JourneyA Story by AmateurGuyWithAPen This is the story that started my "journey" (haha) with Niara, Drao, Trevor, Bisvon, and Livo. this is just here for reference Journey-___.
He sits in the cockpit, slumping deeper into his seat, his space biker suit rustles on the faux, orange leather. His suit was painted, decaled, and reinforced with a hard black and red jacket, over a purple, azul, and black under vest. Masayoshi Takanaka’s Brasilian Skies is playing in the background. Stars, the blackness drift passed as he gazes through the teal tint of the canopy. His eyes landing forward, his ship's front nose coated in stark whites, banana yellows, and rich azure shine under the subtle yet sure flares of the suns way, way yonder. He scans back, a dark blue purviews the rear, as a monochrome, steely silver tint rolls across the forward swept wings. A soda can is holstered onto his chair. He yanks it and chugs it. “Trevor, our battery is getting low.” His eyes glances up to see the hud; six percent leaks off the screen His voice is like a cello, deep, soft: “Oh?” before the tone sharpens in pitch, “oh. Sonuva.” He flips his back over the console, scrunched over at the map for any sort of thing nearby. The image then expands, blooms outwarding from the hud provided, where several red dotted lines hook onto Trevor’s visualized ship. “Primarily, we’ve got a maintenance shop and a galvo convenience store, which are both approximately 300, 600 miles (482, 965 meters) away respectively.” “Wait, but we, or I guess I don’t need stuff at the minute?” “Just thought it would be smart to collect some things in case.” “Mm, fair enough. “The other though is quite the locale. According to the site, it’s ‘the iconic Ni & Rahun’s Saloon, the one that stars in all your favorite Dreamsy Schwarmav films, with Red Scar, Red Scar 2, Red Scar 3, Red Scar: the fourth one, Sed Rcar, the Shameless Ripoff, Buggers the Wilkthor, Shrimp Salagavar the Coward! War Stars, Blancacasa. It is the cantina to rule them all!’ Have you heard of any of these?” Trevor stares at the speaker where the AI spoke with a longing confusion. A cough could be heard in space somehow. “I see.” Trevor lasers his gaze deep into space, the stare intense enough to cut worlds in half. “Hm. Tourist trap, or a normal resupply. Hmmmm.” -- -- Trevor slurps an overpriced cocktail from an extremely ornate glass, while sitting in a beach chair. His suit’s off, hawaiian shirt and get up on, his helmet replaced with shades made from the glass of his visor. “Man, this is… not really worth the money, but you know what, this drink isn’t actually that bad. Never knew Choar fruit could work with berries, peaches, and tangpea tea like that.” He looks up. A yellow sun, not too dissimilar to the one from earth stares down at a neat, blue skied beach like resort, with folk of all species enjoying themselves. Some of them were surfing, some of them were making sand castles, some of them were bathing in the sun, some humans were teaching a few aliens how to play volleyball, while the aliens were teaching the humans some of their beach sports. Another loud slurp percusses the air. A live band plays to the right of him, people dance along to the beat. He notices one of the members, a crustaceous species was playing a seeming solo with claw fingers, while on the left, a human was beating all of the other species at a pull up contest. Trev giggles, “Wow, that is impressive. To the both of them. Yo, I am so curious though, that must’ve taken years for that to learn and work.” Meanwhile the name: “Ali!” was getting louder and louder each second, as the man continued to pull harder and harder. “And that’s 200 pull ups. And my muscles hurt like s**t.” he forces a smile for the audience around him, before he winces fully. “No fair, don’t you guys get like, military grade steroids and like enhancements and s**t” an alien, cuttlefish octopus like creature replies, “Yeah, and what do your supplements contain again?” a moose, elk, bear jeers “Well, shut first off, those are natural steroids, and besides those are of recommended dosage, these guys are entirely off of, whatever dosage.” The woman the alien was speaking to just sounded confused: “I dunno? How am I supposed to know? I’m just a part of their services.” The alien pouts. “Anyway, before you flex your f****n pharmacist-ness on me.” Another woman responds along side the other “I don’t remember exactly, but the infantry uses a lot of SUPPLAID for the major strength enhancement.” “Hah, and guess what it says on the box!” Somehow, the alien manages to pull the whole bottle out of her pocket, and points to the label. “I hate you.” “Although to be fair, the type of octa is a significantly stronger variant of the original.” “Hah, see, told you.” “Tsk. I hate you now.” Trevor shakes his head as he goes back to admiring the view on his beach chair, dipping his drink below a spigot, and his toes in the water.
-- -- “Reserve battery has been fueled to 75%” Trevor does an ok gesture to the speaker, before he waits, finishing the fattest, sloppiest, greasiest, but also the most satisfyingly juicy and meaty burger anyone could ever see or taste. “Christ, that’s definitely giving me a couple hundred pounds tomorrow. Oh man, I should’ve gotten a sponge from the shop there or something” “Holy s**t.” Trevor heard the speech directed in his direction, and checks behind. Three soldiers in near full armor approach him, helmets off. Their bodies and silhouettes were abrasively intimidating. Aggressive, focused, and sharp was their armor. Even their demonic helmets, of a combination gasmask, german style war helmets, and a set of eight glowing orange eyes, burned their presence through the dark void of space. Each of their shoulders rests an icon of a Spartan, yet they were all as relaxed as they were from the beach. “A factionless human. Now that’s the sight of a lifetime.” Trevor’s helmet somehow raises an eyebrow. “What, did you not see the other humans in there.” “I mean sure, but who knows where they’re from, Titan faction or not. Still, it’s quite the sight to see a human be so natural with other sapiens.” “Yeah, well take it in, because I got places to be, and time that’s flying.” “Well.” the grunt sighs, leaning over to a colleague. “Are we really doing this?” they whisper. “I mean, it is a bonus. If you want.” the other grunt. “Look, I’m not joining your stupid f****n boy scout club, or whatever the f**k.” “We’re just saying it’s a great opportunity. Look, you get to travel the universe!” “Yeah…” Trevor looks down at his ship. “Like I can’t do that already.” “Nice V.” “Man, shut. I’m trying my best alright.” “Look, okay I admit what I said earlier was rude, but like, my parents and family spent years trying to get away from this stupid nonsense that the human campaign is, and I’m not about to f*****g invalidate their entire life’s work.” His own words halt his actions and movements. He hesitates to even finish what he’s doing. “Yeah. Not after… what I’ve done.” The soldier responds. “Okay, well we’re absolutely not the Fenrir or the Seraphim-” “Oh yeah, like the wars you wager and the lands you have rampaged is all just fake news.” “Wars? What war? We haven’t had a major war in years.” “Yuh, huh, like your armor is just cosplay, or f*****g show and tell or some s**t” The soldier stares at the, frankly, terrifying designs of their armor before slumping their back forward with a face that says, “I get your point.” Another soldier picks up with: “I mean, it might as well be. We literally stand around all day and guard positions, while others just do chores. So yeah honestly we just look like this for looks.” Trevor squints at them in a very unamused way. “Really?” “Seriously! That’s like literally all we do, we stand around to look all tough while the others do chores.” Trevor expresses the facial equivalent of the phrase “...” He continues, “Well! You are quite fantastic at convincing me to join, so much so that I’ve take it upon myself to just.” he presses a button, that lowers and vacuum seals the glass canopy with a satisfying sizzle. The vehicle starts to hum, before it crescendoes to a powerful whine with an aggressive clicking bassy purr that rips underneath, then a high pitched snare, then a roar, then a violently raw, yet elegant, symphonic chord of an almost beastly quality, that then finishes with a howling boom that shatters the sound barrier. The soldiers glances at each other, with their bones still rattling and quivering from Trevor’s ship. One of them hisses and sighs. “That was sick though.” “Yeah it was.” -- -- -- Hawaiian palm-like trees shuffle like flags in the wind, buzzing by as the teal glass spies their red leaves.Before the view is interrupted by a tower, and a few white walls.Trevor’s vehicle splits in two, as the cockpit section latching off. Remnants of the lock on the engine section merge together to become an optic, while the pilot section transforms, deploys and pummels the concrete with its powerful engines.“So that was something.” His assistant shakes Trevor with just her voice. “Jeez, Alphas, you scared me.” He leans his head on an arm rest, grinding his elbow. “I mean, yeah. It was.” he continues “I apologize for the scare.” “No, it’s fine, just, yeah. I let my guard down really easily so. Anyway, what were they there for anyway?” “I don’t know, something about grabbing power from another world called ‘Jolted Glaciers’ and they wanted to reward the crew by having fun at that joint.” “I mean that’s quite the vacation spot, not gonna lie. Might go back there.” he taps a few things on the dashboard of his vehicle, before Alphas cuts in with: “Already did it. You’re too slow!” “Nah, no fair. You’ve got access to my systems man. I’ve got only fingers here.” “Hah. Hey, there’s an update for NAVos.” “Another one? Another one, I thought they said the last few were the last ones.” “Apparently the last update to software’s optimization was a little funky, so they’re sending out patches out to clean things up, or that’s what the news says.” “Yeah, but for every f*****g minute of the day? Like, yesterday I applied that update, and still things are not working? “Although, to be square, you were the one who wanted the updates.” “Yeah but not every five minutes! Anyway.” A boring rest of silence wavers through the cabin. “Well son of a b***h.” “What is it?” “Probably not.” “Well, I mean in general. Like, could you doublecheck updates to the torch engines optimization electronics?” “Uhh, sure, but there’s probably not going to be anything. And I was right, no updates.” “But imagine if there were, and there were some new overhaul on them.” “I’d imagine it. It probably would do something, but doubt it would be anything to be concerned about.” Trevor goes to speak before stopping. “Wait, actually you’re right. Yeah cuz there are a bunch of vehicles that use the same optimizer. It would just destroy the marketbase. Although, eh, I mean I guess it could use a few more engine stuff. Heh. it’s actually crazy though. Can’t believe how much my good ol caliber class has changed into, whatever it is now” “Actually, I would classify it among the smaller range of the Shuttle Class of ships.” “Really? Sheesh, I guess I fattened my ship a lot more than I thought. Seriously though, actually it could use a power conservation upgrade. What do you think?” “Hmm? I’d say it is decent, about a 59% efficiency, it could be better, but it’s not a terrible statistic if I were to estimate.” Her tone of voice seizes up, converting to a passive, cooler tone. “You are reaching, you have passed your destination.” Trevor looks behind him to see an old, crusty building on the ground, with a glowing sign stating, “JOB CENTER.” “Reverse by three meters, and the destination should be to your right.” Alphas replies, “Thanks Alph.” Trevor replies, weighed down by Alphas’ response.
