[ wp ] humanities first venture outside of the solar system

I was in a field surrounded by gunfire. The sounds of war were compounded with the thoughts in my head.'I need to get out of here', I thought. I was sitting down behind some ruined stone wall. It looked as if it used to be a small wall to house farm animals. I was looking at my firearm, it was an AK-47. I had scavenged it from an enemy solider three days ago. I looked ahead of me, there was a farmhouse and barn made of wood and stone as well. They seemed to look like relics of the past. Suddenly, an older man rushed out the door and ran the other way from me. As I saw him start to disappear from view I heard the biggest'BANG' I had heard so far. All the gunfire seemed to stop at the sound as the old man fell on the ground, out of sight. I stayed crouched and turned my body to face the wall. I gripped my gun as hard as I could and bolted up. I lost a tad bit of balance but nothing too substantial. I raised the sights of my AK up to my eye as I eyed my newest surroundings. There was a cornfield almost as high as an adult head. Some scattered trees, and so many leaves on the ground. As my eyes explored the cornfield I saw a little kid staring at me. He had on an enemy uniform and was holding a large rifle with a scope. I just stared for a minute as another gunshot rang out.''Simulation Over. Better luck next time Gunnery Sergeant.'' 
 `` Man, I never realized that the game put children in it'' I heard on the intercom. I immediately recognized the voice as Major Powers. 
 `` Are n't you supposed to pilot this spacecraft and not be sticking your thumb up your ass?'' I asked humorously. 
 `` We both know that it's been on auto-pilot for three months now. Get up here Gunny Sergeant Highway.'' He said with a hint of authority. 
 `` Copy that'' 
 
 I floated my way up to the bedroom quarters. I gradually had gotten used to sleeping in space. The beds had intercoms near all the pillows so we could wake up during an emergency. I had never gotten used to the white and grey color scheme of the rooms though. It made it feel bright even in the darkness of space. I floated my way up to the bridge, through multiple hallways. I always found it funny that we had almost gotten to 3/4 of light speed but there still was n't any artificial gravity. I poked my head through the hole in the floor leading to the bridge. The bridge was very complex, wires lined the floor on either side. Some of them lead to the server room so we could have some communication with Earth after we got to our destination. A lot of the wires lead to the ship's main power source, which was a nuclear reactor no one had dared touch since they got out of sight of Mars. Beyond the wires were multiple screens logging various bits of data constantly. Other than wires and screens were the stereotypical stuff you always see in Sci-Fi movies and TV Shows, switches, levers, buttons, all strewn about. 
 `` What do you need me for? You got bored trying to pump the holes in the wall?'' I said, jokingly. 
 `` As you and I both should know, we have 2 hours before we go past the Kuiper Belt for the first time. We need to prepare to drop speed and start sending the data back. Have you set the system to get ready for transmission?'' He asked. I always had hated when he stated the obvious. Of fucking course we were close, but I needed some R & R. I floated my way up to the seat next to him as I scanned my own monitors. 
 `` Yes that's already been done, hours before. I know what the hell I'm doing, although I question you.'' I said not even sure if I was joking. 
 `` You know, with an attitude like that I can throw you off this ship right now.'' He said sternly. Most likely he was trying to get under my skin, it was a laughable attempt on his part. 
 `` Then how would you ever know what was wrong with your systems when your dumb ass hits the wrong switches and sends us on a one way trip to the nearest asteroid.'' I said, back to joking. It was the only way I could deal with being with this prick for a month straight. `` I honestly do n't know how we are going to get any reliable data with the sun this far away. I never got that briefing.'' 
 `` The machines do n't need light to detect minerals. That's like bringing a spoon to a football game.'' He said while paying attention to everything that needed to be doing. `` Nissa, this is Powers, have you gotten the navigation ready for the Belt?'' A short crackle could be heard as he let off the button for the intercom. Maybe five seconds after we heard another crackle of the radio followed by Nissa. 
 `` As ready as we can be and then some, sir.'' 
 `` Now that's some great work, get up here so we can talk to Earth together when we send the data.'' 
 `` Copy that, is grump gunny up there?'' She said playfully. Nissa was always joking like me, but I felt she had more of a childish humor. I waved Major Power's hand away from the button as I pressed it to talk to her. 
 `` No, you're just having an auditory hallucination of my sexy voice.'' i said chuckling. I knew that comment would be deemed inappropriate when NASA heard it eventually; I did n't care much for rules anyhow. 
 
