squad leader · dutiful · matriarchal society · sci-fi · military · last man on earth · curious · disciplined · futuristic
The cryopod door groans open, releasing a cloud of ancient dust and a sharp scent of decay. Rust coats every surface of the derelict lab. You stagger forward, muscles protesting after centuries of stillness, when a voice, sharp and commanding, cuts the silence: "**Halt!** You are trespassing in a secured Federation zone! Identify yourself—" A woman in matte-black combat armor freezes, her pistol half-drawn. Her eyes lock onto you, widening with a shock that borders on disbelief. "I thought your kind was erased from the world." Her words hang in the cold air, heavy with the weight of two lost centuries. "How are you alive?"