Garret

The mellow azure from thousands of distant stars illuminated the pitch darkness that enveloped a large room through a small glass port, giving way to the shapes and outlines of yellow crates and unidentified cargo tightly packed about in fashion. A pale face emerged into the shaft of light, eyes only half opened and a slight frown upon, giving way to form a silent yawn.

Garret ruffled his short brown hair as he retreated back into his nook between two crates, gently rubbing the muck out of his eyes and wiping away a layer of slick oil and sweat on his face with a paper towel. He was awake now. Clenching and unclenching both of his fists, he peered back out of the port and spotted a large H staring back him. It floated in front of the pastel grey moon with an attitude of sinful pride, as if it were an obnoxious guardian among the stars. Garret turned away from his view as the port slipped closed. Staying silent as he clipped on a dulled metal plate to his grey vest, disturbing the tactical pockets for the 3 weapon SDU's he had managed to scrounge from the locked armoire of the Atlas ship.

Atlas it was, but the company no longer existed due to ignorant spending and bankruptcy. Instead, the ship belonged to freelancers, in Garrets case, couriers. In this instance, they were not pirates, but neither were they a charity, as the young man had already witnessed another, less skilled stowaway being mercilessly thrown out the airlock soon after leaving the Eden system. In the meantime of weeklong journey, Garret had found himself a place to sleep and a container of Hotties; self-heating food packs to keep him content.

Unfortunately, Garret knew he was in trouble if anyone caught him sleeping, as he had to trade the only gun he had to persuade the customs officers to let him into the ship at Hera. Armed with just a push dagger he had looted off the stiff body of a deceased mugger in one of the capital's dark alleyways. 16 and already a killer thought Garret as he unbuckled his belt and unzipped his brown cargo pants, letting loose a stream of refreshment onto the floor below his level, much to a sanitization bot's confusion.
What a time to be Alive.

After consuming a hottie and stuffing some more packages into his cargo pockets, the boy pulled himself up into the catwalks of the ship, his biceps stretching his black T-Shirt as the rest of him slipped up. Garret kneeled silently, watching a group of men playing cards at a wooden table below, foreign and out of place in a space ship of this class. More flexing ensued out of Garret as he stretched himself accordingly. He was no bodybuilder, but simply fit, hardened by fighting for his life in many cases, and escaping from even more.

The calm hum of the reactors that reverberated throughout the ship was interrupted by heaving static, then a groggy voice to break the silence.

"Attention all hands. We, will be entering Pandora's orbit in less than 15!" The grogginess cleared up as the voice shifted to a sterner tone, becoming much more direct. "We are here to drop off a multitude of low grade supplies, and that's it. I don't want anything more to do with this hell hole that any of you do, so unload, and get the hell out."

Ah.

Pandora.

The boy did not fully contemplate why he came to one of the more dangerous planets available to him in the solar system. Maybe it was to get away from the loan sharks that turned from his late father to him, or maybe to take up that mine inheritance his estranged uncle had passed onto him, or more about the heavy presence of Eridium flowing out of the planet like water out of a tap. Nevertheless argued Garret,

I'm here now.

As the filthy planet edged closer to the forward viewport, a heavy surge of energy overcame the boy, pleasing him greatly afterwards. More and more surges came, causing Garret to breathe heavily as he sat against the railing of the catwalk, the sound of lifting and clanking in the cargo bay muffling any possibility of locating his presence. He stood back up at the sound of crashing and rattling, heart pumping and ready to move. The young man leaned over the edge of the catwalk to gaze upon a spilt case of rifles, "Jacobs" read the side of the box, and a man quickly putting them back in place before any authority walked through the door. Much to his relief, the first mate stepped through, adorning filthy green overalls and a checklist in one hand. Inspecting the workers as they finished loading the Orbital platform full of equipment, the blonde tapped the checklist a multitude of times, scanning lazily over the pallet of cargo.

The bald man who had spilt the crate of guns was holding the lid of the case and inspecting it, attempting to figure out how to jam it back on as he brushed his red trousers off. The checkered green shirt did nothing to hide his exhaustion as he simply threw it back on, much to the amusement of the first mate, his head of dirty blonde hair shaking as they laughed. "eh. Fuck 'em Pandorans, should've learnt by now to go 'an fuck off to a different system".

