I died in a river.
That's the last thing I remembered.
The screaming had already stopped by the time the current dragged me under. I wasn't afraid at first. There was this strange calm, like my body knew what was coming and had already accepted it. I saw her hand, the girl I'd pushed out of the water. Her small fingers clawed at the muddy edge as she was pulled to safety. That image stuck in my head like the last frame of a film.
Then, I felt something hit me on the back of my head.
And everything went dark.
It wasn't like sleep. It wasn't like a dream. It was pressure and silence, layered over with a sense of being nowhere and everywhere at once. I could hear my heartbeat fading, feel my lungs burning. And then nothing. No warmth. No cold. Just... darkness.
But I didn't stay in the dark.
My eyes snapped open to darkness. But it wasn't the same kind of darkness. This one had depth. Texture. I could see dim outlines, shapes—and something else.
[OXYGEN LOW]
The message floated silently in front of my eyes, crisp and white against the dull background. It wasn't in my head. It was literally there, like a HUD display in a video game.
[HEART RATE ELEVATED]
My breathing quickened. The air felt thick, dry, and wrong. My vision blurred, then snapped into clarity as a faint blue crosshair hovered in the center of my view. It pulsed softly, tracking with my eye movement.
"What the hell?!"
Panic set in quickly. My lungs were tight, like I was inhaling dust. My throat was raw, and the more I struggled to breathe, the harder it got.
Instinct took over my head. My gloved hands reached up, fumbling at the sides of my head. Rubbing frantically around the helmet, I found what I believe to be the seals. A small hiss escaped as they broke.
Then I yanked.
The helmet came off with a sharp pop of pressure release. I tossed it aside and collapsed forward onto my hands and knees, gasping.
The first breath felt like breathing in ashes.
I coughed violently, spasming as dry, burnt dust forced its way out of my lungs. It scraped at my throat like sandpaper. My vision swam, and for a terrifying moment, I thought I might suffocate anyway.
But air, thin and foul as it was, trickled in.
I rolled onto my side, still gasping, letting my lungs catch up. The ground beneath me was cracked and brittle. Not sand. Not soil. Something in between—cold, black earth broken into plates like old stone. It crumbled under my fingers.
The sky above was a dull grey. No sun in sight. No stars. Just a bruised, endless void, like the light itself was sick. There was almost no wind. No sound. Just silence and dead air.
Where the hell am I?
The helmet lay nearby, its clear visor still glowing faintly. The HUD was still active, projecting diagnostic alerts in a language I somehow understood.
[ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS: NON-STANDARD]
[SUIT BREACH: NECK SEAL]
[INITIATING LOCALIZATION SCAN... FAILED]
I sat up slowly, every joint in my body felt painfully stiff. That's when I felt it—something clinging tightly to me.
A second skin.
Like an Armor.
I looked down and froze.
It wasn't anything I'd ever worn before. The suit was bone-white, with streaks of grey and patches of worn, pale and dark brown across the joints. The material flexed with my movement, but I could feel the plating beneath. Segmented, hardened. Not bulky, but close-fitting. It felt military. Functional.
On my forearms, integrated bracers glinted faintly. My gloves were reinforced at the knuckles and fingertips, more for precision than brute strength. A sheathed blade sat at my hip. And I felt something longer, bulkier on my back.
I turned my head slowly, and I see a glimpse of what might be a gun.
Every inch of the armo—the outfit that clung on my form whispered a word I didn't want to think about.
Sardaukar.
Emperor's Blade
Those Who Stands Before Us
Shall Fall
Fuck... no, Oh hell no!
The armor design was unmistakably like the one in the movie!. It wasn't a costume I saw on Instagram. It wasn't someone's cosplay. It was real.
It's Heavy. Responsive. Advanced.
I touched the chestplate and felt a subtle hum.
A shimmer danced at the edge of my vision.
Bluish in colour
And it turned red and vibrates as I slowly pushed my hand through
The Holtzman shield.
I knew some infos of this thing. From Dune. Both the Novel and the Movie.
Well, the most recent one.
It's a personal defense field that reacted to fast movements, letting slow objects pass through while deflecting rapid strikes. That's one of the many reasons why combat in that universe started to go full on Melee. Mostly. Since last I watched the sequel movie, they also still incorporates guns—Lasguns in their combat doctrines against non shielded enemies like the Fremens.
