For future generations

[Chris]

In the year 2213 man's dream of interstellar transportation and colonization was realized to an extent with the trips being mostly one way,meaning signing up carried untold risks and rewards. By 2217 groups of trained adults and children were being sent out to start establishing colonies,just in time as earth had nearly exaughsted is resources and was running out of room both on the surface as well as in the several orbiting stations.

2219,Recon specialists Elijah and Kathy as well as their ten year old son Kaden were selected from hundreds of candidates who had been waiting for their unit to be deployed. Kadens parents had been against their son entering the same program as them initially,wanting him to train in something far less dangerous however during the boys entrance exam he had shown great athletic potential despite being five at the time. They were given the choice of leaving Kaden on earth to train as a soldier till he was sixteen or have him enter the explorers program along side them....The answer was obvious.

Kaden had trained hard along with about two dozen other kids of various ages and had risen to be near the top of his class,getting assigned to the same squad as his parents as soon as he finished the three year course. Over the next two years their squad continued to train,work on synergy,and improve their skills then the day arrived shortly after his tenth birthday...they were deploying in the morning.
They packed what they could and along with a crew of about two hundred boarded onto what had become known as "Slabs".
Slabs were decent sized dreadnaught class ships with one use catapult engines which allowed it to travel untold distances in one shot before requiring years to repair for a second use if at all. The ship was also equipped with dozens of smaller engines to let it move the remaining distance at a much slower rate. The name slabs came from the ships appearance,they were nearly a perfect black rectangle and from the top looked similar to the mysteries slab seen in Kubricks 2001 a space odyessy. The ships also contained a bay full of stasis chambers that now contained Kaden,his parents,and eventually the rest of the crew.

The trip in total took five years,the ship waking the engineers up after the first six months to begin repairs on the catapult engine which was used a second time in year three to push them much further along till they finally reached their destination in 2224,Xonatea.

Xonatea was a wild vegetation covered planet orbiting around a blue colored star,a year being three times as long here as compared to earth and a day twice as much do to a much slower rotation.
Things went well the first couple of months,shelters were built on the ground at first but quickly moved to the trees to avoid predatory wildlife and to escape the constant wet ground that became similar to quicksand if you stood on it too long when it rained...which was often. The recon teams were getting along nicely as well,having found several locations for more colonies.
Then disaster struck,a unknown virus began to effect people of a certain blood type. First causing the infected to become tired,then one or both eyes would change color before leaving you virtually blinded as it approached it's final stage where the virus would cause you to lapse into a coma and eventually killing the neural pathways leaving you brain dead. Initially they tried putting the infected back into stasis which only stopped the physical change,then came emergency experimentation,some treatments worked but left the desperate test subjects in worse states then before,finally a cure and vaccine were found with minimal side effects and were circulated to everyone.
Kaden and his parents had all been infected,first his father who died early from one of the experimental treatments,then his mother ,then two weeks later Kaden. Kathy did survive long enough for the cure to be created however she had already fallen into the coma a few days prior making the cure useless as the damage was already too far.

Kaden didn't have the luxury of grieving even if he wanted too,he was too tired,his once brown eyes having turned emerald green then his right eye turning an unnatural golden orange,his eyesight more or less the same still but knew it wouldn't last,at least that was the case till a nurse came in and injected a large needle into the base of his skull which caused him to scream in pain as a sensation like fire spread through his body. It only lasted a moment but to the ten year old it felt like days. He slept for the next few days and woke to the news of both his mothers passing and the news he was cured.
Kaden was both heartbroken and relieved as he was given his clothes back and warned of the side effects to watch for. A few days more went by and he buried his mother and moved in with one of the other recon specialists who had offered to care of him now that both his parents were gone,in that same timeframe they discovered one of the side effects had taken hold when he woke to a wet bed,it didn't take long for Kaden to realize he had lost most of the sensation that alerted you....So rather than deal with wet clothes and bed he agreed to at the very least wear training underwear so he could still fit his gear.

Morning came a week later and the boy sat up in bed with a groan,rubbing sleep from his mismatched eyes as his black hair fell into it's place,in much need of a haircut,looking out the window and watching the soldiers making their rounds in search of danger.

[shadowsong2b]

Kai was a different member of the Colonies recon team. As a Member of the Earth Federation Navy Seals, the elite special forces teams established to guard both the fleets and the talented men and women and children that made it possible. as such, wearing armor, and carrying a laser rifle, Kai walked, making sure that nothing was going to attack the settlement.

[Chris]

Kaden waved at Kai out the window as he spotted him before rolling out of bed and stretching,rummaging around his closet for his field uniform

[shadowsong2b]

Kai spotted the boy waving, and gave a smile and a one handed wave back, looking up at the boy who was rummaging through the room.

[Chris]

Kaden cursed a bit under his breath and poked his head out of the window "Did you get my uniform back from the washhouse?" he asked "It's not in my closet"

[shadowsong2b]

Kai looked up, "I don't think so kiddo. Course I don't think I've been by the washhouse yet." he said.

[Chris]

"Oh....well when you get a chance think you can help me out with...you know?" Kaden asked,still not super comfortable with talking about his issue

[shadowsong2b]

"Sure kiddo." Kai said, slinging his rifle behind him (After making sure the safety was on) and climbed into the apartment. he was used to helping kids out, and young Kaden and him had a sort of brother-ish relationship.

[Chris]

Kaden drew the crude curtain made from an old bed sheet over the window "Thanks Kai" he said grabbing wipes out from under his bed and slipping out of the wet garment,kicking them over next to his hamper and laying down "Have we got any deployment orders yet? I know I've only been out of the medbay for a few weeks but I'm antsy to get back out in the field"

[shadowsong2b]

"yeah, we're on a long range recon mission this week. they want us to scout for Nolends in the mountains." Kai said as he helped Kaden get cleaned up.

Nolends, were somewhat humanoid, they had thick black skin, reverse jointed legs and arms with 6 in long claws, they had deep black eye's and there claws could tear flesh clean from the bone. doing the year and a half that the Federation had been on this world. Nolend attacks had accounted for 15% of the total injuries and deaths on this planet. which was high considering how new this colony was. the long Claws that the Nolends had, venom on there claws that well almost certainly caused infection. that infection tended to be deadly.