It was dark, cramped, and ice cold aboard the International Space Station V 2.0. It was larger than the original ISS, with boarding hatches for up to four capsules and what should have been triple the size inside. There was a relatively long corridor that connected the boarding hatches, two on each side, to the main area of the space station. The interior was completely white, with rare occurrences of colour that represented warnings and safety equipment. It was by a means better than the original, which had been decommissioned only a few months before, yet sorely lacked a view of the outside, with only three small windows to peer out of that were not reserved for scientific purposes. The atmosphere onboard was tense, and the fact that two Russians and two Americans were on board at the same time didn't help that fact.
Will Fletcher, the lone British astronaut, was in disbelief; this was the first mission to the new space station, and the situation was already on thin ice. He sighed at his misfortune and gazed out of one of the few windows that were on the space station. It was dark as always, stars scattered few and far between due to the glare that was reflected from the blue planet down below. At this moment in time, the space station was some dreaded prison where he was a lone convict being squashed between an unstoppable force and an immovable object. The Russians and the Americans avoided each other like the plague, staying on opposite ends of the space station, exuding an almost visible loathing for each other, and whispering in hushed tones between themselves, completely ignoring his existence.
They were passing over the south of China, which came as a minor disappointment to the British astronaut; he had hoped to catch a glimpse of the Great Wall of China as he never had the chance to visit. The next best thing to boast about was seeing it from space. Suddenly his tired eyes snapped back into focus as a great ball of light flashed for the briefest moment before him before whipping away to the other side of the planet.
"Holy shit!" Yelled Will in surprise. Four heads snapped around to glare at him simultaneously, and four pairs of disapproving eyes rolled in unison. To his surprise, it was one of the Russians who spoke first, Ivan Mikhailov, a somewhat short man with an uncontrollable mess of bright ginger hair that carried over to his thick eyebrows and equally bright eyes, which held an icy glow reminiscent of the depths of Siberia. His nose was crumpled in two places, offsetting it to his right by about a quarter of an inch.
"What is it?" It was a blunt question, probably the best English he could manage, yet it was enough to prompt the stunned Will into answering.
"An explosion," stuttered Will, "in the South China Sea. I don't know what it was, but it looked ... almost nuclear. Some crazy shit just went down."
The four men who had glared at him with contempt just moments before were now glaring at him with even more contempt than Will thought was possible. Ivan then said something in an unfamilliar Russian dialect, which Will couldn't understand, and Dimitri Sokolov, the other Russian cosmonaut, chuckled softly and shook his head. He was slightly taller than Ivan and slightly slimmer too, but not by much; he had light brown hair and innocent brown eyes, which hadn't seen war yet, and a perfectly straight nose. The radio on the American end of the ship crackled into life and was instantly snatched by one of the American astronauts. He paused for a moment and looked at Will, who was now floating aimlessly in the room, rather annoyed that absolutely nobody believed him.
"Hey, you," called the American, nodding towards Will, "it's for you." Will drifted slowly towards the radio, eventually snatching it up to his ear. It was upside down, so he quickly corrected himself. The radios for the Russians and Americans crackled with incoming messages simultaneously and were immediately answered.
"Fletcher, you have new orders: Return to Earth. The Russians and Americans up there should be receiving the same order. Over."
"Understood, sir. Target landing zone? Over."
"Preferably the Earth, but we'll see where you land, won't we? We'll send over some guys to pick you up. Over."
"Sir. May I ask a question? Over."
"You already asked one, but yeah. Shoot. Over."
"There was an explosion of sorts in the South China Sea. What was it? Over."
The captain stays silent for a moment before taking a deep breath to answer.
"We ... don't know. It was confirmed in the past five minutes that it was not an explosion comparable to what we could possibly achieve. From satellite footage, the radius of the blast was shown to be 85 nautical miles across. Everything, and I mean everything, was annihilated. Not even ash remains of the land that was caught in the blast, and the seawater instantly evaporated. Earthquakes were set off in America, and Japan is being drowned at the moment. A couple of volcanic eruptions got triggered too. Look, I can't tell you much right now, as I said, we don't know. So, does that answer your question? Over."
"Absolutely not. Over."
"Pffffft. Yeah, I knew it. Anyways, come back in one piece with the others. Over and out."
The radio falls into static one last time before it shuts off to silence. The other men on board the space station had already finished receiving their orders and were waiting to get back down to Earth.
"Ready now?" Asked the Americans in unison. They were identical twins: James and Andrew Rodriguez. Both had bright blond hair and sky blue eyes, identical features, and even presented themselves in the same way, even down to the smallest detail of the rotation of a shirt button. Their orange uniforms are the same colour as Ivan's hair and immaculately pressed with formulaic precision. Will looked at the dark, sea green Russian uniform and then his own sky blue uniform, noticing the creased mess that they were wearing had been put to shame in comparison to the American uniform.
"Yeah. Let's go." Replied Will, heaving a massive sigh as he followed them into the descent module. The Russians were already in it; unsurprisingly, it was the one that brought them up here, and they were flicking switches and making checks as Will and the twins clambered aboard. It was admittedly well made, yet clearly not designed for five people even though there were six seats. They were slightly smaller than the men about to occupy them and were by no means winning any awards for comfort, but it was good enough to get them home. The Russians checked to make sure everybody was onboard before sealing the hatch and preparing to disengage from the ISS V 2.0.