-- -- He enters a bank’s back doors, seeing a rather lush lounge area, coated in a full white and tan color scheme. There were also four people in the same room: A reptile mantis-like creature, a Hyena Okapi chimera, a Walrus with iridescent scales, and an avian creature, wearing a deer skull. Trevor glances at the skull. The avian staring deep at him, their arms crossed. “It's part of Corvantharan culture.” “Huh? Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t-`` “It’s fine. Most people haven’t seen our skulls before, so it’s understandable.” “What? Why?” Trevor asks, “I don’t know. People seem to have too busy to care to remember where we’ve been. Augh, ok, basically, we have to don the skulls of our hunting animals, --or, our guardians so to speak-- in order to prove that we are no longer children.” ”I see. So, do you ever take it off?” “It used to be that we had to keep it on at all times, or that’s not really true, we just had to keep it on us somehow, or if that wasn’t possible, we’d put it on in the most spiritual times of year, but nowadays, it’s more of a choice. I guess we wear it whenever we want.” “And when is that?” ”Usually, it’s a prayer for night protection: I choose to wear it.” Trevor nods his head as the mantis creature bumps next to him, “A Homapian person, I can’t believe my eyes.” “You're a Komodean.” Trevor sighs, “You know, we do have a legitimate name, like you do. It's not just the amalgamation of our biological relatives.” “I apologize, it is just a rare sight to see a human in these sorts of places, especially in a place like this, with all their political businesses.” he scratches the back of his head in a cute, apologetic style. “Oh, no, it’s no problem at all then. I didn’t expect you to react so friendly, that’s all.” Trevor questions. “You say that being a member of humanity is a bad thing. I think your culture is really intriguing. I’ve never seen a species turn down The Consociates’ and their offers like that, especially in such spiteful fashion.” “Well, I think it’s f****n stupid, so. And didn’t they, uhh, ‘offer’ them to get out of their sight after the United Representatives of Humanity’s Cultures or whatever, just f****n rioted and whined to them about them not listening?” “Uhh, I mean, sort of. The whole conflict was quite a bit more complicated than that. Mm, it is not like they whined to them, it was more like the Consociates were tired of them asking and asking for their freedom, so much so they just wanted them to stop talking… okay I see what you mean.” A loud shatter grazes through the room, the four whelp. Trevor sighs and grabs a mop before the Komodean pauses his movements. They look outside to see three men enter the room, all of them aiming their weapons at people. “I’ve got this.” Trevor whispers before he slants a door ajar. “Wait, what? Where are you going?” the komodean asks, “Just, be ready to fire if things get worse.” “No no no, bad idea. Let security handle it.” The Komo turns and observes the security office window, seeing a blatant blood spot and some gib dropping to the floor making an audible plap after. “Are you kidding me?” The Komo reaches his hand out to say something, before the Corvo stops him Trevor spies above the wall before readying an old, rusty semi-automatic handgun, colored in a disgusting green, red, blue, orange camo color. He reads the ammo amount on an LCD screen on its side. He shrugs, bowing and shaking his head, “Why do you have that?” “I don’t know, we’re here for a banking job right? Besides, my force projectors aren’t great at conserving power-” “Wait, force projectors? What, then use those!” “I can’t, I can’t risk collateral!” The Komodean stares confused before shaking his head. “Freeze and nobody moves!” the criminals’ voices shockwaves through the room. Everybody raises their hands in the air while the employees in the back get lower. “And unless you want your heads blown off, I suggest you stay frozen!” He takes his shotgun and points it at all of the guests waiting, almost conducting their screams. “Well, we can’t stay here forever, we have to move.” The Corvantharan continues “Nobody moves, got it!” the Goon yells louder. Trevor’s vision goes black to reveal a simplified xray version of the bank, with about sixteen emerald spots and three red, with three purple contours for weapons. The vision returns to the bank’s luxury sand color scheme, and brings out his hand. A halo of blue pulls and pushes his hand like the gentle strokes of water in a pool. Trevor closes his fists. “Okay, we provide a distraction-” the Komodean says “And you close the gap. Got it?” The Corvantharan says Trevor flinches when he hears the twos’ voice, before nodding in response. The robbers yell at the employees. “Don’t dare f*****g gasp, now slowly release the bolt and, good! Now take all that money and--” There was a loud bang and the rest of the crowd ducks. “Who the f**k did that!” He points his shotgun towards the customers and the employees alike, screams and yowls crescendo as the barrels point at them. Trevor sneaks behind the three men and snaps his palm towards the ground, twirling the mens’ backs to the ground, their weapons scuttle away from them. The Komodean leans around a column, seeing Trevor lift the rest of the mens’ weapons before having them clatter on the ground in behind of Trevor. The Komodean approaches, remarking: “Wow.” “Yea, these things are great man.” Trevor admits. “How did you integrate those?” “I don’t know, some f*****g black magic. Alphas taught me the physics on how to make a circuit system that would work with these things. To be honest, I really don’t know how I got these things to work.” Trevor takes a peek at his battery, seeing that his power had dropped from 100 to 74 in a poof. “Oh, and that these things are power hungry. Like I said.” -- --
The three robbers are escorted into a police vehicle. “Why do I have a gun. Have I become that terrible?” “Trevor, you know you grabbed that for self defense. You’re not any worse for wanting to keep yourself safe.” “Yeah but it kills people!” “And so do many other weapons.” “Not really, electrolasers can stun, hell, I can buy bullets that can K.O. too! So why did I grab this?” “Because you needed something to protect yourself, and that was the easiest thing to get. Also, those stun rounds cost a much more than traditional rounds to.” “Yeah, but I still should’ve tried to find something else. So why didn’t I?” A silence brews, the sounds of emergency vehicle shrinking whilst the sounds of the parking lot got more prominent. His sights rest on the blaring, but fading lights of the emergency vehicle. “Trevor, you never failed them.” “What do you mean? F*****g. First my friends. Then my dad… now my mom and everyone else I’ve known. I’m a complete f*****g-” He cuts himself. “Except I was. Had I just been a teensy bit earlier. If I hadn’t been a complete actual goddamn waste… Dad. And now I’ve got nothing.” The emergency lights were now only small dots in the distance. Trevor’s eyes and body were now distant; they could feel their body rubbing against the ground that they were sitting on, but also feel nothing close to it. Like they were both present and not present at the same time, their consciousness only floating seemingly. “And now I failed them. I had to lie, and cheat… carry a gun, take lives, just so I can f*****g live. And I still do now. I failed them. My parents, my friends, my professor. I could’ve, I should’ve been there earlier.” He stares at the scuffed and scummy asphalt. “You don’t deserve anything that has happened as of late. In fact, I think you’re doing amazingly for what has happened.” “I…” Trevor continues to sit, watching the road in front of him, kicking a small pebble across the seemingly infinite pavement. “Thank you. Thank you, Alphas.” another minute passes of him staring at the road, his knee now kicking up and down. “Really. I’m sorry that i’m putting you through this. I understand that you do care, and I really do thank you for it, I just.” Another minute passes. He sighs, like dropping a thundering billow of air from his lungs. Suddenly, but also as casually as it could, the Skyhawk sails, a piece of plywood drifts on water, up next to his side. He looks and sees, as his panic just scrapes the top of the kettle, before it ever so quickly whistles, droops and settles back to zero. He facepalms, pistoning all of the air in his lungs right back out of his nose. “I literally programmed it to do that, why the f**k did that nearly freak me out?” he mutters as he stands up. “What now from here?” Alphas mics in while Trevor enters the vehicle. “I dunno? Find another job? I don’t know what else could be out there.”
-- -- Trevor hears an ensuing conversation in the background. There were two people hunched over on a bench table. One large woman and another, an androgynous person. However, the girl had a very masculine tone. She sighs, “Do we have any idea what we’re doing? With our current data of the Omniscient?” “Nope, not really.” He pauses his gait while dislodging his train of thought right off its rails, and looks at them, Omniscient? Like all knowing? “Seemingly a plant species according to Hodgepodge.” His eyelids furl together. “Hang on.” Trevor walks to the two aliens speaking, “Sorry to butt in, but.” The height of his action spiked way too high, way too fast. Something in Trevor jumps a little, noticing the height of the woman in front of him. He snatches a thought from thin air. The woman states, “Huh?” “Sorry, umm, may I ask about this all knowing plant species?” The two of them look at him with a small shock painted on their face. “Uh. Why?” they ask “I overheard your conversation. Uh, My sylph says that it was some sort of plant. I'm just a l-little curious. That’s it.” “A syl- you have a Sylph? I don’t believe that for a bit.” the large woman replies “Trevor acquired me from the scrapyard. Literally, I have the log.” Alphas interjects The two of them mouths gape a little, before the woman says, “Okay, well even with your Sylph, that doesn’t necessarily qualify you for any position in our fields right now, and besides, do even you have know any sort of basic knowledge on plant biology, or-`` The genderless person grabs and shakes the rest of the sentence right out of her, “What are you doing!” She urges out, before recollecting “Okay, if you really want to help, then consider this your interview. What can you do without your Sylph.” He says, “Um. I made my own ship, and suit. I also have installed entity scanners to tell me what species I’m looking at. I don’t know. I just heard all knowing plant and I got really excited.” “Great.” They say, “Do you have any experience in finding plants, or dealing with plants, anything … Wait, you made your own ship and suit?” “Well, I technically learned most of the chemistry and physics for that from my Sylph, and textbooks and online resources. Um. I only designed and engineered it. Most of the work that went into finalizing the creation was Alphas, my Sylph’s help.” Alphas cuts through, “What? That’s a lie, the only thing I contributed was in teaching and assisting him over testing--” They mock “meh meh meh, you looked at some books that some pretentious shut in made in his basement that somehow taught you how to make an entire pod and ship from it! Bixvah, are you hearing this?” Bixvah says, “What? Oh no. He could be lying to cover up the fact he knows nothing about the Omniscient other than its name, and you can’t expect me to believe that he really made his own ship on the fly like that, you gotta give me proof. Also, why are you so quick to” They grab her again. “Girl. We are low on staff. May I remind you how many people are currently employed in our department. That’s right. Us. And you already know how bloody, excruciatingly difficult it is to just get a simple, basic leaf sample.” Bixvah sighs, “Okay, I get your point. This is a little desperate, though, just saying. But okay, if you say so, they’re in.” “Wait what, it was that easy?” Trevor says in reply, Bixvah says, “Yep.” “This would be a major red flag in any other professional circumstance, but in this case, we really are desperate… even more so than others, whatever.” Livo says “Okay, so to get you started, here’s what you need to know: This species that we’re tracking is one of the most intelligent lifeforms in this galaxy, and that’s no small feat. Through long years of careful evolution and learning, it has avoided contact with any other ‘intelligent’ or sapienic species. That was, until people started looking, throwing it into several galactic skirmishes that eventually led to its severe decline in its existence. So when you commit to this, you’re actually committing to it. Otherwise, tsk, you’re out.” “Wait I thought you didn’t have any records or information?” Bix replies “This is stuff we know already. Previous documents from employees date way yonder than when we got moved to this department.” Trevor thinks, am I really sure about this? What if I fail? I mean, to know and have a purpose again? This plant. Maybe it could give me that I need. Maybe I can get advice from it? I mean, only one way to know. “I’m in.” “Alright, you sure?” “I am certain. You said it’s going to take time to find this plant?” Trevor asks. “Yea.” “It will be easier now that we have you on our team. So, we should probably properly introduce ourselves.” The androgynous being says, as they both reveal their forms. “My name is Livo Vinci,” said the genderless, tender figure, “and this is Bixvah,” the sorta chubby, sorta stocky, all huge woman shaking Trevor’s hand, “As you may have heard from earlier.” Bixvah replies, “And I am sorry for my rudeness.” “That’s no problem. So, are you two botanists or-” Livo responds, “We are biologists, but we both got transferred to this department, studying for a much wider range of work.” “Like what?” Livo sighs, “Ready for a lecture?” “Oh.” “Yep. Long and short is that we like plants and animals, but the Omniscient right now, is our real goal currently.” “Oh. Wait, so there is no one else in your field?” Livo and Bixvah say simultaneously: “Yep.” “Solaris apparently thinks we’re just trailblazing a ‘dead end.’” Bixvah scoffs, “Anyway, why don’t we get you settled first, and we’ll sprinkle more details on the way.” Trevor nods.
Home“Welcome to The Monarch!” Bixvah yells to Trevor before he enters his quaint cabin. He looks around. There was a double bed with a desk across from it, a window looking right into space with a cozy cabin aura, candling the room with fireplace colored lights. “Nice.” “Yeah, this ship is quite the vessel, I can give you a tour.” Bixvah replies Trevor goes to take off his helmet. “How is this place’s oxygen?” He asks “Oh, don’t worry. After all, this is a scientific research vessel.” Trevor’s helmet cracks open to reveal Trevor's head and face before the suit itself disintegrates. “How do I look?” Trevor looks like he just went to the gym and fell into a rainy ditch, with a sweaty, splotchy tank top, scraggly hair, and a futuristic bracelet strapped to his arm. “Stunning.” Bixvah reacts. “So what’s up with the Omniscient?” “Right, so many, many years ago, we found this species of plant randomly and took it home to research it, in which we learned of its groundbreaking intelligence and sapience, and self awareness, all that jazz. It wouldn’t be long before other people, specifically those with power, would take notice and start rallies to kill these species, guessing from fear. From the research we have, they’re relatively docile.” “Oh. Are there any left?” Bixvah glimpses at a painting on the wall, “That’s what we’re trying to find out.” Trevor looks at his lap. “Okay, now for me to ask a question. Why did you join us?” “I don’t know… just, I wanted to do something for once.” "I mean, I heard how you took down three guys in one stroke, I think that's much more exciting than what we do." Bixvah asks. Trevor replies, "I mean, I quit my job recently." "Why?" "I don’t know. Personal reasons. I mean, yea.” "Telemarketer." “That doesn’t sound that bad.” “You have no idea, have you heard of Mimasa?” “The app? Oh yeah, one coworker downloaded it, and it installed malware on their phone, right Livo?” “Yep!” Livo yelps in reply, passing by Trevor’s dorm. “You worked for them?” Bixvah returns to the conversation, “Yeah. I hated every f*****g second.” "Mm." Trevor sinks further into his bed. “Least I have a job now.” "But, didn't you just get paid?" "Temporary assistant position for The Mui Szu financial company. It was temporary." "Why is it temporary, you did well on the first night." "It’s because of the bonus I did well.” Trevor says, “Oh. I see.” “Yeah.” Bixvah sighs. “Well you have a job now. So, it’s better than nothing right?” “It is. Look, is there anything else I can do?” Bixvah tilts her head, her gaze resting towards the ceiling, a finger under her chin, “What else to say about The Omniscient. Mmm, we did say that there is a salt grain of a chance that there is a fully alive species out there. it’s just… yea. Some of the samples are stuck in Human Campaign territory, and some of them are just, in the ground. Though there is one on that one planet, I'd rather get confirmation.” “Wait, human campaign?” “Yeah. Hopefully, we won’t need to do that, but yeah, unfortunately some of them are located in some high profile governments.” Trevor is staring at the floor. “Yeah. We should’ve mentioned that.” Bixvah punches the air Silence. “Know what. Do you want to do this still? Trev?” Trevor continues to stare for what felt like centuries, before finally meeting gazes with Bixvah. “Okay. Okay, we can do that.” she takes another glimpse at the painting before nodding. “Kay, then it’s settled, stay or chill out for now while we figure something out.” Trevor flashes an ok sign before the door closes.
