The Eternal Winter - Cover, Synopsis, and Chapter 1 - The Beginning of the End (Patreon)

Well, here's another story. However, it will stay on my Patreon only until it has 60 chapters. And until then, it will be free for anyone to read. Mostly because I want feedback on it from readers.

After it gets 60 chapters though, I'll start posting them to royalroad, and it will end up with up to 20 chapters in advanced for Patrons to read.

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Synopsis

Alexander North: A regular second lieutenant in the Terran Empire’s military until the apocalypse starts and he finds himself no longer being human.

It’s year 8019 on the Universal Calendar, and the Terran Empire is only continuing to expand its influence.
The artificial symbiont technology created by the Terran Research Union is being sold to the higher ups in the military, granting them powers beyond human beings; the Economic branch of the Empire is beginning to expand further into the other nations of the Universe; and the military only continues to expand into the Arctic Empire’s land, bringing the war closer and closer to an end.

However, all of this comes crashing to a halt when The Eternal Winter spreads across the entire universe and changes the laws of physics themselves.
No longer can people use guns; no longer can they use electricity; and no longer can they use fire.

But the worst of the storm is from the glowing blue shards filled with a strange energy that mutates any creature it enters into a mindless monster whose natural instinct is to kill.

How will Alex cope with his newfound changes as the only infected soldier in his base to not fully turn into a monster?
Will he die to the other monsters? To the soldiers?
Or will he thrive?

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                                                          Alexander North

“Three, two, one, open!” Robert’s voice echoes into my ears through the terminal implanted behind them right as the airlock opens in front of us.

“Move out!” our captain shouts as he charges forward through the docking port towards the pirates’ spaceship with his sub machine gun in hand.

I quickly follow behind him with the other five, leaving Robert to close the airlock behind us and open the pirates’ own airlock via hacking. And as soon as it’s open, several of the pirates – each outfitted in some rather outdated armor compared to our mid-end cybernetic armor – almost immediately begin firing at us. However, none of the bullets manage to penetrate our armor, leaving me furrowing my brows at the annoying pinging sounds of them bouncing off of my helmet.

“Switch to stun rounds!” the captain – Andrew Hart – shouts while firing electrical stun shots at the closest pirate, knocking him out near instantly before the rest of us follow suit.

“Damn it, close the fucking airlock!” one of the pirates shouts while turned slightly backwards to look at the other pirates, just for him to take a stun bullet to the side of the head from my gun. He quickly collapses to the ground, and I find myself stepping around his unconscious body to shoot at another one that I had seen hiding around the corner, taking him out as well.

Several more shouts echo through the small ship that these pirates have been using to raid the lower-end companies on the planet down below, instantly making me jerk my gun towards them and fire.

“Now why would you shout if you’re trying to hide?” I mutter quietly after realizing that one of the ones that I had shot had barely stuck his head out from behind a terminal to call out to the others.

Or was he trying to hide?

Either way, we continue going through their small ship until each and every pirate is taken care of. The captain then calls for Michael and Michelle – a pair of twin brother and sister who happened to be assigned to the same unit – to make sure we got all of them, only to turn back to me and shout, “Alex, check their systems! See if there’s any more pirate scum working along with this group!”

“Yes, sir!” I shout back while rushing over to the terminal, jumping into the seat in front of it, plugging in my own terminal implant, and hacking into it, just to not find any other pirates. I continue checking through the systems for a bit before unplugging my terminal from the system and turning my head back to the captain while shouting, “It looks like this is it, sir!”

He nods back to me right as the twins finish checking the rest of the ship for more pirates and gathering up all of the stunned ones.

“It looks like we got em all, sir!” Michael says with a grin noticeable in his voice despite his helmet covering his face.

However, out of the corner of my eye, I notice one of the pirates – the leader if I remember correctly from the briefing – slowly sawing away at the bindings on his wrists with some sort of knife.

Huh. Still moving freely even after being hit with a stun round?

“Sir, the leader’s cutting himself loose,” I point him out to the captain, making him quickly sprint over to the man fast enough that I can only just barely see him thanks to his symbiont’s enhancements before punching him in the skull and sending the pirate flying into a wall, likely giving the man a concussion in the process.

The captain then glances over at the twins and says, “Next time make sure to search each of them more thoroughly before leaving their sides.”

Both of them hurriedly nod their heads, clearly not wanting to be punished for the slipup.

Captain stares at them for a few seconds to make them sweat before walking back to the airlock while calling out, “Twins, Gabriel, and Victoria, grab the pirates and bring them back to our ship. Alex, set the pirates' ship to follow us on the way back to the base.”

