An Army of One

[helmetisntdumb]

ANNIHILATION DAY, PLUS 11
VERGE SYSTEM 001 THE RUINS OF THE XANDARIAN CLUSTER
THE FORMER HOME PLANET TO THE NOVA CORPS
THE ORIENTA SHARD

||Attention. It is critical that you pay attention.||

||There is no one left alive except you||You have sustained physical injury. It is also likely that you are psychologically disoriented by shock

Comments

[helmetisntdumb]

When he wakes up again, he's in a crater, the snow in it melted. It takes him a moment to remember what he's just done, to remember crashing back on the Orienta Shard

[helmetisntdumb]

No answer.

Worldmind is apparently quite pissed.

[helmetisntdumb]

There had been civilians in the Orienta Shard, even if it'd mostly been the Corps. Families. Little kids.

There's a doll half-buried in the snow, not far from where he's kneeling.

He buries his face in his hand.

"Why am I alive?"

Tears stream down his face, under the helmet.

"Why didn't I die too?"

His useless sorry ass should've died with everyone else. If he couldn't save anyone, he should've died with them.

[helmetisntdumb]

Worldmind finally decides to chime up.

||You are exhibiting symptoms of combat stress reaction--which may possibly progress to post-traumatic stress disorder--and survivor's guilt.||

[helmetisntdumb]

"Why don't you just shut the fuck up and let me--let me--I dunno. I don't know what to do. I don't know--"

It's right then that he's struck with a--with a need. Just a need. He needs to pull his thoughts together, he needs to pull himself together, something to hold onto or he knows he's going to crack and fall apart.

"Where are my pictures? They were in my wallet, before I suited up. Are they still there?"

[helmetisntdumb]

||Yes. I can retrieve them for you. Place your hand near where your back pocket would be.||

A pocket formed and they sort of slid out of the suit into his hand.

[helmetisntdumb]

He kept a couple of pictures in his wallet. Since it was his wallet, they were all mundane ones, in case his wallet was ever stolen, so none of the team.

One of him and Robbie. One of his mom and dad. He stares at them for a long while, his gloved thumb brushing their faces.

Then there's the one he needs to see. The one of her that he still keeps. A little strip of pictures they got in a booth at Coney Island, where she was wearing that hat to cover her ears. There's them making faces in one, her kissing his cheek in another, and the last in the strip has them making out because they could barely keep their hands off each other by the end of the night

[helmetisntdumb]

||Due to the Xandar cluster and energy collectors that were constructed around it, the sun has a system at its core that controls its output. It can be made to go supernova.||

[helmetisntdumb]

"What mechanism controls it?"

[helmetisntdumb]

||I do. We can move to a safe distance and I can overload the starcore.||

[helmetisntdumb]

"Let's do that then," Nova said, rocketing away from the Orienta Shard.