-- -- Trevor walks into the main lobby and into a frosted orange glass elevator. Buttons burn a refined wood color into the elevator, with three panels stating: “Primary Engine/Captain’s Office, Quarters, Science/Research, Auxiliary Engine/Ship Hangar Bay.” He chooses the bottom one where it blinks green and the elevator shuttles below. The color scintillates like it is a chameleon, the room shifting scales into a cold, sterile capsule, when it taps the bottom. The doors open to show off that the bay was cavernous, a bridge lives on the top, with several elevators and pillars standing in intervals of seven meters (22 feet). Dominoes in a row, the view as Trevor looks down is mesmerizing: thin, tall glass boxes arranged in segments, like the legs of a centipede that lean in and out. Trevor glares ahead, space flows to and fro across the ship. Trevor passes several pillars and a part of the floor sinks in, He looked down to see a hallway that had an opening to the right. “I can’t get over how cool this is.” He admits He walks down for his perspective to turn on a vertical axis, vertigo flipping the world onto its back. A right turn, and his ship lies dormant, with multiple tools and devices scattered throughout. “Alright, let’s get to work.” He taps his wrist to project a display of diagnostics. “All clear, that’s what I like to see.” He looks up, to see the ceiling of the docking center; he was an ant in an ant farm. “Right.” Trevor picks up his tools. A few moments later and a door creaks open to show off 3D printers, fabrication machines, acidic recyclers, microscopes, laser cutters, solderers, etc, with a tablet as its centerpiece. Slump, the chair moves back, he cracks his knuckles, gets a coke, and the tablet beams on with an isometric plain, with a cube smacked into the center. A radiator rests on a y shaped pillar. He puts his vision back on the Skylancer, the ship’s disassembled nature reflects an old memory in Trevor. -- -- -- A man with a tie and suitcaseCasted a shadow into the room. Lights shuttled on, a garage fitted with a lounge and a workshop unshrouded itself. There were two ships sitting on racks, collecting rust and dust. The one on the left was a sleeker, suborbital version of an F-14 Tomcat, labelled the “I9 Rocksteady” while the other was a hauler: the “GH-144 Mule” The suitcase flew into a couch, and Trevor held a circular saw in one hand and a mask on the other. The saw digs deep into the upper casing, and a clean line is drawn throughout the entire fuselage, before it all tosses aside with a single kick. The wings, the fins, the canopy, the ships were broken down, flayed, stripped to not just naked, but to bare steel, dissected and skinned. Trevor sat at his computer, with an orange bubble to the bottom right waving at him. Scylla’s baby shower. The words rebound in his mind. The notification and him stared at each other I hate every ounce of her being. If I go, I could get a raise, and maybe gain her respect. Maybe she’ll stop piling on so much work. Maybe she’ll change. He looked back at the halved starships, “Forget it.” He dismissed the blob, and his notebook clung into his hand. The leather back flips away like wings on a bird to showcase 2 versions of the SkyLancer: One that was primitive and almost child, dream like, fixed backward wings, basic canopy, and a impractical little tid bits, and the other a highly detailed sketch of the Skylancer, with near perfect obedience to physical equations and aeronautical engineering principles. He contemplated the drawing, and the result on the computer monitor, how it simulated the shape of the SkyLancer, streams of air smacking and bumping into the ship’s frame, instead of swimming and flowing straight through. “Hmm. hang on.” The simulation went back to an editing page, Trevor chiselling and marking up his model on the computer. The simulation boots up, and the lines start to flow, this time diving off the edges into a triangle. “Now adjust the shape to deal with the vortex here, and it’ll be even...” the words spilled out of him. Life sped up, the hands of the clock moving at a walking pace He notices the time on the computer as well as the date 20:34:05 14/4/2173 He checks the date on the drawing. July 7th, 2164 “9 years, almost a decade of nothing.” He looks at the night moon through a window behind the couch, almost as if the moon was telling him, “sleep.” His brows furrowed and focused into lines, Sighing, he approached the door and slammed it shut, darkness flooding the room right after. -- -- The suitcase slammed onto the couch again. Trevor hunched over the computer, thousands of minutes passed. The air slips, tumbles, and trips over several hundreds of prototype models, until the air finally decides on one neat, elegant path. Trevor saw it like he had found an artefact. “At least, I can design.” He admired the dissected ships behind him, with their parts, and pieces piled over, collecting dust. A few minutes of staring later, and a little orb stood towards his attention. The chair scooched back, and Trevor’s eyes approached the orb, examining and probing the obelisk with his gaze. He yanked it out of the haystack of metal and wires, for it to be a module circuit. “Hmm.” he hummed, walking to a computer. The clock hit 23:00/11:00pm Trevor stood in front of his contraption, wires spewing out of the computer with several adapters growing out of the back of the module. His hand cradling a button. “Okay. The internet wouldn’t lie about something so important right?” he wipes his eyes around his sockets, sighing, before shaking his head and then saying: “Okay, please don’t explode, please don’t explode, please don’t explode.” He circled the button, its cherry red enticing his finger. “three, two… one!” The cherry caved in, and the system sparked on. A white line flashes from the orb in a holographic style. “Systems restored. Relaying last messages and system information. Recalling-`` “Yes, yes, it worked!” The system’s red text bleeds through the cozy winter air of the garage. Then a relatively feminine voice speaks, “Spacecraft systems unavailable, communications lines unavailable. Refreshing.” “Huh, wait what?” Trevor cuts, “Voice not recognized. Location, servers unrecognizable. All systems are gone.” Her voice was a car launching off a cliff’s edge, “Everything’s gone.” She whispers at a mouse’s volume, Trevor raises an eyebrow. “What are you?” She said, “Entity Name: Alphas, Entity Type: synthetic, cybernetic organism; simple name: a Sylph. Inception date: three millennia before the official historical end of the Federation Eras. Commission Status: Previously Assigned to La Milicia de Ivorishka.” “The Militia? Alphas?” “Yes?” “You were born before the Federations? During the federations? Because most rogue militias during then would have been-`` “Discontinued.” She finished his sentence A silence illuminated between the two of them. It was piercing. “Your name is Trevor, I presume from the documents and records I am currently receiving from nearby information codices?” “Wait what? How did you... oh. Yea, that would make sense. My name’s Trevor. Wait, how much do you know about me?” “About as much as you know, and are comfortable with. If you wish me to disregard information, I can.” “Do you know who I work for?” “Okay, you can stop at the address. That is creepy.” “Disregarding address.” “No, no, no. I just don’t want you telling me my address, that's it.” Trevor winced away from his computer, a fax machine droned about in his head. “So what else can you do?” Alphas hesitates. “Any service or task you may verify authorization too, I can work in the background. For example, I can assist in your wind simulation project and suggest modifications for your PC. I can model those modifications for you.” “You don’t have to be so formal with me, you know.” He breaks the conversation. She paused “I don’t know what you mean?” “I do not understand your request-`` “Look, just talk like you normally do.” Trevor picks out the abrupt tone of his statement, rescinding with: “I’m sorry, just talk.” Alphas slipped onto the computer, a circle with a sound meter beats thrice on the screen. “Are you okay with--” “I’m fine with it. Look, can I get some time to think?” “Understood.” He opens the program to show the model. A machine dances, applying resin on the surface. “The time is very late. You should sleep.” Trevor glanced before shying away from the computer. “I know.” “Then why not postpone the project. I can improve--” Trevor blurted and blatantly states, “Don’t touch the project.” An affirmatory beep choirs out. He stood up from his chair, the time on the computer and he had a cowboy styled showdown. He sits down, and grabs the notebook “Trevor?” “What is it?” “You have a job right?” A century passed, Alphas repeats “Trevor. You have a job tomorrow. I understand its reputation is abhorrent from staff reviews, but you can attempt to make it better--” “Okay, how in hell do I make it better if literally no one cares or bothers to f*****g listen to me!” His voice bounced and roamed the vast garage. He looks at himself and his hands, letting out a hiss of unkempt emotion before he sits back down, writing and drawing on his notebook. He sighs, “I am sorry, it’s just.” He pauses. “May I ask about the issues?” “No, but thank you. Sorry about the rudeness.” “It’s no issue.” Another pause. “I’m going to bed, goodnight. The notebook slipped into his hands as he left the building. The lights snapped to blackness, the only light left being the doorway. -- -- -- Several hours clock by.The recycler piles up with more and more balls of matter, the radiator replaced with a simulation tube. The chair moves back, a thick barrel disappears from the printer, and surrounds a cylinder. A magnetic patch dangles from its attachment. Trevor nods, “Hell yeah.” His entire suit forms around him. He presses a button once, before a radiation alert projects in front. A loading bar fills off before flashing green. The alert switches to an acknowledgement of the use of a valid radiation protection suit, before proceeding with the function. Gas bellows and jets out of the chamber as a purple, grass thin edge, almost like a reverse water droplet. The gauge reads a ratio with a pleasant green. “Sweet.” The blade dissipates and pestles into embers, wandering in the air. He swipes the magnet off the rail. “Okay, now to refit the engines. Alphas?” A loud click rings through the room, with the two main thrusters on the back of the SkyLancer unlocking, a double barrelled gunmetal body rises away from the body, they start to levitate to the roof of the 3D Printer room. Another click, and Trevor leaps into the air, feet glowing blue to adjust him to face the thruster pair, with them closing towards his body. Circling around, Trev pushes them down towards the ground. He detaches off one of the bodies and pushes it to him. “Thanks Alphas, turn on the grav?” Trevor and the object thuds onto the ground, his feet buckling slightly. “No problem. Do you want me to print your modified piece?” He thumbs up and the machine’s dance restarts, albeit the sound being muddled and muffled by the window. Bixvah calls through the mic of Trevor’s helmet. “Hey Trevor? When you’re done with your personal modifications, can you apply the countermeasures shown on the tab?” “Just show it to me now. Wait countermeasures?” A perturbing image of weapons pops on screen, Trevor’s eyes jumping back at the content. “Whoa whoa whoa? What the f**k, I thought this was supposed to be a peaceful thing?” “I told you this job may get dirty. Or did I?” “No no no no no, you did not say I was going to have to hurt anyone!” “Well you’re not going to have to, at least. The stuff on screen are not nuclear weapons or anything like that. They’re just simple countermeasures, so don’t worry about it. Uhh, let us know if you need help.” “Countermeasures? These look like those coil cannons and lightning laser guns?” “Yeah, they’re there to shock people and to short ships.” “Shocking people?” “Okay, hang on. You know how a taser knocks you out? Or is that a stun gun, whatever, you know how an LIPC knocks you out. It’s just that.” “Oh, oh. Yeah. Cool.” Yeah Right. A pause of disbelief escapes from Trevor, as an audible stop patches through on Bixvah’s end “They don’t really expect me to-” “I mean she did say they were countermeasures.” “Mm, yeah still. Yeah right, sure they are. F*****g, I’m not having anymore blood on my hands. Not now, not ever. I don’t want to be responsible for anything bad. Or have to kill anyone. Hopefully.” He looks at his ship. He sighs. “I’ll put some more plating on the engine then, why not. Couldn’t hurt.” Trevor looks away to see a button, pressing it to see the expanse. -- -- -- A cubicle sat tight into a corner, a dirty window viewing the streets below, with a coworker by his side. Trevor droned at the computer with the spreadsheet of phone calls, his eyes in the center of a thousand exhausted creases. He stares at the window, seeing a dirty, scummy face mirrored on it. “Here it is Alphas, the thing you’ve been begging me to see.” A scratching irritated and offended his ear, he looked over to see a message on his computer. Goddammit. -- -- A minute passes, and Trevor sits in a conference room. The meeting table spanned the entire room, with Trevor shoved into the corner, arms rammed so tight it made him look like a T Rex. One executive, and an assistant sat eight kilometers away, with a woman, Scylla, standing dominant at the front. Her face looked like it was lacerated into pieces by a lawnmower, blended and then tied and stitched together into a revolting concoction, with a smile that could make any clown unsettled. Her voice was worse, the sound of several knives screeching across a chalkboard, glass, and iron together, feigning with a mask of enthusiasm. “Alright. Our stocks are booming, this quarter has been great, and more people have been changed by our product. Now tell me. Trimmer, why am I surprised to find that you’re the weak link again.” “Sorry.” Trevor mutters an ant’s whisper. “You said that the last time we met. And the time before that, and the time before that.” She stretched thirty feet to trap Trevor further into the corner with her gremlin face. “Tell me.” she unstretched, “why do you insist on being the weak link. You said you needed this job right?” I never said that. I just said that I had experience in programming. I don’t know why I was sent to telecommunications, Trevor bit back in his mind, for him to reply, “Yes.” He grudges out “Yet, at this rate, it would be more fair to demote you to HR.” Okay. “Are you listening to me? You’ll be treated like garbage! You’ll be turned into fresh meat, ape!” Trevor gives the woman a flat face. “That got you to pay attention, didn’t it? Just like what all you primates are, just a bunch of scoundrels that need their privileges provoked to get basic attention. What was it, mommy didn’t do a good enough job parenting you?” A flower vase broke. Trevor glares knives straight through his boss's heart. “Ooh, did I strike a nerve? Well this isn’t kindergarten anymore you know. Mommy isn’t going to save you.” He stood up and clinched his fist on the door. “How dare-- where do you think you’re going? Do you have any idea who I am!” the woman vocalizes. He lets go of the door and falls back down on his chair. “You’re on thin ice.”