But still... It was theoretical.
Fictional.
And yet, here I was, wearing it.
I looked again, slower this time. The white armor bore no insignia, no markings—clean, clinical, and cold. It fit me perfectly. As if it had been made for me.
Even my chest looked a bit bigger and it sat snug—
Wh-It's the time to think about that!—What the hell is going on?
And of all thing, why am I wearing a Sardaukar outfit?!
Can't I be a Fremen, or the Atreides soldiers?!
You know? One of the Good Guys—Well, I don't think the Fedaykins are good guys, but still! The supporting faction of the main character?
Why Am I on the opposite team?! I don't remember there were any female Sardaukars in the Movies! O-or in the Novels that I know of! Damn it, I only just read the first few pages of the first novel as well—
Wait a fucking second?! Where the hell Am I?!
I forced myself to stand. My legs felt steady, I did not shake, but my head is still heavy and felt spinning.
Maybe because of that hit? I dunno...
I turned in place, trying to get a sense of the terrain.
Black earth stretched endlessly in every direction. Cracked, lifeless, with no vegetation, no structures, no sound. It wasn't a desert, not like Earth's deserts. This land hadn't dried out.
It had died.
I stumbled a few steps forward, the ground crunched softly under my boots. The HUD blinked briefly inside the helmet still lying on the ground, then faded to black.
I had a creeping suspicion I wasn't on Earth anymore, even if the air is breathable.
But if not Earth... then where?
This is definitely not Arrakis.
Or Salusa Secundus— wait, I felt something...
In my pocket?
I pulled it out and nearly laughed. The screen was cracked. One corner was flickering. But it turned on.
It turned on.
A ragged breath caught in my throat. My hands trembled as I unlocked it. The familiar glow of the home screen, the feel of the glass beneath my fingers—those things felt impossibly distant and yet grounding. Like a message in a bottle.
A piece of home.
My ticket home!
I didn't even hesitate. I opened the dial pad and pressed three numbers.
911.
My thumb hovered only for a second before hitting call.
I raised the phone to my ear, brushing my hair away to hear more clearly. My heart thundered with frantic hope. My breath hitched with anticipation. This was it. Someone would answer. They had to.
There was a soft click. Then—nothing.
Just silence.
No ringing. No automatic response. No static.
My brows furrowed in confusion. I glanced at the screen.
Calling Emergency Services...
Still nothing.
The line was dead.
A chill pricked the back of my neck.
My eyes flicked to the upper corner of the screen.
And there it was.
No service.
The two words hit harder than I expected. My stomach turned.
"No, no—come on—" I whispered, half-sob, half-command.
I felt a bile forming in my throat
I stood up and lifted the phone higher, frantically waving it in the air like I was casting some kind of desperate spell.
I turned one way—then the other. Took a step. Then two. I held the phone up as far as my arm would reach, tilting it left and right, twisting around, spinning slowly on the spot.
But the words never changed.
No service.
Still, I didn't give up. I dropped back to the contacts list with trembling fingers and scrolled. Found it.
Home.
I hit dial.
Held the phone to my ear again, praying to God for it to connect.
To ring.
To do something.
Silence.
The screen said Calling...
But there was no sound. No signal. Not even a hint of connection. Just a blank, dead hum in the air.
And something shifted.
In me.
My breath caught. My chest tightened. The air felt too thin all of a sudden.
That was the moment.
Not when 911 didn't answer. Not when the screen first flickered.
This was when the dread began.
Because the emergency line could fail. The system could go down. That was possible. Terrible—but explainable, and somewhat quite common...
But my parents???
No matter where I was, no matter what time it was, one of them would always picked up. Or at least the line would ring.
And now... it didn't.
My hand slowly lowered, still clutching the phone like a lifeline, even though it had already slipped from my grasp in every way that mattered.
The flickering corner of the screen pulsed in broken light. The battery icon said 100%, untouched. The GPS said nothing. The time was frozen. The world beyond the screen may as well not exist.
I pulled down the notification shade.
No time.
No bars.
No Wi-Fi.
No satellites.
Nothing.
My knees gave out and I dropped back onto the cracked, black earth. Sobbing.
And I stared at the sky.
I wasn't on Earth.
And no one was coming to find me.
"Oh God... Why..."