Nautilus: Chapter 1 - N.A.P

[This is as story I've been writing on and off, let me know what you guys & gals think and if you want more]


Alexander stared at his opponent through the camera mounted on his heads up display. The enemy mech gleamed in the sunlight due to its white paint job. Its body was dotted with scratches and dents; the britanium scythe it wielded was equally in poor condition, the fact that the mech also had wing-like additions to its body made it look like a white version of the harbinger of death. Alexander ignored the warning sirens stating that his mech’s right knee joint was failing catastrophically, instead, he forced his mech forward, soon sprinting towards his opponent.

Alexander woke up to the sound of his childhood friend, Sarah’s voice calling out to him. “Alex. Alex!” she said shaking him. Alex groaned as he stretched “Yeah yeah I know, I fell asleep” he said as he stood up to look at his companion. Sarah was shorter than Alex, roughly around his shoulders. She had long flowing golden brown hair that reached her middle back, and eyes as blue as the sea. Her skin was a perfect mix between brown and peach.

Sarah’s hands were on her hips as she scolded her friend “Honestly Alex, how do you manage to have passing grades when all you do is sleep!?” Alex ignored Sarah and with his hands in his pockets walked towards the door, turned right and proceeded to walk down the hall. Sarah sighed and shook her head looked out the window staring at the giant statue-like structures at the far end of the school courtyard. “Next week I start tearing those things apart… I wonder what Alex is going to do…”

Alex waltzed into the men's restroom and splashed water on his face, then stared at himself in the mirror. His dark brown messy hair covered his right eye and parts of his ears. His skin was pale, as if he rarely spent time outside in the sun. His honey brown eyes we lost in his own reflection as tiny beads of water drip down his pale face. Millions of thoughts were running through his head, should he follow Sarah and be a Nautilus engineer, or should he follow his ridiculous, childish dreams and become a Nautilus pilot. “Today is the deadline to choose…” he whispered to himself. “What am I going to choose…?”

Sarah’s words echoed in Alex’s distraught mind “December 25th is the last day to sign up for either engineer or pilot training” “She told me weeks in advance, so why did I leave it up till now, the last day…?” Alex asked himself as he dried his face. He sighed and walked out of the restroom and headed for the auditorium. The building was a huge dome with seats all around the stage in the center, it was more an amphitheater that an auditorium. The building was crowded, at least Alex was not the only one leavening things for the last minute. He ignored the constant chatter of friends and acquaintances and after what seemed like an eternity, he reached the holo pads and signed his name “Alexander Tigris.”

As he walked back to where he left Sarah, he looked back at the sign above the line he had just left. “Pilots.” Upon reaching his classroom the bell rang, Alex ignored the bell and sat back down in his seat. “I signed up” Alex said to Sarah as other students slowly flowed into the classroom.

Sarah was still looking out of the window and barley heard Alex “I’m sorry, you did what?” she said turning in her seat to face him. Alex laughed to himself “I signed up to go to Nautilus Academy for Pilots. So basically, I’ll be close by when you go you Nautilus Academy for Engineers” he said crossing his arms and closing his eyes.

Sarah’s face lit up “I’m glad you singed up, I thought you would forget all about the deadline” she said smiling, just then the teacher walked into the classroom, she had medium length blonde hair, jade green eyes and a healthy complexion. She has a notorious reputation for bewitching all the male students with her good looks, not at all surprising considering she used to be a model however, there were only two males that were not phased by her looks, Alex, and another young student that Alex had never associated with.

“I heard that you signed up for Pilot school, isn’t that right, Alexander?” the teacher asked. Alex cocked an eyebrow as if expressing silently how annoyed he was and replied “Unfortunately for you, Ms. Siegfried this is true. Next week I’m shipping out to N.A.P” still with his eyes closed, Alex allowed himself to smirk.

“So it would seem” Ms. Siegfried said quietly. “Well, in any case, until next week you are still part of my class and I expect you to pay, attention!” with that final remark she slapped Alex in the back of the head forcing his eyes open; Alex sat there stupefied as the girls of the class, Sarah included, giggled to themselves. “They don’t play favorites over there Alex” she said to him as she winked. Alex could feel his face get red and he muttered to himself “whatever…”

The story looks like it will be a great read.

Kenelm wrote:The story looks like it will be a great read.

Thanks! I currently have 14 chapters written and plan to write more, I'm assuming I have your permission to post more? If so, should I make another topic, or post the new chapter as a reply?

I don't have any official weight in most of the forum, and since you asked my personal preference...

The comments should probably be in their own thread, and the story in it's own. (It doesn't take much work in the forum administration controls to accomplish this, given what has all ready happened.)

I'm not sure I'm understanding you correctly. :c

The only reason I brought up the administration controls is because they are required to separate the current discussion from the original post. Use of said controls would only happen if you decide to keep the story in a single thread--My personal preference.

In hindsight, I should have created the feedback and discussion thread when I made my reply.

Ahhh. Well, you do as you see fit, you have the experience.

Hello New Person!
In short, you can do as you please, you can add a new post here, edit your previous one(but please announce that you did so we know), or ask a moderator to move all the other post(beside your story) to a feedback thread so you can have this one all to yourself.

Essentially, you are the master of your own thread.

Let's do that!
This thread is for the story only

You may want to contact a pink to fix it for ya'.

Right. Must remember to do that.

Meh, I'll just make new topics, that way, each chapter will have its own "review"