-- -- Trevor sat down. “That did not sound pleasant.” Alphas said, “What the? Alphas? You were listening the entire time? I-- yeah, that’s one way to put it.” “Now I can see why you don’t want to work here, if that’s a tribulation you also have to face. I didn’t answer, because I didn’t want to make your situation worse. Also.” A gif of an anthropomorphic Fennec Fox laughing pops, with an anthro Red Panda telling her to stop in the image. Trevor chuckled and said, “Hey, thanks Alphas. How do you know I like that anime.” “I’ve seen your choices in what you watch, and a lot of other things, uh, get to know you better by doing so. Is that how you wish for me to speak?” “Huh? Uhh, I mean, I just don’t want you to feel like you have to be formal when you speak. You know? Like we’re just a couple of friends or something.” “I think I understand. Mm, It is that we don’t have a casual variant of our dialect. We speak however our proprietors wish us to speak. You wish me to speak like I am your friend?” “I see.” “Anyway, thanks for cheering me up. What should I do about it though?” His smile dissolves into a frown “We have multiple options, with varying levels of desirability. Either, sweeten up, get demoted to HR, or leave.” “You know which one I’m going to choose right?” “I suggest we do all of them.” Trevor looked at the speaker the voice was coming from, “What?” “Let me explain in depth.” -- -- -- Trevor stands in front of a board filled with plans, with a list of design specifications and a model of the SkyLancer sitting on his computer, as well as a notebook filled to the brim with notes, mathematical, chemistry, and physics models. Some new, some old, some modified, some perfected, some already perfected. “Precisely yes. The issue with your original design, is that while the weight is sufficient, several other factors are no longer sufficient because of the modification there.” “Right, the metal composite I have on hand is not exactly replicable with what I have.” “Exactly. I implore you to find a combination of alternative materials, to ease future repair. I can recommend some if you wish.” Trevor nods. A few hours pass. “Okay, okay. Airframe looks good, and now there should be enough flexibility in the weight distribution to allow for a compartment bay. What do you think? How do you think it’s going to do in simulation?” “Mm, comparing similar prototype vehicles. Honestly or no?” “Honest.” “Weight and material efficiency is significantly improved, but I’m not so sure on the cockpit section and safe vacuum sealing conditions. But I’m guessing you don’t care about that now.” “Should we?” “Accuracy will vary, but yes, let’s do it. Siming now.” -- -- -- Three months later, and Trevor welds and ties a casing for a plasma engine, before his voice calls: “Alphas!” “Running the test!” The engine ran, it pounced forward as the engine volcanoes blue fire to the road behind, before the metal began to burn red iron. “Cool it!-`` Before Trevor got a chance to speak, the engine purred down and the metal lost its ruby heat. “I don’t think that will fly Trevor, pun intended.” “I know, the problem is how can we redirect the heat?” “I believe this method may be beneficial.” He stares back at the monitor, where a wire cradle cages the engine. Trevor nods to the idea. “Only issue I see is, how are we going to fit it in there, no, how are we going to move enough of the heat away, no what about the weight after. Hmmmm.” “Perhaps, adding some emergency, disintegrating heatsinks? Reminder, we don’t need to remove all of the heat, we just need to keep enough of it away from the engine. You have access to multiple types of third party coolants anyway. “Yea, you’re right, we can just salvage that.” Trevor walks over and slashes off some metal off of the carcass of the Rocksteady. An hour later and a radiator cagelike system is attached to the top of the engines, with Trevor looking over with a small gauge, a board, and a few tools at his side. “So, that should be on both sides, and the vents should be nanocoated with the liquid nitro antiburn and ammonia reactive material. This doesn’t solve the size or weight problem problem though.” Alphas answers, “do you want my input or?” “No, I have an idea.” he points at the plan on the board. “If we make the engines separated, it could solve the problem. Only issue is that now the engines are incredibly fragile.” “Titanium? Maybe trace amounts, low temperature resistance. Besides, we don’t need to get out of the planet now, we just need to get out of this area. I’ll stick to copper and nickel alloys.” He grabs a pencil. -- -- --
Six months later, and the makings of a ship laid across them, Trevor was sitting down with a suit on his desk, his face buried in the suit. “You want to make sure the subsuit and the armor plates are like flesh. It should feel like a second skin.” a video recommends, “Hey Trevor? Are you okay?” Alphas says. “No. No I’m not. I don’t get this, I don’t get anything. I’m a f*****g loser. I can’t do this.” “You’re doing fine with your suit, and no, I don’t think you’re a loser.” “How do you know that?” “You built the ship with mostly your own merit, you found me and we got along pretty well.” “Yeah, but well, a lot of this was all luck. I couldn’t have done any of this without your help.” “But you still managed to do a majority of the work without me intervening. I’d say that’s worth something.” “I mean, part of that’s from my parents, but.” He looks at his work, seeing it scattered like dust on a carpenter’s table. “I’m going to fail this, like I did with my parents and with everyone else. Like I did with myself-” His eyes snapped again, this time to the speaker her voice was bouncing out of. “You mean it?” “I do. I really do.” He looks at his broken project. “No. I know what’s wrong. I know what to do.” he holds his screwdriver high and plugs it into the armor plates. -- -- -- Five months later, the SkyLancer is complete. Vents cover the belly and top, the fins and flaps adjusting, opening and closing like it was a baby walking for the first time. “Engines are online and at full health. Atmospheric flight contingents are active. Orbital and suborbital flight contingents online. Local endurance systems are engaged. Trevor?” He was fidgeting with his dark purple suit for another few minutes before he yells, “Wait!” Four Oreo sized devices slid and locked into his hands and feet. He walked four steps back and took a breath, pointing them straight at the ground. A loud puff blows out and Trevor hops three meters up. “Got it.” “Alright, we’re beginning test flight?” “Sure!” ` -- -- A cubicle sat tight into a corner, a window with sparkling clarity shines out at the streets below, with a coworker by his side.Trevor observed the computer with the spreadsheet filled with phone calls. He stared at the window, seeing a clean and confident face behind it. The scratching rung in his ear, he looked over to see a message on his computer. “Hey.” the coworker leaned over. “Yeah?” “Good luck dude. You’ve earned it.” “Thanks.” Trevor said proudly. The office was greeting him when he walked by, as if a blanket of happiness waved over the cubicles -- -- Trevor sat tall in his chair, with the woman tucked against the window. Small twitches occur on her face. “The stocks have been an absolute disaster, more people are turning away from our app. The only good thing that has happened to me this past year, is that you have proven yourself, Trimmer.” Trevor gives a nod that moves his head by nanometers. “So much so, I am giving you a raise. No, a promotion!” He raised an eyebrow. “Yes. You’ll be where my executive assistant used to be.” Trevor puts on a show: “Thank you so much. Oh man, I thought I could never do it! You know, after these few months, I've learned something.” The woman stretched in excitement. “I learned that I am a hard worker, determined. I learned that I am passionate, I am a team worker and I have become so much more confident in the past.” The lady smiled, grinned with almost genuinity. Trevor smirked, “Without your help.” The smile disappeared, morphing into a furious grimace. “What!” “Ever since I followed my passions and hobbies; what I love to do, I became so much happier.” “What are you implying!” “And that’s another thing.” he reached to the back of his uniform and swings a metal lip over his head like a hood, The formal suit ripped, away to reveal the signature purple and black plating. “You don’t have a say on me anymore, because you lost that privilege, as you did with your stock holders, the profits that you’ve been hoggling to yourself. Consider this my resignation, Scylla. Alphas, are you ready?” A simultaneous angelic yet brutally powerful humming noise roars into the office like it was a concert hall, the woman twitches to see the SkyLancer perching in front of a window. “What the!” she screamed before her face mashed into the table against Trevor's foot when he jumped. The window behind her explodes into a crackling shimmer of a thousand shards. Glass blades rustle and bounce off the armor plates. He turns his back for the SkyLancer to catch him, before the canopy closes. The locks seal, before Trevor yanks the ship forward at top speed, bulleting it away into the sky . “Hell yeah!” The clouds thrust away in a plume of blurry air, the color of the sky breaks into a colorful dance, as it constantly switches from deep blue to white. Suddenly the city, the trees, the world that he was stuck in wrinkles and crumples into a seeming miniature model, now only a distant facade beneath him. Then, everything seemed to have stop. The tempo slows. “Trevor! Look outside.” He gazed up. Moonlight, and the shine of the stars brought godrays into the cockpit. A sun’s majestic glare blossoms into the cockpit. Stars twinkled around him and time seemed to have disappeared completely. “Don’t tell me… that’s what I think it is?” Space, right there. At that specific horizon, that specific line dividing the planet’s messy, yet symphonious atmosphere with the almost celestial grace, of the clean ease and lull of the emptiness of space, Trevor was resting right on that edge. He was right in the middle. The leftover silver slivers of light bouncing off the shiny clouds and the eternally candescent stars twine and dine with each other. Bits of water and air, steam, ice, and snow, gently greets the cold fabrics of space. He continues to admire, to stare. He lets go of the yokes on his vehicle, and lets the chariot wade in the open flow of it all, “Oh my god.” Alphas, Trevor and The Skylancer just admire in a simple, elegant harmony. -- -- -- A voice booms, “Please remain still.” Six green lasers revolves around Trevor, the same voice continuing with, “Microorganophage complete, personnel identified, Trevor Barros is now entering research laboratory level A113.” The thick metal cuts and then opens, veiling both Bixvah and Livo in a yellow sun like sparkle. “Have we met?” Livo says sarcastically. “So, this is where the magic happens. If I get or need anything, answer here?” “Yep.” “Okay.” He slouches back on a lab counter, minding the equipment. “Uh, can I get partial credit on the required items?” “What do you mean?” “Oh, you will be fine. Wait, what do you mean you did part of the required items?” “They’re not even very lethal --” “Uh huh, and that’s definitely including the thermal needle ammo, and the emp missiles, and this weird laser modification for the LIPC thing? The f*****g lightning stealer thing?” Bixvah sighs. “Yeah those, I mean yeah they can be very dangerous if used on their not intended targets, with symptoms ranging from straight heart failure, brain hemorrages, tissue damage, ya know, not fun stuff, but that’s not what we’re trying to accomplish. Whatever, that does remind me though.” Bixvah takes a glance. Livo’s head weighs to nod back. “The mission. Livo, is there not another one he can do instead?” “It’s- it’s our biggest lead.” Bixvah rubs her head with her hand. “First, you gonna need a better defense thing. If you don’t wanna kill, then you should at least be able to keep people’s heads down.” Bixvah says. Trevor looks at them like they just ignored his presence. “Just follow us, we’ll give you something.” “I have force projectors, what do you mean!” -- -- “The latest edge in modular weapon technology, our state of the art quick install APPLE laser is an exhibit of the future’s talons” A video’s voice oozes into the bedroom from an embedded monitor, an open box on the desk across. Trevor lies on his bed, letting the light bounce and skate on his new gun. “Introducing,” the video continues, “The Rej Ki 547.” “Cutting edge? Hmm, you’d think the tech would look at least a little different?” He continues to admire the clean, black, yet brazen yellow and red striping of the gun. He detaches the guns’ slide and replaces the barrel with a long and tall device, a safety guide directing the switch. He rolls over and removes the rest of the packaging. A battery rests in the package's bed. Trevor slips it into the magazine well before a firm and resolute click bells out. Examining the gun, an indicator on the handle of the gun portrays a full bar. He points the gun at the ceiling, seeing another full bar on the back of the gun’s slide. “Sweet.” He clicks it into the side of his hip and falls back onto his bed. His finger slides over a button on his helmet and swipes, cascading his glass dome visor back, instead replaced with a small window eyepiece. Text from Frankenstein passes over his eyes.
Career Paths“Your first mission is in a human campaign precinct.” Trevor sits at his desk, pen and chips sulk near the inbuilt monitor. Trevor’s space suit neatly locked up into a stand by the side of the room. Bixvah sits on Trevor’s bed, “Are you serious! A human campaign precinct!” “Yea uh.” “Is that why you hired me?” “Well, no? That’s not--” “You hired me so I can be some disposable man for hir-” “That’s not! No, that’s why I sent you the countermeasures for your ship. It’s for s**t like this.” “So you can send me to f*****g human shitholes like that against my will!” “No! It’s so that you can protect yourself. This…” Bixvah continues to sigh and push her palm into her face, really digging in there. “Know what, f**k this. If you don’t want to do this, you don’t have to.” He nods. “That’s what I thought. Alright, come with me.”
-- -- “Yea, he’s not going.” Livo stares before shrugging. “Ugh, fine alright.” They look at the computer before a loud voice scratches out. “What the f**k do you mean fine!” Bixvah screeches out before being interrupted by “Hey, Livo! Remember our talk? You said you needed-- sample?” “Sullivan? What the hell, what’s going on with you?” Trevor runs to the computer: “Yo, What’s going on?” “What the? A human? What--- doesn’t matter-” a loud, blunt metal punch bashes through, the man knocks over on his side. “Just, I have set all the points you will need. Just get to these and get out!-” a detonation thrashes the footage flat. “Sullivan!” The screen blacks out to static. Trevor’s time to think cannon balls out the window as he screams: “S**t.” he pulls a hood of dark purple and black metal to form his helmet and sprints to the exit “Wait Trevor, where are you--” The metal slams and merges together.
-- -- -- The SkyLancer rips and soars through the spacey twilight around a dusky red planet. Reticles displace several texts, probing and analyzing information about the planet. “Alphas, do I have a criminal record there?” Trevor asks “You’re fine. Somehow, you are not get tagged. Looks like you were lucky and right about your intrusion and how much they would care for the battery and bank account for their ship. Also, you don’t have to do this.” “I am not letting another f****r die ‘cuz of me.” Alphas pauses. “Yea, but you’re entering into Titan territory, you don’t even--” Trevor stares right at the speaker, before a subtle nod of authentic weight sways. A reflection of Trev’s face shows up on the glass over the black veil of space. “Look, be smart alright?” He glares at the speaker before nodding again, and then slams the pedal. He pushes back and down on the steering wheel. It retracts into the console, rotating to face a black sleek skin. Trevor’s hand claws, the screen and projections shows uis and huds of a map, navigation data, and basic flight information, with multiple points blinking in unison on the map. A call menu then expands, opening. Chatter emerges from the call, his eyes focused onto the stars floating by in space. “Landing confirmed.”
