Flying towards the sky, the pilot pulled out of Earth's atmosphere before engaging the main thrusters and setting course for Jupiter.
Earth was no longer the central hub of human life, but it was never abandoned, as it was now the front-line world from which the Tamarain invasion came in.
Earth was a dangerous place to stay as a no-man's-land. Yet, some people refused to migrate to the new human world.
Jupiter served as an entry point to the new world. They had a secret portal set up in a region of Jupiter that was constantly ravaged by raging sandstorms.
Reaching Jupiter's orbit, Commander Landon had a small thought for his captive and ordered his jailer to open a channel to his cell. Seeing the screen appear on one of his room walls, Henry raised a brow, wondering what his captor wanted now.
"Mister Calvert, I believe you have never left Earth. Am I wrong?"
"That is correct, Commander. Why do you ask?"
"I am not a monster, and I think you should see our new world, even if only this once, with your own eyes."
Turning around, he ordered his comms technician to switch on the front cameras on the ship and display them on the prisoner's screen. What Henry saw next brought tears of joy to his eyes.
Passing through a sandstorm, into a purple-ish portal and back out into space, before him was no longer the enormous rock called Jupiter. He was now in front of a magnificent planet with so many colours on its surface.
The bodies of water were teal-coloured, with dark blue streaks in many places. It looked as though the water itself had veins visible from space.
The land had a beautiful mix of light green, pink and cyan patches all across its surface. It was like paradise seen from above.
"Welcome to Tera Nova, Mr. Calvert. You at least got to get out of that crap hole we used to call home. Many don't get that chance. I hope you enjoy your stay, as short as it will be."
Turning around, Commander Landon nodded at his subordinate and the channel shut down.
"Wait!" Henry yelled, desperate to see more.
But the screen upon the wall was no more.
With tears welling up in his eyes, he felt it had been even crueller for his jailor to show him this splendid world, which he would never get the chance to experience himself.
Now steaming on the inside, Henry sat back down on his bunk bed, planning his escape. He had hope.
The fact he was going to jail and most likely end up executed for crimes he had yet to be charged with slightly dimmed his hope. Henry knew he was innocent, but he had to admit, his story did sound sketchy to anyone hearing it.
He was found on a blasted battlefield with nine Tamarain bodies lying around, unharmed. Even if he told them the truth, they had no reason to believe him.
However, Henry was planning to make a mad run for it as soon as they would take him off the ship. After all, he was no wanted criminal, so he kept the hope that they wouldn't hunt him down so much.
He soon felt the ship shake a little, meaning they landed. Hearing his cell door open, he saw his two goons from earlier step into his room, guns drawn.
"Get up, scumbag. Your death awaits you," Ensign Gamin said.
"Your time is up," Ensign Duncan added.
"Gentlemen. We meet again,'" Henry mocked, a smug smile on his face.
He had planned on these two fools being his guards off the ship. They clearly underestimated him, and he would use that fact to his advantage.
Knocking them out would be easy, and then all he had to do was run for it. Or so he thought.
Finally getting off the ship, he saw a vast building resembling a giant concrete block before him. A well-defended concrete block, he noted as he started counting the many automatic sentry turrets latched on the walls.
This was obviously a maximum security prison. His window of opportunity was getting shorter by the second Henry decided to act.
He started taunting his two guards aggressively.
"You are fools if you think I won't escape this place. Ensign Gamin, right? I bet you I'll be out of here in a week."
Smiling from ear to ear, he watched on as his escort started gritting their teeth.
"Stop talking, prisoner," Ensign Duncan said, clearly more disciplined than his colleague.
"Oh? So you're actually disciplined. That means you're merely a follower in his mischief."
"He said shut up, piece of shit! Unless you want to die now? It would be such a shame if you were to try running, and I'd have to shoot you right here and now," retorted Ensign Gamin.
"HAH! I bet you can't even aim correctly. Otherwise, you wouldn't still be a foot soldier, right? Or are you satisfied with your miserable life as it is?"
Seeing Gamin's eye twitch, he knew he had reached the tipping point. All he needed to do now was push him over the edge.
"You act tough, but I bet I could take both of you down with my bare hands!"
"OKAY, THAT'S ENOUGH!!" Ensign Duncan snapped.
Walking over to Henry, he whacked him in the face with his rifle. He then bent down on the fallen man and un-cuffed him.
"Start running," he said, getting back up and looking at Henry.
"OHH HELL YEAH! We're doing this!" Gamin added excitedly.
He skipped forward to Henry, still on the ground, and kicked him straight to the stomach. Or at least he tried.
As soon as he was close enough to the downed man, his leg got swiped, and he ended up tumbling forward to the ground. After the leg swipe, Henry sprang up fast as lightning and punched at the guard.
*BAM*
Ensign Gamin was instantly knocked out, leaving Henry with just Ensign Duncan to handle.
Grabbing onto the still-falling guard, he charged towards Ensign Duncan, using his buddy as a meat shield. Not wanting to harm his colleague, Ensign Duncan hesitated to fire.
That moment of hesitation caused his demise as Henry lugged his meat shield and dove in to whack him out of his boots. After three consecutive punches to the nose, Ensign Duncan fell unconscious.
Henry quickly got up and bee-lined away, not wanting to stay a moment more in front of that doom box. He ran for about thirty seconds and thought he was out of danger.
Only the second he thought that, Henry heard a booming sound and felt a sharp pain in the back of his head.
The booming sound was actually a sonic boom caused by Commander Landon. The Commander had seen everything happen through his soldier's body cams and had got out of the ship when things went out of hand.
Stepping out of his ship, he saw his escapee running for it a few hundred feet away. He had bent down and leapt at incredible speed, breaking the sound barrier and catching up to his fleeing target in a second.
Landon hit him behind the head to knock him out.
Seeing this from a spectator's point of view, one would immediately understand why Landon was a commander.
His physical strength had long since passed the limit of a simple human. He had been enhanced to fight on equal footing with high-class Tamarain fighters.
Landon was one of the few super soldiers who hadn't gone rogue in Project GoWSS. Seeing how Henry had just outclassed two trained soldiers while clearly being a civilian had him harbouring doubts about his nature.
Deciding to bring him in for interrogation and shine a light on the situation, he lumped Henry's unconscious body on his shoulder and brought him into the prison himself.
Once in the prison, Commander Landon strapped Henry into a containment chair in an interrogation room and went into the next room across a double-sided mirror. He then contacted his superior to get clarification on the present situation.
He wanted an explanation. There shouldn't have been any new super soldiers coming out of Earth.
And yet, there Henry was.