

They have their own car? They must be rich! She thought as the three rushed in through the door. Cassie knew few who could even rent one. A woman with dark, slanted eyes turned towards them from the front seat, “Everything went smoothly? “

“No! “, Steve took off his helmet to reveal a red head, “One of them was human and saw us. We uh, left him alive “

“Damn it! “, she scratched her head, “are we changing the plans? “

“No, Harrun make a beeline for the cargo holds, if we’re lucky we’ll get there before the authorities take notice “, Eli replied as he took off his helmet to reveal a chiseled, tawny face adorned with golden hair.

“Otherwise we might have to go underground, or worse, fight our way out of here “