We found a time capsule dated 1975, but the items inside were from 2025. Captain? captain! Are you hearing me? My mouth went dry pushing the saliva back down my throat, Captain Private Joshua shouted at me. you need to make a call, they are coming. They are all coming, I disengage from my mech suit, I loved this model, the Lucy 50#45 or what I just call her lucky Lou, getting inside one of these city killers of 6 tons of exoskeleton was hard enough and lucky Lou being one of the biggest model standing at 9 feet or ten depending on the ankle thrusters, she was made to fight the Terrormids off but not do get down to look at something as damaged as this time capsule. Do you need a hand, sir? lance yelled at me, grinning at me cheerfully in a way were going to die any minute type of way, subtle lines on his face told me that he was more worried than me, hiding it behind his comical coping mechanism of humor just to get by, I understood we all understood, but now left one mech left and still and a 100miles of deserts with approximate 20 Razak bases on the way being counted, it’s easy to say we never should of got of this ship.

Right private I said dusting myself off from this wasteland of a place, take it with us and place it with the others if we're lucky this one will have the codes, josh extended his arm grabbing the shovel to move the debris away. I hope so sir said Joshua, Delilah has been running all types of scans, on every book we find and we only have the first two pages, as much as josh’s concerns troubled me it wasn’t a time to debate on the resources used to collect only one salvage capsule and get lances mech destroyed at the time, I crouch over helping private lift the capsule, metal and gold once a booming human business that once reflect the hope of their species, these humans from earth are what my people say we are descendant from them, that in the old myths before our time and our time again we decided a reassessing and sent soldiers and researchers alike to find the relics all over this galaxy, well what’s left of it after the gamma wars, we carefully lift the capsule in to the mech sub pocket, lucky these capsules were the nearly the same size as the “rain of pain missile” that come stock standard in these lucky Lou mechs, sir look over there josh said pointing his finger up she’s finally back, I thought to myself relief finally had fallen over my crew and myself included, I search the compart next to lucky Lou and grab two angel milks, the lifeblood of long run missions such as these, if you want to not starve to death being so far away from the homeland, I put them in one hand and hold my leg tightly gripping on to the increasing pain shoots up my inner thigh again while walking. Delilah pulls her hair back and scoffs at me, I thought with how much angel shit you drink that pain would of stopped, Delilah says jokingly gesturing at my thigh, I looked down and see that denim that the humans seem to love so much using as pants has ripped and exposed the wiring of my new bionic leg, I throw her the cold pouch knowing that good food is rare even back on home so being so far away. A little familiarity of home can make everything feel better, I walk over to her, Delilah is stunning as the first day I met her in the hospital, with long blonde hair and skin like porcelain, the way she always knew how to smell like cherry just at the right moment, mainly to cover the oil smell that leaks from her rain of pain upgrade on her Bionicle arms, not that it’s an uncommon site upgrade is in every class of subject of the tyrant naik, take part of the soldier plan, but still took getting used to seeing 80-pound arms on a what looks like a 40-pound frame, just as we have learned from these humans that they were limited but there bones and ligaments and other parts I didn’t listen to in school, were only the class b and under remember the time of upgrades held on only by other nobles on our homeland. You want time to fix that leg or what, Delilah said flinging the angel milk at my leg with her buster arms. I knew I wouldn’t stand a chance against her, even with my upgrade she could tear me in half if she was so inclined to, I stepped towards her, and she pulled me closer and kissed me hard. I smiled knowing that even in the face of death she still loved me, then letting go making a big gesture of the kiss smack going back.

there all better? Deliah said gently slapping my face, yeah that fix it. I said back to her that’s why you love me she said back as witty as ever, ha-ha yes well you know I can handle that, the words fell out of my mouth like a nervous fool, even now after knowing her for all these years, I still lock up and get nervous flirting with her. She stands up looking at me like a weirdo. Right, anyway. she says moving me to the side grinning, and walking to a brown patch in the middle of the sand dune we are stuck on, she crouches down pulls out the remote, and places it on the ground, I stand next to her watching the ground hoping that the Terrormids will not smell us just yet. Ruben, Deliah said frustratingly. oh my god Reuben captain whatever they call you now, I turn my head towards her oblivious to being lost in thought, she points to a remote coated in thousands of buttons and spikes from the outside, mapping the base tunnel soil for camping, you see this here?! Delilah points at the red button with three x marks, this is why I have been telling you to let me use the other one she snaps, confused and unsure I ask her what other one? her arms clench and her face tightens, The!,. You know never mind we gotta do this, a green ping comes back and the mech snaps into digging modes building our underground base camp, finally, we are safe, for now.

The end

Kellie Sutton

@irehs85

Kellie Sutton has not written a story.