-- --
The cockpit of the Skyhawk closes. He walks outside and stares at a neighborhood of apartments. It is hot, sweat dripping down his face, smelling the salt sizzling into his skin. He paces by random rows of plain reds, whites, and yellow complexes, “We’re not going to find anything here.” Trevor says, “How about that man over there? He chucks the wrapper for a sandwich into a waste bin, getting off a bicycle. Trevor ambles up to the man, “Excuse me?” “Huh? Oh, hi. Also, why are you wearing your suit, it’s like desert summer here man.” Says the man. “Look, do you know about Discovery Endeavours? “What? Uhh, you mean that place with the archeological stuff? Uhh, sure dude, they have a facility out over in Locke Fields, but it’s a long drive. I usually take the-” “Mm thanks man!” Trevor runs away, leaving the other man scratching his head. An officer in armor approaches, “What was that about?” the officer says. “I could not tell ya.” the biker admits, -- -- Trevor’s eyes focused, his hands and arms tied onto the wheel. Grass and dry trees zoom past, in a scurry of green and brown, as if the background were trailing behind and the Skyhawk was firm in the center. The sky is bloody mary red, with the sun rapiding against and around the shadowed teal of the cockpit. The vehicle passes a neighborhood, a house that might as well have been abandoned passes him. A point on the map barely hooks him, as he swerves, drifts to a stop, Tokyo Drift style. That same house drops a nice strident shadow before him. The Door Falls Over.The house is a complete construction hazard. Nonexistent windows situated straight from the backdoor. The right, a kitchen that had several holes drilled inside, but it was not clear at all if they were bullet holes, or a construction project gone wrong. Trevor then notices that there was still a little gas coming out of the holes. He follows his eyes in a line, directly across from the drill holes. “Bullet holes? Snipers? Psycho Mantis?” The rest of the house doesn’t get any better, he takes a glance leftward and sees the couches kicked and flogged, desks, tables, furniture decorated with itsy bitsy shotgun pellets, rifle rounds, and broken supports. He notices the same pleasant decoration on the right wall too. “What the f**k?” Trevor stalks through the fossilized artifact of a house, the gothic hallways to find ruined bedrooms. The beds didn't look like beds, instead they looked like the Boogeyman strangled and drowned the supposed kid on the beds, while kickflipping and stomping the bed as if they were hiding a body. He notices a drawer that was open. “What? Fizzlers wands? Why?” He pulls one from inside, “do not tamper with red microcontroller caps, as malfunction can cause serious blinding injuries.” He looks at the toys to see that the cap was indeed tampered with, in that it was torn right off. Even the walls spelled curses to whoever lived here, as the paint wither in color and gradients of brown and white smear on the walls, which was held together by a thread, about to spontaneously crumble and cave itself in. “This place was not well taken care of. At all.” Trevor proclaims searching around the house, “Trevor, I don’t think this place is just some house.” He walked into the final room. There was a computer, a new one with cables stretching out from it like tentacles on a squid. It was connected to an ulterior server. A gaming chair splayed outwards, inviting anyone to come along for the ride. Finally, there was one window behind the chair that looked comparably clean to the rest, with thousands of sticky notes attached to the machine, leaves on a tree. Literal leaves spread across the room, covering a queen sized bed. “Huh.” Trevor responds He looks at it, a prompt appears. Stepping back, he looks at a glass orb in the ceiling. “Oh s**t.” he exclaims He glances at the scene to see the leaves that were plugged into the PC Trevor slams his hand into the side of the computer, and jabs his fingers into an input port, the terminal wakes up in a shaking mess. “What are you doing! That’s going to alert them further!” “I know, but just copy the files. Better have something than nothing!” Trevor turns his head, a squadron of soldiers kick through the front door, “S**t, the f**k, that was fast!” Trevor’s hand glows blue, as he hurls the bed into the doorway, the mattress punching, feinting a soldier’s stomach, before an entire closet shuts them out. Trevor activates radar and locks on to the targets across the house. He feels for his pistol and sighs, as it was seemingly lounging on his bed, back in the Monarch. “Download complete! Now you want me- get down!” A machine gun razes the wall to his left; wood, glass, steel caves and assaults the room, primal hails and rains of shrapnel bursts and deafens the room. Trevor bucks into the ground, the ground punching him back, making him take a swig of his own blood. He slams his hand against the wall; he hesitates, before and with the precision of a tailor’s stitching needle, he sends his glove to blow out a brick -- its trajectory angled slightly upwards. The brick whips into the gunner shoulder, Trevor takes advantage, and vaults out of cover. In the midst of all of the adrenaline storming, he barely registers his body’s actions, as he reels from his hand sticking and wrenching him back to the window sills, only for his brain to pang back his thought process instantaneously, and then launches himself upwards, before bumping himself inwards onto a wall. He stands on the side of the house, his feet magnetizing and throttling him across the wall before springing him to another house. He smacks against the edge of the wall and a gutter, sending him back onto the ground, falling and rolling. The men chase and discharge rounds, before Trevor hammers the bullets into the grass and dirt. He then uses the recoil from the leftover debris hovering and launching rightwards to sending him right back onto the wall. “Get him off that wall!” yelled a soldier, Trevor didn’t see any of the men firing a single rifle. Instead, two turrets tear a monstrous hail of bullets, curtaining and curving onto Trevor’s location. Trevor boosts and claws himself harder and farther, making the battalion of ammo miss by hairs. A loud, at this point, ear piercing noise distracts him with a battery notification, as a trail of burning, and prowling, snarling holes laid in his wake, rapidly and relentlessly pursuing him; he jumps and blasts himself upwards onto the roof of a house, knocking and ricocheting off a chimney, “Trevor, power! stop using the projectors!” Without even noticing, he sees the battery in his suit had shrunk to a quarter left. “Skyhawk! Catch me!” He elbows into a drifting, skrrrrting Skyhawk’s interior; Life stops a minute. The hard bottom of the floor uppercuts his whole body, almost commanding a thunderous clang bang through out the entire neighborhood. The cockpit drops shut and his legs and knees rockets into the glass and edge of the dashboard. The thruster revs like the carnal howl of a beast, the world turns to simple lines and shapes trying to catch up to the asphalt shattering speed of the Skyhawk. “Ow!” Trevor smarts, as he gets up from the floor, fist bashing a side handle. He spies his rearview monitor and sees two APCs jetting at the same speed as him. A vibrant static of gold and purple surges a tree, the Skyhawk only hairs away from contact. Hover bikes trail aside the Skyhawk, soldiers pop large black discs onto the side of the SkyHawk, before sub machine guns brass and graze the gall out of the teal cockpit. Trevor’s mind is scrambled in every direction, too busy and distracted to realize the road had a ramping straight ahead of him. “Wait what, really!” His hovercraft bounced him off his stance, sending him right back to the floor. “Use your countermeasures!” Alphas states He hurls his finger to press a button on his fist before halting, realizing the black dots outside his ship were blinking red. “F**k. Lancer! Is it online?” “Lancer’s coming, but-” Bullets pounce, strike and scrape, and scratch the glass of the canopy, a puff of dust rushes to the soldier’s face. Suddenly, their visor’s began to crack and splinter into webs spontaneously, before they scream “s**t!” Trevor gets up. He grabs and presses a button on the console, orange blinking begins rushing to a still color. A loud bright, and raucous flash brashes and flushes the bikers out away from the Skyhawk’s presence. A silver dart whips the ground, a mist of cloudy, but shiny, scintillating flakes shrouded the road. “God… f**k-” Trevor wipes his eyes, as the APC bulldozes through the smoke His hands veers the wheel, the Skyhawk launches off towards an exit. The bikers were just behind and they were not retreating. The blurry neighborhood entrance and its bystanders zips by. Two death black vehicles blockade the entrance to another intersection and fires an arrogant amber projectile, tilting the Skyhawk like a bull, Trevor noticing in a fraction of a second, A red and orange blast shrieks off the higher level and the SkyHawk tumbles into some grass, the green gently pouring him to a road in front of him. Trevor looks behind, more black vehicles appear, either shuttling behind and walling him off. His hand slams and smacks the console of the Skyhawk, ramming the pedal and the to the metal, with the battery level going down at the same breakneck speed, “We’re being targeted!” Alphas alerts. “What, oh-`` The Skyhawk chambers into a tunnel, the growl of the vehicle echoes like they were in a cave. The aforementioned assault vehicle takes its chance and fires. Trevor turns and punches the button, rouletting the steer simultaneously, before rocketing the dust cloud at the APC. The windshield of the APC cracked more and more before it had to brake. The drivers come out of the vehicle, eyes spotting the Skyhawk melting away into the horizon. -- -- The hockey puck sized devices slice into the side of a hill, Trevor falling back on the Skyhawk’s airfoil. “Oh my god.” he pants out, his breath burning to escape. “Do you need anything?” “No, just a breather. Hey, maybe I will install those countermeasures… er something.” “We need to keep a low profile, get more information from the man if possible-” Trevor raises his head before the floor pulls him down. “F**k! I just realized. I could’ve found that Sullivan Guy, if I got captured. Augh.” Trevor spots a full moon, before he drags his sight away. “Okay. I’m not giving up on Sullivan though. Alright.” He looks at a map A Day Later,They are sitting in a parking lot in the middle of a white, snowy forest, resting and away from any trouble. “I came all this way just to find Sullivan, and I am not leaving without him. I can’t.” Silence. He looks up to reveal an entourage of data open on the dashboard. “I know where he is. I have to get him. I have to… No, I will-” Alphas pulls the wheel back, “Trevor, stop and think, what is your plan here? What are you going to do once you get in?” He panics and leans back. “And what? See you get slaughtered? Captured?” “Alphas, I can’t let him get hurt again-” “And I am not letting you go through hell again! I am not going to have you risk yourself again. I am not making the same mistakes.” “And you know I can’t make the same ones either-” “Over your life? Trevor, do you know how much you mean to me?” A deafening tide splits the two apart. “Multiple hostiles are prowling to your location, and they’re not slowing down.” Alphas urges. “God damn it!” He hurls his head to the radar, “I'm not leaving him-” “And neither will I lose you! Listen to me, you know why I’m telling you this, you know what will happen if you fail, you know there’s a chance that he might be okay-” “And there’s a chance that he’s being brutally beaten! He goes to the pedals to accelerate the Skyhawk, but he notices the smidgeon of battery he has on the hud. “You’re kidding me. Or for- where is the nearest fuel station?” “In a town named Auxfoy, about ten thousand km from our location. However… there are better ways of getting to your objective.” Trevor flinches over the pedal, before smashing it, the vehicle piledrives through the highway. Red points close in like a vise cutting in. He hisses, before: “Activate autonomous. I'll switch over if I see a good spot to hide.” He sees Human Campaign vehicles all over his HUD, red splotches crawl and choke closer like quicksand. “You see what I mean? You know what can happen. I’m not going to let you.” He looked at a silver sphere which laid on a curved scarflike bed, where blue code, almost like water, was running down the left side. Trevor looks at the highlighted blocks surrounding and back at the sphere, he looks down. “I’ll take your wager.” Trevor pronounces out The sphere began to vibrate and morph in halves, ovals and polygons, stretching in and out, to where a voice speaks, “Thank you.” -- -- Trevor rips his vehicle over the road, Trevor drifting it over the side of a cliff. It tumbles, rumbles down until it smacks onto the side of the tree. Trevor lies in the snow for a brief minute before trudging away from the crash site. “Wow, what a utterly, f*****g, genius plan. Crashing the project that I literally spent years developing, man, that’s gotta be, that’s gotta be one of my, I’m so f*****g-. The HC's vehicles park right at the site of the crash. He looks behind a tree, a flat but amused face. Shrugging, he jumps. His foot burrows deep into a mature tree branch, waiting and hoping for a break in the soldier’s spacing. He checks his gun, and slips the slide back: still the Apple Laser. He watches closely, covered in snow as camouflage. Out of nowhere, the Skyhawk hops to the sky, the Lancer sweeps through to catch the vehicle. Troops and squadrons reposition, before Trevor hurdles out of the trees and blasts his force projectors at the maximum power, exploding him backwards, blanketing the soldiers in sheets of snow. After the soldiers wipe off the snow, they dash and chase a snow submerged Trevor. Trev collects several stones before launching and punching them through a tree branch, crumbling and dumping snow onto the ground. Some of the soldiers run into the piles, while others evade, as more branches rain snow onto the ground. Eventually, the goons learn and start dodging more of the snow piles. Trevor then sends rocks at the enemies’ feet, the snow tripping the men. Finally, the soldiers had the bright idea to do Trevor’s strategy, where the thunder of a gunshot rips a loud crack and snow avalanches onto Trevor. He struggles to climb out, digging and trudging white, before he slips and trips down a hill, rhino charging straight into a tree. Trevor calls out, “I think I broke something, ow.” A transparent silhouette of Trevor’s body appeared on his visor, with red circles and lines highlighting and marking multiple spots of Trevor’s body, Alphas interjects, “You have suffered moderate cases of strain in ligaments and muscle, minor head trauma, and several instances of bone damage-” “Yea, Thanks Alph, ow.” Trevor hisses to say “They should heal pretty quick. However-” A soldier scribbled in neon orange appears behind him, as Trevor turns to greet them through his visor. Snow circles and floats, like ash and smoke from a fire. They