The atmosphere hadn't changed from when the five men were onboard the space station; it was still silent, cold, and unbelievably tense. The Russians had finished the checks and had disengaged from the space station, signified by a resounding poof and the slight vibrations of the walls of the module. They were going back down. It was slow at first; at least that was what Will thought. He had no concept of speed anyway with nothing to compare the descent to. Gravity began to firmly pull them down towards the surface through pieces of debris that sparked against the hull of the module, sending tremors through the bodies of the five men. These tremors became worse as the module entered the atmosphere. Tremors became sudden jolts, and sudden jolts became an earthquake simulation. The outer layer of the descent module began to glow red and then white, becoming brighter and brighter the faster it descended. Molten metal flew off the hull past the small door window like tiny fireworks, and the inside of the module began to heat up.
A robotic voice cut through the deafening noise of the descent.
"T minus eight minutes until contact with the planet's surface. Altitude: 110 km. T minus five minutes until deployment of parachute."
Will turned his head to the right to look at the Russians. Dimitri looked terrified and was fidgeting nervously; Ivan looked as annoyed as ever and was telling Dimitri to stop in a low growl that was lost in the vibration of the descent module. Looking the other way, Will could see the American twins sitting calmly in their seats, almost bored, simply waiting for the landing to happen.
"Parachute deployment: failed. T minus two minutes until impact."
The robotic voice almost sounded sorry as everybody on the descent pod snapped into action, fumbling for parachutes to bail out of the doomed coffin. Dimitri's eyes were ready to pop out of his head because of how wide they were. Ivan had to slap his face and scream something in Russian to make him move. James and Andrew were the first to have their parachutes on and were trying to lever the door open with crowbars. Will was right behind them with another crowbar as Ivan was strapping a parachute to Dimitri, who looked ready to cry a river.
"T minus forty seconds until impact. Altitude: 10 km."
The door exploded off the hinges and flew away into the distance; air was whipping through the empty door frame, sending everything into an uncontrollable flying frenzy.
"Jump!" Yelled Will at the top of his lungs, barely audible against the beating of the wind in everybody's ears. The Americans got the message regardless and jumped out of the module.
"T minus twenty seconds until impact."
That was the last thing Will heard before jumping out of the module after the Americans. Looking back, he saw Ivan throw Dimitri out of the empty door frame before jumping out himself. James and Andrew had deployed their parachutes and were gliding gracefully down to the deep blue ocean below. Will deployed too and imagined that the Russians above him had done the same. He heaved a deep sigh of relief knowing that he would probably be safe now. Looking down, he saw a pulsating glow of gold that beat like a great heart. It warped the light around it, making it seem like the ocean behind it was falling into the pulsating golden ball of light.
And the descent module was heading right for it. It was now spiralling out of control and angrily spitting molten metal behind it, as if feeling betrayed by being abandoned. The sphere of light grew bigger for some reason, as if welcoming the returning module or spitting something out. The tip of a scaly red snout protruded out of the light and was quickly followed by a horned head decorated with evil, interlocking teeth that were angled out of its jaws and easily the size of a human. The monster had emerald green eyes with narrow slit pupils that were aimed directly forward. The scales were perfectly smooth, reflecting the golden light blinding the five men who were descending down from the sky. A snake-like neck followed the head, muscles clearly visible on the milky white underside; it looked like the trunks of great trees bundled together, twitching with raw power. The monster continued to crawl out of the light until its tail finally whipped out, sending a deafening crack through the empty ocean. It opened its jaws wide and sent a roar up into the air, intended for all the world to hear, showing off its teeth and glowing throat, spreading its great wings, and standing tall on its hind legs. Will covered his ears to defend them from the deafening assault; a piercing ringing was left in his ears, and his hands were drenched in a hot liquid that streamed down the sides of his head.
It was at this moment that the descent module slammed into the monster, ramming itself down its throat and passing out the other side as if it hadn't encountered anything at all. It exploded out of the area where the base of the neck met the body and plummeted down to the depths of the ocean, leaving a furious trail of boiling bubbles in its wake. The skull of the monster was left shattered as its eyes widened in surprise, wondering what had just happened in its final moments. Its emerald eyes glazed over and rolled back into what remained of its skull, its lower jaw hung loose, and there was a void at the base of its neck that let broad daylight stream through. Thick rivers of crimson blood flowed freely from the gaping voids in the monstrous form, quickly staining the ocean a deep crimson like a setting sun. After a few moments of perfect stillness, a light sea breeze toppled the giant monster with an explosion of misty water that returned back to the sea as a short, light shower.
The Americans landed on the body of the monstrosity, quickly followed by Will and the Russians. Dimitry immediately ran to the nearest wing and heaved up everything his stomach contained. Even James and Andrew were grimacing at the ugly sight, and Ivan was in complete shock, contrary to what he let on.
It was only half an hour later that the five men were picked up by a Chinese coast guard ship and taken to shore; Dimitri was still heaving his guts out despite having nothing in them anymore. They each had some serious explaining to do.