We all shout our affirmatives before getting to work.

Although my eyebrow twitches slightly as I hear what’s most likely Gabriel beating one of the pirates before dragging them over to the airlock.

“I’m pretty sure he wants them alive and able to speak, Gabriel,” I hear Victoria say to the man, always the one to keep the big brute in line.

I lightly shake my head at the man’s anger issues and get to work programming the ship.

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After I’m done with the ship and we’re all back on the ship, I almost immediately take my helmet off and stretch my neck, letting my shoulder length brown hair fall out of it. I then turn to look at the others all taking their own helmets off now that the op has been finished.

And without wasting any time, the twins are already bickering.

Michael and Michelle look extremely similar, with the only real differences being their genders and that Michael has short black hair, a mustache, and a slightly rougher looking face on him, whereas Michelle has long black hair and sharp features.

I ignore their bickering to look at the other two, neither of whom are speaking.

Victoria – whose hair is just as vibrant as always with that purple shade which I’m pretty sure is against military regulations – is clearly glaring at Gabriel, who looks rather shy and is clearly avoiding her gaze. Which looks rather odd considering the massive size difference between the two.

I let out a sigh before walking over to the bridge of our smallish patrol ship. And once I enter, I quickly find the captain sitting down in his captain’s chair with his chin held up by his fist and his elbow resting on the armrest of the chair as he sits there seemingly lost in thought.

Just like always, my eyes are automatically drawn towards the out-of-place pink ribbon tied to the back of his short black hair, but also just like always, I ignore it to instead ask Robert, “Did you have any trouble with the hacking of their ship’s airlock?”

Robert turns to me from his place at one of the ship’s terminals, sending his ponytail flying in the process to hit said terminal’s screen as he says, “No! Or at least not after the initial attempt. I did have some trouble at first, but nothing that caused a problem.”

Before I can respond to that, the captain snaps out of his thoughts and says, “Good! I’m glad to see that Alex’s hacking lessons aren’t a waste of his time after all.”

I roll my eyes at that for what must be the umpteenth time with my helmet held to my side, underneath my arm as I walk over to my own chair and terminal. However, I don’t say anything.

Partially because I know it would be a waste of time, partially because I know he’s just messing with me, and partially because I don’t like talking anywhere near as much as the others do.

But mostly because I know that that’s what he’s gunning for with his comment.

I close my eyes and lie back in my chair for a few minutes to calm down from the op before letting out a deep breath and opening them right when Robert calls out, “We should be back at the base in about eight minutes.”

“Good,” the captain says while leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed. “We could all use a break from the pirate hu-”

Out of nowhere, a chilling breeze makes its way through the ship and all of the ship’s sensors begin to go haywire.

“Shit, what the fuck is going on now?!” the captain shouts while quickly rising to his feet, only for Robert to answer, “I don’t know!”

However, the answer to his question comes quickly, and rather abruptly as what looks like a large blizzard – and I mean really freaking large, like envelop-the-planet large – begins to descend from the sky.

“Well, that doesn’t look good,” Robert mutters, to which I answer, “No shit,” and climb to my feet, only for all of the lights and systems within the ship to begin flickering on and off before eventually settling on staying offline.

“And this looks even worse,” he mutters again, making me send a glare his way, to which he avoids receiving in the eyes by looking outside.

I turn back to look out the window again, just to find the entirety of the window covered in frost and impossible to see through.

“Damn it, what the hell is going on here?!” the captain shouts again as the ship continues to plummet from the sky. He then turns to look at me and asks, “Is there anything we can do?”

I focus on the terminal in front of me before grimacing and answering, “No. It looks like something completely wiped out the ship’s systems at once and without any warning.”

“Which meeeeaaans?” the captain stretches out, making me turn back to him with a frown to see him clearly in a bad mood, and for good reason.

“It means that we need to prepare for a crash landing,” I answer while taking my seat and tightening my seat belt to keep me in place without injuring me.

The man doesn’t waste even a single second, quickly rushing over to the door and yanking it open with his bare hands after finding the panel not working before shouting, “Prepare for a crash landing!”

I faintly hear the others’ swearing from the other room, but my attention is taken by the freezing snow and mist beginning to leak through into the ship somehow.

What the hell? This ship is sealed tightly enough for it to enter space, so how the hell is snow and mist getting in?

However, right after thinking that question, the ship hits something and I’m jerked forwards in my seat. And for just a moment, I think that I’ll be alright.

Only for the terminal in front of me to somehow get knocked off of the wall and smash into my face, making everything go dark.

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