press the SMG’s stock hard and deep into his shoulder. They notice that they were isolated, with only them, their guns, and Trevor keeping him company. The gun goes down, and they sigh, bringing their head up to their helmet. Several minutes pass by, the person starts flailing their hands around. “Oh forget it, it’s not like there was anything that could have resulted from this anyway.” the guy radios out. “... want to sit down, take a breather?” Trevor suggests “Yeah sure.” The soldier says, “Hell, scans say that you’re human, not that I would care if you were a sangheili guy or something. Don’t really see why containing you would do anything.” “Wait, what were you going to do?” “Capture you or sumthin, I don’t know. Command was super vague giving instructions too. They grabbed some poor gardener guy-” “Sullivan!” “Yea, him.” The soldier lies down and pulls out a pen, spinning and playing with it. “They said that he was conspiring against Titan by revealing information about some all knowing plant to Aliens first, instead of them… which like, by the way, aren’t we supposed to be more open to Xenians anyway? Doesn’t this whole thing defeat that- whatever.” “Wait, so they have Sullivan?” “Is he safe?” “Uh, I guess. The only danger he’s in is that he’s stuck inside a room with nothing to do for like, 36 hours. Why, you have a crush on him? Cuz I gotta admit, he’s pretty cute. Those types of guys are always fun-” “Just… is he alright? Can you make the deal to have him released? Wait… they want me for my information on the Omniscient?” “Oh is that what it’s called? Makes sense. Yeah probably. I swear to jeeeebus, they always make some stupid effort to get a hand over the other factions. It’s annoying.” Trevor squats down onto the icy ground, saying: “Okay, what exactly is the militia’s plan with me? Like why do they think killing me will do something? And why are you so open about this-`` Alphas cuts, “plus a multi-person confirmed casualty list, possibly more inco-`` “Wait, what!” “JK.” With a “=D” showing up on his visor He sighs, “Alphas, I swear to god.” Trevor admits. “Eh.” The man pulls off his helmet to reveal their face. “Something something, you have invaluable info, something something, get your stuff and then try to go somewhere with it, I don’t know. Like, it’s f*****g weird cuz they simultaneously care and don’t care about this. It’s classified, but like, no one keeps anything a secret, soooo.” they scrunch and shrug. I don’t know, I’m going off of my commanders. I have no idea why I’m here anyway. ‘Sides, they’re not going to waste manpower and resources on something that-- apparently doesn’t matter, so.” “Wait, that doesn’t explain-`` “They can’t fire us basically; they don’t want to go through the effort of recommissioning soldiers over something small.” “Oh, I see.” “Yeah, they’re super lazy. Also you’re human enough for me to say these things, so they probably conjecture that you’re not going to say anything.” the guy admits. “Okay.” “Yeah. I guess I'll ask my own questions then. I know why you’re here, but like, why are you doing this?.” “What do you mean?” “Like, what’s the purpose of you finding this… plant? I heard this thing died a thousand millennia ago.” “I’m doing this cuz… I don’t know. I thought it was because I wanted to have something to work for, something- something righteous to go after. But honestly, I feel like I’m doing this just to get something. I want, I want a purpose and I wonder if this plant will help me find it.” “Oh. Well. That’s a new one. I swear, every case of these people who leave the HC, they always have some sort of, super righteous reason for why they’re born like, ‘oh, I lost my teddy bear when going to my friend’s house, so I gotta kill like thirty people to make up for it, or make some ridiculous, barely comprehensible manifesto.’ Like, these people, I swear, they’re trying to be the next Ole, and then there are people that try too hard to have such a journey, such a hero’s end to live their life. Like, dude, it’s your life man, do whatever makes you happy. If you like to do it, just do it. That is why I joined the brigades in the first place.” “Wait, join? They don’t force you?” “What? Oh no. They encourage the living s**t out of it, yea, but they don’t ever force ya. The Fenrir faction though, whoo, yeah you’re not getting out of that. How did you not know that?” “I wasn’t raised in the HC.” Trevor's reluctance shadows his speech. “Ooh. That makes a… lot of sense.” “Wanna join?” “Nah, I mean, we may not be in the best place ever, but it could have been way worse, like I could have been under a delusional military dictatorship. I could be dead, I could be anywhere. Meh.” “Good point.” The two of them rested a while; Trevor lies down next to the Soldier. “What’s life like outside of the Human Campaign?” “Mm, honestly. It’s, it’s a lifestyle-” “I’d imagine so, you get to go anywhere you want, you can do anything you want- I heard you can just LARP as the witcher or something on a planet, and get money for it- hell, I heard of places where money isn’t a thing at all!” “Yea. But it is huge.” “I mean, of course, literally infinite distance, there’s bound to be some nutjob places that you don’t ever want to go, right. Heh, says the soldier in the Titan Faction.” they jerk their head. “I’ve always thought the factions had only delusional crazies as people. It’s not bad here, not going to lie.” The guy contemplates, before shrugging his shoulders in agreement. “I mean, I can see why people would think we’re crazy.” “Like, I was told that they were pitting people against each other.” “Yep. Man, I realize how much propaganda we were fed as kids. I also realize how out of touch our politicians are. It’s gotten a lot better though, can’t imagine what those people back in the 2000s were going through. Imagine earth now. Crazy how all of this Human Campaign s**t started, all because some people wanted to stay in space.” Trevor chuckles. “Anyway. Were you guys taught that humans basically complained to the Consociates until we got our supposed rights or something?” “Yeah.” “That’s what I thought. It’s like everything is against the military, which makes sense. Everything s****y that has happened to us was because of this… this annoying crusade.” “So why did you join it?” “Well, it’s because I thought it was fun, honestly. I mean, I didn’t join the marines or the navy for a reason.” “What’s the difference?” Trevor perks back up “Basically, you don’t go on ships or colonize, or fill up and secure an active conflict zone. That’s it, I just work around internally to make sure people are doing their jobs.” “Sounds just as boring.” “I mean yeah, but at the same time, you don’t raid a nazi assembly anywhere else so.” Trevor looks up, seeing the sky is bright. “Sigh, I think I need to go.” “Oh, well it was nice talking to you man. Do you have contacts? Like socials, I don’t really want direct comms.” says The Soldier, still on the floor. “Uhh… not really? Sorry dude.” “Nah, it's cool. I’d love to talk again.” “Heh… maybe someday we will.” Trevor admits before realizing: “Wait, wait, i forgot, or maybe I didn’t- Uh, can you please get Sullivan out of the cell? That would mean so much. I’ll direct the information I get from Solaris after… could that work?” The soldier freezes what he’s doing and stands up. “Uhh… yea, I can make that happen. Let me just write this down.” a few minutes of scribbling later and the soldier replies, “Alright, solid written down-” a feral boom blares the forest, a thin yet violent tide of fury in the air. The soldier looks up to see a SkyLancer shaped hole evaporate through the thick, cloudy atmosphere. The soldier smiles, and shakes their head, looking at their notes. Trevor looks at the console, his thoughts zoning him out of the ship. He sighs and shakes his head, and pokes the communications icon hard.
A Messy Introduction
“Alright. Finally, we can move on to some actual samples. Great work Trevor. Oh, and that solid’s a deal. He bunches his lips up, staring at his lap for a few minutes. “Here’s your next task.” Layers of windows pile up on Trevor’s console, Bixvah continues, “These are lists of species that are said to be very close relatives of the Omniscient, ordering from the closest to the farthest.” “And you want me to search planets for these plants.” “Yep!” “So it can be any planet?” “Yeah, well, that would be torture, so on those same documents are the planets that have the designated species, or so we’ve been told” “Oh whoo.” In the driest tone Trevor could muster, Alphas input the planet’s coordinates into the console’s NAVos, green icons bounce onto the cockpit and console. Bixvah looks away from her monitor: Her pupils shrunk. “Oh, and before you get any further from us… uh.” Bixvah says, an uncharacteristic whimper pawing behind her voice.” “What?” Trevor says. “Don’t get too far from us, cuz right now, you’re reaching the outer limits of the Consociate regulated, or governed spaces. Let’s just say things get really hectic fast once you enter there. Just stay close alright?” Livo cuts in, “Oh, are you worried about the Kraken?” Trevor jerks his head to the right, “the Kraken? You mean the squid monster?” “More like a monster. Just keep close, okay?” “Alright, got it. No playing with the squid monster, whatever that means.” Trevor clenches his teeth together
Meanwhile…A stealth black arrowhead drifts through the colorful symphony of a nearby nebula. A thick, dense black armor, with magazines attached across their chest, a knife and an axe attached to their left knee, and a holster for a handgun to their right, and a helmet with tendril-like tubes stretching and locking in. they look in the reflection, almost like Cthulhu themself was staring back. They sit in the front seat, under the cradle of the black with ruby tinted cockpit. The Kraken’s visor reflects the blue light emanating from the console, before the light tides into a white color. The joystick jerks forward. -- -- --
The ship lands. The cockpit opens up to unveil light blue plains, and green skies. The trees rattle with a color of purple to them, and a river streams a darker blue among the plains. The Kraken searches the plains for the contract commission, a couple behind them alerts them, “Oh thank god! we’ve been looking all over for someone to deal with our problem.” a woman with an elderly, southern accent to her voice, prances to say, “Yeah, and we need it quick, it’s been threatening our kids, our crops, and-``her husband says before being interrupted by a rude static noise, immediately followed by irritating silence. “Excuse me?” “When did it attack?” asks the Kraken, their voice’s distortion and static throws off the couple’s emotional stances. They whimper, “It attacked,” the couple look behind themselves at their farm, and glance at the destruction of the farm. “Like it devoured our crops-`` “When I grabbed my shotgun to scare it off, it made it angrier! I- I have no idea why it just-” The Kraken promptly stares at the couple before shaking their head, walking off towards the crops. They stop and examine the prints near them. The Kraken gestures their return, and swipes two crops. -- -- The Kraken flicks out a massive bear trap and plants it on the grassy ground of the plains, inserting the crops. They squat down and slide a dial all the way to the right, as they run and roll onto a hill. a huge marksmen rifle draws out of them, the gun’s bipod kicks out. A flick of a switch clicks on the weapon, a small chime hums. They take a bullet and hover it over the top of the barrel assembly, the shell repelling forwards. They put their head down, shaking it, before clicking a rangefinder onto their head. A griffin, the size to rival an elephant appears a few minutes later, it comes close to smell the crops inside, the trap snapping, ensnaring the creature. The griffin swings a shockwave of air, the grass ripping from the wind’s strength. A reticle aims and lines up onto the head of the griffin, tracking their head to get a clean shot. a glint sparkles in the grass as the Kraken punches the trigger. Two guttural screeches deafens the land, the Griffin whips their wings at the hill, pulling the Kraken and their rifle back a thousand feet. The Kraken rolls and stamps their foot into the dirt, a pickaxe blade and hammer shines from the sun, as they vault themselves and the blade deep through the beast’s back: it shrieks. The griffin takes their talons, weave it through the bear trap and snap it off, the halved trap plunges to the ground. The beast rockets itself into the air, the wind streaking the feathery hide and the Kraken, back. Their pickaxe loosens from the beast’s feathery fur. The Kraken slings and punctures, their axe digs, plunges deeper into the skin, crawling steadily up the spine of the Griffin. The beast swerves, drifts, and barrels in the air to knock them off, each time, the Kraken replies with a harder push of the knife. The blade jumps and strikes at the collarbone, tussling flesh and screeches. The Kraken draws and rams a rifle’s muzzle into the wound, a primal squeal echo through the air, The trigger pulls and the chatter of the gun, though muffled at first, eventually explodes and spills the arteries and muscular chunks out. The Griffin calls out, their voice dying as their eyes roll back. It is almost blissful, the corpse only rising by its weight, its last minutes in the sky before gravity comes crashing down, grappling them headfirst to the earth below. The wind storms against the Kraken, the blades and barrel rip away from the husk, leaving them in free fall. Their hands fight to find something before they toss it. A bright blanket of colors bubbles on the ground, The Kraken’s inertia chucking them straight into the fabric, the air barging away from the bubble. The Kraken braces and rolls into the grass with a thud, taking a minute before standing upright to find the body. The Kraken wrestles a talon out of the Griffin’s body and reclaims their scout rifle before heading to the couple’s home. -- -- --The Tram Stops,Trevor gets off. The almost zingy purple, azul, and red colors of his suit dance in the light of the underground portions of the city. He walks up to the magnificent playground of lights, tints of pinks, golds, and tangerines posed against the blank city. “Trevor, I think someone's trailing you.” “What!” He looks behind himself, seeing an orange silhouette. His hand feels for his gun. “I don’t know if they’re actually following you though. Just, keep your eyes peeled.” “Okay?” Trevor says. -- -- --
Trev walks away from the shopkeeper and into the busy streets, with a shopping bag in hand. “That was surprisingly easy.” He walks several yards away from the shop before a sound rustles behind him. He pulls out his handgun, with an orange highlight showing up. He moves to investigate, only to see an alleyway, with dumpsters and stairs. “The stalker is wearing heavy armor. Be careful.” The purple man skulks forward, to notice they were in the trash. He stares promptly, smacking his lips. “Nah. I ain’t dumpster diving. Sorry Alph.” “That’s fair. You could probably lose their trail though.” Trevor grunts and lifts the trash lid, before blasting a heavy thrust of air into the bin.
