Hey there!
I have been making a video game and I wanted to know what you think about the story, which I am writing. If you want to know more, either go here: http://www.rockethub.com/projects/6581-not-alone-a-daemonic-games-fps or send me a message. Tell me what you think!
Not Alone
Prologue
The world is an interesting place. You almost never know when something is going to happen. Well, natural anyways. But sometimes, you can predict something that’s going to happen but rarely when it’s going to happen. We all know that there is going to be war, but we don’t know when, or against whom. But what is war really? Is it two countries fighting for their country, or even two different sides of the world fighting to protect each other? No. War is a brutal, horrific, simple way to settle an argument, or even to gain new territory. Regardless the wars, we almost always fought each other. I should know. I say sometimes for one reason. We didn’t always fight each other though. Sometimes, out of no-where, a common enemy appears, like the swine flu, or the long extinct small pox. But this common enemy wasn’t a disease. It was something different altogether. This was a threat to humanity. One we had feared since the dawn of time. But let me tell you how it all began. Let me tell you my story…
I am an Australian, and proud of it. The year was 2011. I was in the outback, doing some training for the Military. I had recently signed up, being young and naive, not knowing what to expect. I wanted to serve my country. I was being trained by Lieutenant John Anderson. I was still a Private back then, still unable to wield a gun. Well, properly anyway.
LT. Anderson had started to lecture me. “Do you know why we are here today private?” I stood at attention and saluted my commanding officer in response. “We are here to properly use and maintain artillery and to test out new weaponry, Sir!”
“Affirmative, Private!” was his response. He told me to grab a weapon from the table directly behind me and started to show me how to use it and how easy it is to grab out my pistol. After he had done that, he told me to grab a grenade launcher, which had the look of an assault rifle.
“Lieutenant, this weapon is new to me, and it’s not like anything I’ve used before. How does it work?”
“Glad you asked, Private! This is a PGL-1. It’s rare, and very expensive. Only three or four have ever been built to date, but it should be fully operational within the next few years. This weapon has two modes, Remote detonation and Auto detonation. There is a switch above the trigger which changes modes.”
I had a look at the PGL-1 and sure enough, there was the switch. I switched it from auto to remote, and then informed the Lieutenant about the switch.
“For remote detonation, you need to hold the trigger down, then release when you want it to explode. Auto detonation will explode shortly after launching the grenade. Show me how it’s done, private!”
I walked up to the firing range and shot the PGL-1 in Auto Detonate mode, but when I released, it didn’t trigger the explosion. I called out to Lt. Anderson. “Uh, Lieutenant? The grenade didn’t detonate.”
LT. Anderson looked at me, showing a slight hint of shock in his face. “Are you sure, Private? The transmission might have just…” LT. Anderson was cut short to the sound of an explosion on the firing range. We both ducked for cover and looked in the direction of the sound to see a cloud of smoke from a grenade explosion of the PGL-1 grenade. “…Never mind! I did mention it was just a prototype. Back to your stations private! There are some bugs the technicians need to look at.”
I put down the PGL-1 back on the table and started to walk out of the firing range when LT. Anderson stoped me. “Report back here at 0800, Private!” he told me.
“Understood; Lieutenant!” I replied. I walked towards the barracks to await my next orders when I saw my best mate, Pvt. Alexander Reemen. I called out to him and ran up to him.
“G’day, Alex! How was the ‘course’? I heard hardly any Privates made it out under par time.”
The course was an obstacle training course designed to be a challenge for even the most battle hardened soldiers. The current best time on it was set by Lt. Arthur Harvey, setting the all-time record of 32.24 seconds. I did it in 1.30.57 minutes. I was sure Alex wouldn’t do better.
“Man, it’s a difficult course, mate! I JUST managed to get under a minute. Clocked 58.47 seconds. Corporal said that I might just be one of the best in the squad.” He said.
As soon as he said that, I almost yelled out in surprise! It was amazing how well he did in the course, but to beat me when no one else in the squad could is impressive. I was actually kind of jealous that I had to run the course again!
“How’s the wife and kid Josh?” Alex had asked. I had almost forgotten that I talked to my wife earlier that day. “She’s doing fine. Struggling a bit, but she’s doing fine.” I was worried about her, but I didn’t want Alex to know. She had recently lost her job, and was finding it difficult to find a backup job, especially seeing how we had a young son, and she didn’t know where to put him when she went to work. She was fired because she took too much time off to take care of him.
“Well, we’ll get home sooner rather than later. I think we’re only here for a few more weeks.”
“Yeah… Well I’ve got to go Alex. Lieutenant Jacobs is probably looking for me. I’ll talk to you later.”
I lied. I really wanted to have a break but I thought it would be best to try and have a crack at the ‘course’ again. I would have liked to take my mind off Katherine for the moment, but that’s not what happened. As I started walking a picture fell out of my pocket. The wind had started to pick up and it made it difficult to get the photo. It was something I desperately wanted to keep. It was a photo of my parents with Katherine after our son, Jackson, was born. My parents had died in a house fire, so the photo was all I had left. I Jumped and landed on my stomach and was just able to get the photo before it blew into the desert. I had got up, brushed off the dust and sand and walked back to the ‘course’, with my hand in the pocket the photo was in. Standing at a desk was Lieutenant Jacobs and was a bit surprised to see me.
“Private, do you want something?” he asked me.
“Sir; Request the permission to re-run the course today!”
“You’ve already done it this week Private… but I’ll make an exception. Run the course today and if it is better than your last run, it will be marked down over your previous one. Get into position when you are ready.”
I walked to the position, grabbed some concussion grenades, and picked up the rifle, then started the course. When I was finished, I put the remaining grenades back, as well as the rifle, and then headed to Lt. Jacobs.
“Very good work Private. You beat your previous time, and by a lot too! And; …it looks like you just beat Private Reemen’s score. Good work private!”
“Thank you, Sir!”
As I started to walk out, Lt. Jacobs told me to wait.
“Before you finish up for the day, can you please inform Lieutenant Anderson that the Firing range is going to be blocked off tomorrow, at 0500 for some repairs. It seems some of the targets are not functioning properly.”
“Yes Sir!”
I walked out and headed to LT. Anderson. When I got there, it looked like he was beginning to pack up.
