Your name is Sirus. You are 27 year old trucker from Illinois. You've been doing the job for years and are pretty good at it, taking week long trips every month and getting a decent paycheck in return. But none of your formerly average life would matter soon enough.
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Sirus hopped up the steps to his second-floor apartment and unlocked the door, stepping over the threshold and kicking the door shut behind him with the heel of his foot. He flipped the lock shut with his left hand and let his overnight duffel bag slip off of the opposite shoulder. He walked even as it thumped to the floor, pulling off his belt and unbuttoning his pants as he strode to his bedroom, his keys still hanging off of one thumb; he lived alone so modesty wasn't a concern.
Sirus yawned as he opened the door to his bedroom. At this point his pants were completely undone and in some danger of slipping off of his hips, his boxer shorts showing slightly. It was during this moment of vulnerability that he was accosted by a crab-man!
The creature was humanoid. It had a chitinous exoskeleton that was white-orange on the ventral side and transitioned to bright red toward its back. It's head was flat with a pair of protruding eye stalks. It's hands ended in three, ribbed manipulators that didn't look very flexible. It wore a black, heavy, sleeveless vest covered in pockets and his legs were clothed in matching cargo pants. It wasn't wearing shoes. It flung open Sirus' bedroom door and rushed towards him.
"What the hell?!" Sirus screamed. He backpedaled into the hallway as the crab thing rushed forward, it's right arm whipping upwards. It clutched a device; it was oddly-shaped in order to fit into its fist. Sirus slammed into the wall behind him and the crab pressed the gadget against Sirus' forehead, hard.
"Fuck, that hurts!" He tried to squirm out from underneath the device, pulling on the crab's arm with both hands to try and relieve the pressure. The crab cocked it's head. Sirus grit his teeth.
I'll show you, you smug prick.Sirus pulled himself up by the crab's arm and lashed out with both feet, connecting with the crab's chest. The crab grunted and shifted slightly from the blow, which was enough for Sirus to slip away. Sirus ran for the door but the crab was too fast. It seized him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him into a nearby wall. The crab kept the gadget trained on Sirus even as he bounced off the wall and landed hard against the carpeted floor.
"Gah! Shit! What the hell's your problem pal?!" Sirus decided to stay on the floor.
"This is a gun you stupid alien fuck." The crab's synthesized voice bellowed. It had a neutral American accent and sounded masculine. Sirus grimaced and rubbed the growing lump on his forehead.
"Are you going to listen to me or do I have to blow your head off?" He said (Sirus decided it was a 'he'). Sirus sat up calmly and thought.
The crab was probably far too strong to fight one-on-one, not to mention he was armed. Sirus had never had need of a gun but he wished he owned one now. It seemed the only choice was to talk. Sirus forced a smile.
"Whatever you're sellin', it seems I got no choice but to buy." Sirus held up his hands and shrugged. The crab thing lowered it's gun.
"Wise choice, alien." It holstered its pistol, then pulled a small rucksack from it's back and dropped it in Sirus' lap.
"Open it." It crossed its arms. Sirus looked at the crab quizzically while he untied the simple drawstring bag and looked inside.
It was a trucker cap, one adorned with a strange antenna crowned with a yellow foam ball with a placid smiley face on it.
"'The legendary hero will use the Cap of Time to travel back to the past and defeat the Great Evil before it consumes the universe.' That's a legend that I've been taught since I was an adolescent." He shook his head and began to gesticulate.
"The computers told our scientists that you're the legendary hero. Many lives were lost to get me here so that I could give you the sacred Cap. I sacrificed everything. My life, my family, my home-" He had unfastened his vest and the body armor underneath and let it fall to the floor. Sirus' heart turned cold as he saw the scars that covered the crab man's chest. Portions of his flesh had been substituted for robotic replacements.
"-all forfeit. My men, some of them my lifelong friends, gave their lives down to the last to bring this here. They were some of the best truckers I ever knew..." Sirus blinked.
"You're a trucker?"
"Yes. My species is-
Was, a race of truckers." The crab hung his head. Sirus sat, stunned at this strange creature's surprisingly sad story
"Whether it was worth it or not is yet to be determined. Sirus, go back to your '16th century'. Find the one known as 'Xanmyral' and destroy him before he has gained the power to bring darkness unto the space time continuum. You have exactly six 'months' from now to prepare for your journey. The Cap of Time, use it." Sirus looked at the cap, then back to the crab.
"My job is done." The crab man raised his head as he said it, looking Sirus in the eye.
"Goodbye." The crab muttered. Sirus started as he realized something, but it was too late. Then the crab man calmly pulled his gun and pressed it against the underside of his head. Before Sirus could protest the crab man's head disappeared in a flash of blue light, his lifeless body toppling to the floor. Sirus frowned hard at the crab's corpse, blood leaking from it's neck.