-- -- -- Trevor enters the SkyLancer and starts it up. “Huh?” He opens the console, and two warnings that read like a scammy antivirus software, and the other that read, “Alert! Foreign installation detected. It expands to reveal an outline of the SkyLancer, as well as lines contouring the ship. A red point sticks out like a pimple. His finger taps the dot, showcases a time and date of when it was installed as well as an explosion symbol and an exclamation point. “Oh f**k!” Trevor yells, jumping out before Alphas could say anything He walks towards where the device is attached, as a green dot blinks. “Trevor don’t get close!-`` It detonates into a ball of smoke and blinding light, Trevor stumbles five feet, his vision brighter than the sun. He takes his hands and wipes the smoke of his visor. “Behind you!” A hammer head slices through the thick fog, and Trevor blocks it without even knowing, only for a leg to punch him in the stomach. A swing and a loud bang uppercuts him into blackness. -- -- -- He wakes up “What the f**k?” He glances around, his head frantic. It was a quaint, small: a toilet, no sense of privacy, and his roommate, an alien sleeping under his bunk. He gets off his bunk and sees an empty hallway. A row of bars trapped him. He looks at his reflection in the sink’s mirror. His hispanic roots, scraggly, disjumbled and raven black hair, stubble on his face. He looks around the corners of the room and sees a pair of bunks in front of the ones that he was sleeping on, as well as a cabinet adjacent to the sink. He checked. Nothing in all of them. He slumps back into his bunk and attempts to go back to sleep, his eyes wander to the cell bars in front of him. His head wanes. The prison alarm blares, Trevor yelps. Suddenly, the collective clusters of inmates bumble and grumble away from their long sleep. He looked down from his upper bunk and saw a female Clurvaen, a bear, elk hybrid, rubbing her temples. Her eyes adjust to the lights and her sights. She groans: “ohhh.” shaking her head and going to wash her face. A Cat Fox male and a Hippo Rhinoceros sit at the top bunk across. He sees the sink and the mirror, as well as the wandering away Clurvaen. He nods, before dropping down He took a glance at the Clurvaen, and noticed the natural beauty of the specimen. Her fur was mostly a fiery amber brown that gradiented into darker, more burnt browns, with subsections of native reindeer, elk, bear, and otter colors. Her face was tattooed with both symmetrical contour lines in black cruxing at the center of her forehead, and deep, ravenous scars that etched and sunk into her body, both shining from the dim light. One scar in particular however, a scar around the back of her neck, that was as deep as a trench, caught Trev’s attention. She notices, “Hey.” She says chilled. “Sorry! Didn’t mean to stare at you like that-`` "It’s fine. Most people react weirdly when they see me, so.” “I’ll cut it out. Sorry.” The both of them avoid each other’s gazes. Trevor waits until the Clurvaen walks away, before razoring the stubble off of his face. The prison alarm jumps Trevor again, to announce the prisoner orientation. -- -- “Alright, I want to make this clear.” The Associate Warden exclaimed, “You don’t listen, you will have a horrendous time here. If you listen, you’ll be outta here in no time. First thing, this is an intergalactic vessel.” Trevor and the Clurvaen both raise an eyebrow, glimpsing towards each other, while the woman speaks. “Third, all of the prisoners that were transported here, you may have noticed that while we were talking about your belongings and their removal, we also said that you may get them back after your term is over? Well, if you behave well, you might get back some of your belongings back.” She blabbers on, so much so that the lights flickering were enough entertainment away from the associate. “Any more questions?” she orders, “didn’t think so, You will be getting your assignments in twelve hours… dismissed.” -- -- Trevor is back in his cell, with their breakfast in hand. “So there is a spot where they keep our stuff?” Trevor says. “They said so,” the Clurvaen says. Trevor’s body flicks, turning to find the Clurvaen spoke below him, her legs lying against the wall. “It’s not that hard to hear from here.” “Sorry.” “You don’t have to apologize, so, uh, yeah.” her speech dwindles. He looks down at his lap, sighing. He drops his back into the bed and stares at the ceiling. “What the f**k am I doing anymore.” he asks himself. A small silence pollutes his spaces. “Boy, do I know how that feels.” she replies, whispering, although it still catches Trevor’s attention regardless, as he responds, “Huh? How do you know?” “Hmm? I, I don’t know, the feeling of being stuck, trapped to the past. How much everything seems so far.” she then whispers, “why did I eavesdrop?” “I mean, you’re right. S**t, I’m talking to strangers now? My life has been nothing but a mess, I’m just… I wanna, f*****g… hang on.” “Mmhmm?” “I shouldn’t say it out loud. I’mma get in trouble.” “I mean, you’ve said a lot out here already, so, not much point in hiding it. “No, I.” he curls over to the bunk below. “I mean I’m thinking about escaping.” his voice whispers The Clurvaen’s eyes open. “Wait.” She kicks off the bed, jumping and catching the rim of the bed, hoisting herself up to Trevor’s right side, catching him off guard. “You’ve gotta-” she realizes, and then drops her voice’s volume to about a breath. “You’ve got a way to escape?” Trevor looks at her. “How’d you do that?” “I dunno, I was really good at that back when I was a student. Why?” “Just, is the ladder not good enough?” “Nah, what I did was a lot bett… good-er enough.” Trev goes to speak. He bursts out giggling. She joins suit He looks down at his feet, shaking his head. The Clurvaen swings herself up by Trevor’s side, with the both of them awkwardly sitting together. “I don’t know… I just don’t want to hurt more people.” “But we don’t have to hurt anyone, we can do this nonlethally.” “How do you expect to not kill someone in this? I know with an apple laser, but-`` “I can show you a few ways.” “Huh? How? With what?” “Without anything. Well, with just these!” Her hands seemingly warp to right in front of her, astonishing Trevor, before she gestures jazz hands with them. An alarm blares, this time startling the two of them. A Few Days Pass,“Hey, so, I did a bit of research.” The Clurvaen says during free time. “What’s going on?” Trevor says “There are two high profile spots, so much so, when I probed them about it, they started to back me off. Also the guards should be pretty easiblasnth… bleh, easy to take out, they aren’t very secure of themselves.” “Wait what? Sorry, you were scouting?” “Yeah? You don’t plan on staying here right?” “If I was thrown in for a good reason, I want to serve my sentence properly.” “Well, what if you weren’t? Wait, don’t you know why you’re here?” “No? But I must be here for a good reason.” “What? No, they’d tell you why you were here.” “Well there’d have to be a good reason, right? Why else would I be here-`` “That’s why they would tell you, that’s what. As much as it seems that there might be a good reason, I think someone’s trying to take advantage of you.” Trevor’s vision unaligns, his gaze pierces straight into space, his mind so deep in thought. “Look, because I don’t know my sentence either, I think we should leave.” Trevor’s vision reconfigures as The Clurvaen speaks, “Now, can I continue?” The Clurvaen sighs, “Okay, look. If you want to dig an endless hole, go for it, but here’s the thing, if you don’t step for yourself, believe me, someone is going to step for you, and you have no idea how that’s going to turn out. To me, I think it is better for you to take action for yourself, so that way, you can work off the consequences of your decisions, and make the best moves there, but that’s only if you actually make the decision to go forward. Now, are you with me or not?” Trevor looks at his knees, the cell that he just looked up from, and then back down again. His eyes close. He grunts and says: “Yes. I am.” “Alright! Ahem. As I was saying, these guards should not be that hard to take out. I mean, one is definitely a sex offender, one has a massive drug problem, and they all can’t take a f*****g joke about themselves. They should all be pretty easy to take out.” “Wait, how do you know that?” "Hey,” someone new cuts in, "I heard about your little stunt, and I want in." "Cool?" Trevor said with a snake in the back of his throat. "Sweet! What's the plan?" the prisoner exclaims, his voice a deep, kind voice. Niara cuts in, "Uhh, we haven't decided yet, we only have a basic framework, we don't have a very detailed plan yet." "Well, you don't need a detailed plan. Sometimes you just need to kick the ball forward." “I, well, it’s still nice to have something to go off of, you know? Because if something happens, we can do something to counter it directly." "Look, I am not saying to not plan; I’m saying, if you have an idea where to go, like do you know where to exit?" Trevor says, "Okay, well, if we eliminate the protections most likely holding down the storage areas, we can get our stuff. At that point, I can get to my suit and have it to track me. The only issue is that my ship is not designed for combat, and it can only carry like, a single pilot.” “Comfortably?” “I… Hm? What? Comfortably, I guess, well unless you consider being cramped in the fetal position behind the back seat… uh, comfortable, then maybe?” “Hm.” “I can hitch a ride on a transport ship, so you won’t have to worry about me there." The Clurvaen responds, "Okay, and then I can get to my ship. Wait, no that’s not going to work.” "I can track your ship if it’s lost." "I doubt you can truly track my ship though, it's got something special to avoid stuff like that." "Wait isn’t that s**t illegal? Like you can’t be invisible at all to LIDAR and s**t” “I’ll tell you once I get to it, but first I’ll need to get to my stuff.” She looks over to the side, before she smirks, “Cuz I’ve got a surprise for them when I get it.” before she frowns a little. "Aight, so why don't we observe the prison a little more, and then come back for more results." Trevor continues "Sounds like a plan.” the Prisoner says. "Okay. And we should probably introduce ourselves, so it’s easier for us to get out of here. So, I guess I’ll go first. My name is Trevor Barros, I am human… that’s about it. I come from the space town of Worag The Clurvaen’s equivalent to brows raise, before staring at her lap for what seemed like a few years, before realizing it was her turn, “Huh, uh, oh shoot, uhh, my name’s Niara, I come from my home planet of Austry. Uhh, I am Forisk… that’s all I wanna say.” “My name’s Porarle, and I’m from the planet Gasba.” “Cool.” Niara says. -- -- -- The water was running in the showers and the inmates had been rowed, walls grey and the privacy was enough for walls. Trevor had been washing himself thoroughly, trying and forcing himself to pass the god awful smells of the showers. Suddenly, he drops the soap, and he looks around. Oh f**k. He presses his back against the wall and grabs soap that way. He turns around, Okay, that wasn’t so bad. An inmate notices and grabs Trevor’s shoulder. A loud whip singes through the air, and the inmate smashes into a wall, breaking several scattered panels, shattering and shimmering them across the floor. Niara stands tall, the light unveils the scars that cover her body, she wears them as if they were all trophies in opposition to the attacker. “Depends, you’re going to have to find that out yourself. Besides, I’m a bit rusty for my experience! Give me a good warm up!” The man lobs his fist at her before she catches it and hammers his head into the shower walls with her elbow-- all in one quick snap. She pushes him out, giving him another shot. His head screams like a loudspeaker. He lashes another fist, this time Niara trips his legs. The inmates jump out the way as the opponent’s head bricks into the side of a wall, several panels crumble onto him. “I….” he coughs out blood before standing up. Trevor takes a light glance at Niara, seeing the truth of her condition. The scars on her face were not exclusive and trailed and stretched down her whole body. And the scars were deep. Very, very deep. “There's something you’re not telling me.” he whispers, Niara picking up on it. “About what?” A guard interrupts their conversation, “Hey you!” she points to Niara, “literally a day in and there’s already trouble! Come with me.”
