Project Un: R. Gunson - Paradigm Prime

Humanity must survive. The thought passed into the mind of Captain R. Gunson of the Paradigm Prime sitting in the remnants of his ship. The scraps that remained of the 5th generation Starship had been repurposed entirely as base camp for the crew. Laboratories, medbays, and sleeping quarters. Gunson scratched his chin with the metallic prosthetic of an arm. The tablet holding his log book lay on top of his locked trunk. It had been 3 years searching for D.A.W.N. and yet nothing had been found. His crew had scoured Dathanem from Landing Point to Nav Omega. They had encountered many monstrosities, but only abandoned facilities. 

Gunson sighed. The sound was like a rasping growl through the air filter strapped over his mouth. He was not accustomed to failure, but this mission became more and more pointless as time went on. D.A.W.N. had sent a distress call; Paradigm Prime had answered. Gunson clenched his fist as he remembered the hell it had been to land on Dathanem. The anomaly riddled planet had distorted the signal so much that they had landed over 100 miles away from the nearest facility. By the time they had learned this, over half the crew had radiation poisoning. 

Then came the monsters.

The horrid things came like nightmares. Men merged with every kind of impossibility. Some with tentacles for arms. Some breathing fire. Some craving flesh. Bullets ran out, and the crew had to resort to primitive weapons. Spears, Swords, the like. 

Humanity must survive. The horror of Dr. Ren’s face haunted his memory. The prosthetics started three weeks after arrival. They repurposed nearly a fourth of the ship to revitalize the crew. 2 months later, not 1 of the 150 crew members had all of their organs. 17 of the men had been killed by the monstrosities they had come to dispose of. Gunson stood up and paced the room. His pacing took on a limp as his metal leg didn’t have the flexibility of flesh. The fluorescent light of a single strip of lights lit his room. It’s faint hum blended with the creaking of bolts holding his hip together. Gunson swore under his breath and let his hand fall on the door panel. The door slid open with a shriek of metal.

Two crew stood outside his door, stood up straighter and saluted. The black suits that marked them as his crew blended in with the dark metal of their limbs. Their helmets glowed from the inside with twin red lights. If Gunson looked long enough, he would see that same dark metal like a skull replacing the faces of Jack and Harris. Kal had assured him that their mind and memory were still intact; All safe within the Aexian flesh. Gunson continued down the hall with satisfaction. The beasts that roamed the wasteland of a planet at least had resources they could use. His engineers found the strange substance Aexis within the bodies of the monsters. Gunson suspected Aexis was what D.A.W.N. had been tampering with before the distress call. Many of the scraps they found from the abandoned labs had traces of Aexis. 

Gunson passed by the medbay doors. He could hear the screams inside. The crew understood the amputations were necessary, but pain remained pain. Regret perched itself in Gunson’s mind. Anesthetics had run out last year. But the crew would survive, in fact they would be improved. Rations were a quarter of what they had been as more and more relied on electricity rather than sustenance. Gunson stopped as Tils and Feona dragged carcasses back from a hunt. The two legged beasts were a mockery of humanity. Like hairless apes with bulging eyes, the bodies did not bleed. They only gaped in silent screams and snarls. Tils and Feona took the bodies to the lab. There Daren would grind the bones to retrieve the Aexis from the marrow. The blood would be stored in containers for separation so that the Aexis could be taken from that as well. Kal would take the Aexis and create the tech needed to keep the crew alive. Humanity needed to survive. 

Gunson made it at last to the Generator and Operating Network. Gunson entered the G.O.N. and was accosted with the smell of feces and rotting flesh. Aexian beasts were hooked up with tubes that filtered into coils. Shrieks and cries came from the monsters’ flesh imitations of human faces. Their white eyes were streaked with red. Their skin was shades of beige to brown. Nothing at all like the silver metal of humanity. These monsters were being used as batteries to power the most important piece of Paradigm Prime. The Network sparked with power. Rows upon rows of servers blinked happy shades of green. With this, humanity would survive indefinitely. No more reliance on flesh and blood. No more need for food or drink. Only energy and metal were needed, and the Aexis beasts gave them that. 

The G.O.N. kept all 150 personalities of the crew perfectly simulated. Not only sustained, but also connected. The crew could talk to each other as needed through the collective communication. Perfect during hunts, and convenient for night watches. Every pair of eyes were now his eyes. Every word said to any of them, would be available for later use. Gunson felt the pulse of Aexis through the generator in his chest get stronger. Humanity could survive. 

He caught a glimpse of his reflection on a servo screen and wished he could smile. The skull-like grin of metal would have to do. His audio receptors lowered their gain to block out the wailing of the beasts. Gunson stared at his eyes. The red glow of ascension pulsed where his old eyes had been. This was the face of humanity. Dark metal streaked with silver and crimson eyes. Humanity could survive. But it would not just survive, humanity could ascend. Gunson chuckled with a string of musical auto-tuned notes. What did humanity do if not transcend its limits? 

Humanity would ascend.