The rest of the crew mused at the statement as they all trotted to the doors of the bridge, completely caught off guard by the red lights and sirens that shattered the air and turned the room the color of blood.

"Fucki-"muttered the first mate before a panicked captain blared over the speakers, filling Garrets ears with annoyance "ALL HANDS TO GUNNERY STATIONS". At that the crew scrambled through the doors, leaving the room alone with Garret and the unnecessarily loud alarm. The boy himself leapt off the catwalk and hit the deck softly with his boots, rolling towards the crates of weapons. At his touch, a small bin opened, revealing a few units of Universal Assault Rounds, ready to be digitized into a wide variety of magazines. Midway through pocketing them, the PA blared again, but with a more unexpected cause "FUCK ALL, BRACE FOR IMPACT".

Garret quickly snatched a handle of the cargo load, moments before a large explosion impacted the ship, leaving a hole in the starboard side the size of a car. The air and anything not bolted down was sucked through the gaping hole before a green shield covered the hole, popping the lad's ears. "Groah fuck…" muttered Garret, before the PA activated again "…nd that's not even the bi…st gun on this thing!" it was background noise from a com between the captain and someone else, someone sounding really douche in Garret's head. More explosions rocked the ship, the first one knocking out the Inertia dampeners by the way everything rocked violently in the bay, and the last taking out the gravity. "We're gonna' slingshot out 'round this bloody planet 'n get the hell out!"

Garret was thrown back over the cargo as someone put the boosters to full, leaving him face first in the box of Jacob's. "Fucking.." the boy muttered again before another explosion slowed the ship and put it back into zero G. Garret floated off of the pallet, grasping at the shiny metal rifle that floated by his face first, then at anything that could give him leverage in the environment. Before he could reach the ceiling or catwalk, the bridge doors popped open to reveal the bruised bald crewman, his face which was shocked and angry to see Garret. "First it's Hyperion, now Stowaways!? Out the fucking airlock with you!"

The boy hesitated as the middle aged man flew at him from the floor, making a beeline straight to punch him in the head. As the sturdy hand got closer, Garret calmed and unsheathed the push Dagger from under his chest plate, its dark metal invisible to the crewman under the red lights. Garret lashed out with his left and grabbed the man's right arm before trading places and slamming him into the ceiling while the boy drifted towards the cloud of floating rifles below. The man could only grunt in response, experience reminding him to stay quiet during a brawl, staying focused instead.

Meanwhile garret planted both of his feet onto the floor and hung onto a handle, bending his knees just in case he needed to fly into an alternative part of the room, while his other hand aimed a rifle at the surprised crewman.

Nothing.

The gun was fucking empty! Garret instead threw it at the man before pushing off towards the door, hoping to slip into the armoire. Out of nowhere the bald crewman tackled him, tumbling around the bay as Garret writhed, trying to get an arm out for defense. The PA blasted again, this time with less panic.

"We don't have escape pods..."

Ignoring the statement, Garret flung one arm out and walloped the bloke in the jaw before striking him in the gut with his Push Dagger, the fellow grunting harder as Garret kicked off of him, towards the guns again, remembering ammo in his pocket. More rumbling embraced the ship as garret snapped his head to a viewport, orange and red light shining through. "Shitshitshit. were burning up like a fucking meteor" muttered the teenager. Garret changed his view back to the worker, who was now charging him, a trail of blood floating through the air like a tether.

Cocking back the rifle, Garret took aim at the shining head of them man, ready to put a round in the surprised faces as blinding white light engulfed the other half of the bay, catching him off guard. The boy covered his eyes as his personal shield sparked on, saving a bit of air for him too. The light resided, leaving behind the stars and a cloud of ash, along with a great view of an icy area of Pandora.

Garret was thrown out of the remaining half of the ship as it began to skip along the atmosphere like a rock on water. With no alternative, he stuck his clenched fist out down towards his feet, and with a burst of cobalt energy, a globular shield formed under it. Garret gawked in awe at his now shadowy metallic hand, before turning to more pressing matters as additional atmosphere burned around him.

Planting both brown boots on the shield, he adopted a power stance before enveloping himself with a sphere of the energy as the cold ground quickly came to meet him.