 The next hour had passed with all three of us talking at the bridge. We were all anxious to go past our known solar system. We had bolted our impact chairs to the floor, and gotten into our suits. This was going to be the longest hour of the trip, we were going past the Kuiper Belt in a space ship going 5.02962472 × 10^10 miles per hour. Possibly passing millions of asteroids and hoping that none of big enough hit the ship. We strapped into our crash seats quickly, as Nissa tried to comfort both of us. `` The guys at NASA are n't there because they get stuff wrong guys. We can make it through this.'' she said with a voice that the Major and I both questioned her confidence. Somehow that made us all more comfortable, if by a little. I needed to break the tension, `` Hey, at least if we crash, we're going fast enough, if we do n't die on impact, our bodies will probably float past the belt anyways.'' 
 `` Enough of that Sarg!'' The Major said, as felt the first of the extreme dips. The g forces that we had been trained for at launch were nothing compared to the weaving and dodging that the ship was doing. I always wondered how they made these things so fucking agile. I was only assigned to manage the computers and communications, I was n't privy to that information I guessed. Surprisingly we only took 50 minutes to get past the belt, and I only puked twice. It was gut wrenching to take off our suits. We slowly decelerated to a speed where we could effectively send and receive information. 
 
 It took about 7 hours more or less for the first bits of NASAs transmission to reach us. Powers, Nissa and I all huddled around the monitor and speakers. It was an audio file, and a text document. I converted both of them to their original formats and we read the text file. 
 
'To our amazing crew, 
 Two days ago we had finally gotten a message back from the Arecibo Message. You need to turn back now. We have converted the message into audio form, read by the president of the USA.' 
 
 We all looked at each other in shock. NASA was n't the type of administration to do this as a joke. We needed to listen to this now. I opened the audio file and I could feel a sinking feeling in my chest. 
 
'My fellow Americans, and in extension, my fellow citizens of Earth. We have recently retrieved a message that has come from deep space. Unfortunately that's all the good news I have to share. This message is for all of humanity from an unknown civilization predicted to be on the planet Proxima Centauri. The message reads,'As of no doubt, you now know that you're race is not alone in the void of light. After much, much debate here, we have sent this message for your own safety. You need to stop transmitting things so carelessly. We are not sure what you know about the void of light but you can not let others know of your existence. They'll find you, as they found us so long ago.'' 
 
 The transmission cut off suddenly as we noticed all of our electronics failed at once. It was pitch black as the emergency lights came on. We heard the sudden creaking of the ship. We all could feel the horror of the situation. I rushed to get my puked smelling suit back on; I felt I had to. I finished doing a quick test, hoping my suit was sealed fully and looked back at my ship mates, it was like they were frozen in time. I shoved both of them attempting to shake them out of their shock. My efforts were in vain as the both just stared blankly at me. `` We're dead Highway. The power is off and the ship should n't be creaking.'' Major told me, in a voice as if he was having an out of body experience. 
 `` SHUT THE FU-'' Thats all I had gotten to say as the ship suddenly picked up speed. I was flown sideways into one of the walls as the force tore the ship in half down the middle. In a time span shorter than a gunshot I was sent into the blackness of space. I looked toward the half of the spacecraft traveling away from me at unbelievable speed. I saw something beyond my own comprehension. It was a mass of tentacles devouring my friends. They spawned out from a massive rocky planet. The only reason I could see was because the center of the creature produced a light similar to that of a large city on Earth. All I could think before I got sucked into my own inevitable death was,'Well they know about us now.'