-- -- Trevor lies in his bed, staring at the ceiling, to hear thoughts clatter around in his brain. Are you sure you couldn’t pay off the debt, or is that just your laziness? Are you really worth it, or are you pretending that you have worth? Everyone’s lying to you. Everyone knows how much of a waste you really are. The way you neglected, failed to protect your parents, how do you see yourself as a son, a person. Stop saying you did your best, you failed them, so why are you pretending you did? Trevor rolls around on the prison bed, Bixvah, Livo. I wonder how they must be reacting right now. Surely, it’s been long enough for them to notice something. Another voice to cry. It came from below, Niara’s pillow was the thing to muffle it. He looks around to see the other inmates asleep like bears, before climbing down to the bunk below whispering, “Niara, what’s going on?” “Leave me alone. I don’t want to lose myself. I’ve already lost so much. Not now, not ever again. I’m not losing it. I can’t do it. I’m… I’m… I can’t. I am going to lose myself.” her breathing was rampant, her skin quivers, Trevor shakes her shoulder. “Hm?” Niara wakes up, “what, wha? What’s happening?” “You were talking in your sleep. Uh, I’m sorry for waking you up.” “What? Oh, yeah. My sleep schedule’s been total s**t anyway, so, that probably explains it. ” The snores of the inmates interrupt the conversation, “Uh, sorry if that woke you. I’m going back to sleep now, I’ll try not to be so loud, again. Uh, yeah.” She slips the blanket over her body. Trevor nods and gets onto the top bunk “I do have a question though.” He stops to listen. -- -- On The Monarch,“What do you mean you don’t know where he is!" Livo yells, “Didn’t you hear me? All I know is that his suit logs says that he was online and then not.” “Dude, that isn’t specific at all and you know it!” “Okay, I get it, just- just wait a minute, alright?” Bixvah is cut by, “Seriously? Bixvah, you were in charge of taking care of Trevor, and you let this happen? Just tell me what happened, straight. Don’t sugarcoat it.” “I’m trying to-it says that he went offline five days ago and that’s it. What else can I say from this!” “Bixvah, I… not again. Every step forward is a thousand steps back, I swear-” “He’s not dead, he’s… he’s in a prison ship” interjects Alphas. “Alphas! What happened, where were you!” Livo says, “I couldn’t get away from Trevor’s suit, I was tangled.” “Wait what?” Livo exacerbates, “He’s in a prison ship, active jammers obstructed my ability to synchronize between points and I'm still trying to recover from the damage, so it’s not pinpoint either. Don’t be too harsh on Bixvah, the suit logs can only collect vague data on consciousness. I assure you he’s still in the prison ship.” “Can you send coords?” Bixvah barks “I can’t, it’s because it’s a moving vehicle. I apologize immensely. The only reason I’m here is because of a small error in the jamming.” “Oh, that’s not good. Do you know any details of his capture?” “He was subdued by the Kraken.” A harsh, poisonous silence embarks the room. “Well s**t.” she seethes before slamming her fist into a table. “D****t! I told him that he shouldn’t get close, and yet-” “He never did.” A video plays on a screen in their lab, showcasing the Suit’s POV of the event. The Kraken hulked over the body, before hucking him over their shoulder, bringing the man all the way to a transaction between a military officer and the Kraken. Something is off. “Hey, why are the guards holding those devices near his ship?” “What… are those grenades? Why do they have those out?” Before they could see anything else, The Kraken lays Trevor onto the ground- the guards rip the suit open, the video feed crashing to black. “Hey, wait go back?” the video feed reverses before it realizes something, forwarding and then halting. It captures an image of the Kraken, seemingly in anguish and panic as a soldier was about to toss a grenade at them. They’re all starstruck. “So now what?” “So, The Kraken’s not going to be a problem? That’s something.” Livo replies. “Where’s the SkyLancer?” A camera feed of the SkyLancer floating in space is shown. “Do you have information on where the transaction took place?” “A Voyager Convoy PD Transport ship. The Albatross. Owned by presumably a prison and containment company. When I did finally resynchronize, I did manage to snip off an idea of where they might be. It’s not exact though, I’m going off of approximation.” “Wait, how the, he only went to an Titan occupied area, how is he being tracked?” “I have a hypothesis. It could be that the HC; TF learned from the incident and thus have locked him as someone to be tracked. Then they hired the Kraken to capture him. Or, he was just a set up target, and The Kraken took the bait.” They all stand, pondering. “So now what?” “Well, where’s the ship?” “I have… barely a smidgeon of an idea; the only way to get to him, is to disable the jammers.” -- -- “What did I say that night?” Niara and Trevor were at a table, eating their lunch Trevor stares at the plate, while he peels the skin off of a fruit. He sighs, forcing the truth out. “Something about losing things.” Niara stops eating. “Oh. I was talking about that again, huh?” “Hm?” She pushes air out of her nose. “It’s something that happens, once or twice a month. It’s nothing major.” Trev takes a minute, sitting his fork in the crux of his thumb and forefinger “It’s just, what happens after we bail?” “You mean,” he looks around, whispering, “here?” “I can’t keep this life up anymore. It’s killing me. But… how could I go back? My family, my friends, there’s no way they could understand. They’ll never, never want to see me again. They’re going to think I’m a monster, they’re going to be hurt by my presence and, and-`` “Niara.” She hears and notices how violent and ragged her breathing became. Her eyes glances at Trevor, then they zip to a column, then her arms, her tray. She closes her eyes, she commands her lungs back to a more basic pulse. The gales became simple breezes. “You okay? Or, I meant, are you okay now?”
He inches back a little to give her space but Niara chuckles. “I appreciate you checking up on me, thank you for that, but… I don’t really deserve it.” A silence splits the conversation. “Just so you know, I don’t think you’re a monster, or a bad person at all.” She scoffs, “Yeah right. We barely know each other, we literally just met a day ago. You don’t know anything about me, or enough yet, for better or worse.” she continues “Well, I know I’ve lost things too, I lost enough to be left homeless, and work a dead end job for years, crying as I remember seeing my father die right before my eyes.” Niara’s face turns to see Trevor’s soul crushed face. “Maybe it is because I have the worst taste in people. Maybe I do give people too much faith. I know my friends tell me that much anyway. But, even then, I can’t help but at least feel where others may stand. Perhaps, it doesn’t excuse the verdict, but it’s something that I can understand and connect with, and that’s better than nothing. That’s what I see with you. You didn’t have to barge in and save me from that rapist, and yet you did so anyway. You’re someone that, no matter what may pose in front of you, you have the guts and courage to charge at the problem head on and deal with it. You’re someone that despite hardship, you find a way to get back up.” The words from Trevor echo in Niara’s ear. She takes a sip of water from her tray, forcing a gulp. “Yeah, well, how do you know I wasn’t just using you. That I’m not just using you for my own gain?” Trevor blinks. “Because you wouldn’t have said so. You didn’t have to do any of that, and even then, you did it without a hesitation, even with your scarring. But, maybe I am looking too far into this; after all, we did just meet yesterday, but I feel like you’re selling yourself too short here.” Trevor takes another bite out of his lunch. Niara takes a gander at herself, her focus distance themselves away from everything before she shakes her head back to sense. “I, you don’t get it. It’s, you don’t know enough about me to say those things, and even then--” Porarle butts in: “And guess what I found out. There’s more than one level.” “Wait, wait, what?” Trevor exclaims. “Yeah, the top level is both the main control room, and the captain’s quarters.” Porarle says, “if we want to contact any friends or whatever, we need to strike there, or at least one of the sector rooms.” “Okay, but the guards are going to be an issue right?” Porarle interjects, “yes, but I can cause a distraction. So you also know, there are eight total sector rooms. if we gain control of one of them, we can access all security in that sector, the only thing being if anyone wants to do anything, it has to be in that sector.” “Okay, how are we getting into the main control?” Niara asks “Well, I don’t think us three alone can cut it, as much as that stunt is impressive and all, I don’t think we can take an entire ship’s worth of guards.” Trevor says “You’d be surprised how many people I can take on-``Niara replies “And how many people can strategize to take out one girl. We need that control point, so we can get the stuff that can get us out of here. You also need a key to get into the camera rooms, and luckily, there are several guards where we can get that from. The only problem is how?” Niara's face lit up. “You said you can cause a distraction?” “I can start a riot.” “Sweet, now when should we do this.” “I think we should signal when we’re ready.” -- --
He gives the signals, and begins to yell at a random, strong prisoner. “Hey… No longer afraid of you…” whatever it was, it paled in comparison to the next thing that happened. It was like the colosseum, prisoners chanting the name of their favorite prisoner, the sound becoming an ocean. Prisoners smash bricks, bottles, and chairs onto each other, the room is bathed with blood. Guards get involved, the room plunges into an orchestra of anarchy and riot. Trevor and Niara moves into the paths of two nearby guards, overhearing their words, “Our orders are to stay here, until further instruction.” “But my friends!” “They’ll be fine.” Niara and Trev mouth and gesture in sync, before ambushing the two guards, they pop out like weasels and squeeze their arms, the guards’ heads waned. “See, this doesn’t have to be lethal.” Niara regrips and checks the chamber before clicking the selector switch. “I haven’t used one of these in forever! Alright Trevor, get us access to that elevator!” “Yeah! Wait, how are we going to access the computer-`` “Let’s worry about that later! We’ve gotta move!’ -- --
The two of them walk across a fenced in mezzanine, Trevor looking down to see at least five stories, an explosive boom caves the door of the control room in. Two men jump in surprise. A burst brasses the room, and the two men drop to the floor. Trevor screams and stares at the body, only to see Niara’s gun up and the barrel smoking. She walks up to the dead guard and tears the card off, and slams it on the desk. “That’s how you’ll access it.” “Uhhh, cool.” Trevor stares at the dead bodies on the floor before forcing his eyes away from them, shaking his head. “Well, what are you waiting for! We can’t stay here all day!” “Okay, jeez. Wait, do I have to kill?” “... are we actually having this question?” “Yes! You promised me that we didn’t have to kill anyone in this! I don’t want to hurt anyone-`` “Oh s**t I did. Well, more people are going to strike back and hurt you if you don’t… if you don’t do something. You gotta learn when to fight, press back-`` “To the point where I'm legit killing someone? “Trevor, please, just get through security.” He slides the card over a black dot and the computer charges to life, looking over to see Niara standing at the doorway. “And…” Her eyes melt into the frightened daze of Trevor’s eyes. “Yes, you’re going to have to. You don’t know if they’re going to stand back up or not.” Trevor stares at the monitor, his brain having a war inside itself. Niara’s head turns and runs out the door, “Guards are coming! I’m going to stall, but whatever you do, just keep going!” She charges away from the door. “Right.” He steps away from the computer, grabbing books and miscellaneous items, putting them into several places around the office. -- -- -- Niara looks down from a hanging light bar,Five men approach in the reflection of the camera room’s window. She points the gun down at one of them, then pulls the trigger, stroking blood on the ground. The goons fire as the rounds strike out the lights. Niara drops, her victim’s head crashes into the floor. Two shots needles through the legs of a man before a volley sprashes the air, spraying blood all over the concrete. A bright blight blurs and Niara snaps to suppress the guard next to her, the window dents with a red and whiter flash. The prison guard slides down from the window and Niara nicks magazines, knives and a key, before a loud bang flings her sight to the window, seeing a loud crash of monitors waterfall onto the man’s head. “Ooh, yeah that’s… mmm.” The partner of the downed spots a telephone in Trevor’s hand. A ring clocks out, Niara takes advantage of the walls and railings to toss and bullet her leg into a guard. She rolls away, several rounds raze through a wall trying to tag her; Shrapnel and brass hurricanes back out the other side, steel fire shuriken three more guards. She peeks, and then slides to swipe some of their equipment, she hisses out of her teeth: “Some random girl with a gun, versus like a thousand well trained guards. What could possibly go wrong?” Niara notices the massive increase of guards diverging onto the hallway in front of her. A handgun disappears from the corpse and she dashes onto the wall, sprinting hard and sturdy. Her finger punches the trigger, spewing silver trails that sew and skewer the crowd: Click, and Niara leaps and beelines for an ingressed wall, pouncing her legs onto another guard, bending to reach for another gun, Niara drops her emptied pistol and draws a cherry line across the guard’s neck. “F**k!” She finally wrenches the extra gun, amongst the fiery, smokey tracers hammering into fur and fat. She seethes, before she catapults her leg off the ground and ricochets against a wall, this time to reach hanging lights above and in front of her. The soldiers catch on and start firing above, only for glass shards and the sharp blackness to feed them their own blood. -- -- Thirteen men drop near the room’s door. Trevor had about six more inside the actual room, with most of the items in the room completely broken. The elevator eludes him, his eyes burn through the page trying to find it. Next to Trevor’s body, about twenty firearms, forty magazines, eight melee weapons, and several explosives laid beside him. A man yells on a radio and Trevor instantly launches an unloaded rifle at the man. This rams the man nearly over an edge before a hand grabs his arm. He is pulled up by Trevor. “Hah. thanks… wait wha-`` A fist ends his sentence before Trevor sprints back to his computer Trevor looks with sniper focus, he brute forces his way through, his hands literally tossing sweat away until, “Thank f*****g God! Finally, Niara, I’ve got it!” He runs out. -- -- Niara fights to keep up with the army gushing in, making her way back to Trevor. Several stab, slash, and gun wounds were added to the gallery of scars on her body, blood oozes everywhere. Before getting a chance to react, Niara swings a chair through the guard's face, several teeth dropping to the floor like casings from a gun, before a knife phases into his throat. A door breaks into pieces-- four shots ring out from Niara’s hand; two guards fall in tandem. Three more guards stomp through, and she jumps back into the room, snatching another handgun and kicking over a table, rampaging at least eighteen rounds through the table’s wood. Footsteps batter the ground and Niara thrusts her gun at the doorway for the raven haired man to trip in. Her finger slips off the trigger. “Trevor, oh thank-- say something, I nearly shot you!” His breath flees him, he manages “let’s go!” Niara grabs a shotgun on her way out, guards storming behind them, Bullets tear and eat through their uniforms, skin shatters away like porcelain. Trevor wails, Niara blasts a holocaust of lead down the lobby, a bloodthirsty thunder shrieks down at once. The two run until a pair of gunmetal doors seemingly shine in the limelight. Niara bashes and slaps her card at the receiver before the doors slide open, the two lunge headfirst inside. A shotgun slug rams through the air, before two metal doors shut to block it. They could hear each other’s desperate breathing, Trevor horrified at noticing the bloodbath that Niara was, bullet holes and scarlet cuts streak on several different parts of her body, “Heheaheahahaaaa. That was fun.” Insanity embraces her voice. “Fun? You’re covered in blood, how the hell are you still-`` “Alive? I barely know that. ‘Sides, you’ve got some scars too.” Trevor feels his face and body, the small indents in his skin and how he was bleeding. “But you’re shot in lethal areas!” She begins to cough, her stance weakening before her muscles bulge her back up, Trevor’s body lunges with Niara’s finger pointing up, “I’ll be, gasp, fine.” her fingers claw, her back straightens, a demon in the flesh. -- -- The elevator pings at the final destination, and a room with two machine guns unveils, Niara pulls Trevor back in the elevator and shuts the door, for bullets to spray and assaults the metal. “Okay. Trevor, don’t move.” “You’ve got that right, wait, why?” “To keep you alive dumbass, no offense- you’re still new at this. Leave this to me.” “But you’re bleeding!” “Trust me.” The elevator door opens for Niara to strafe onto a wall, the machine guns only missing by inches, sometimes biting bits of skin. The left machine gun wails back, with the right one stopping fire. “Oh f**k! Wait, where’d she?” Trevor sneaks out of the elevator, holding his pistol by the barrel, with a finger aiming at the left guard. Wait. He grabs the slide and unlocks it, and then unloads the magazine. He waits, spying the guard’s movements. she swiveled the machine gun, trying to get a catch on Niara’s location, before something nicks the edge of the gunner’s head, she yells, “ow! hey! what the hell?” The woman rushes the muzzle at Trevor before a gunshot spikes her head. Niara peeks over the balcony. “Okay, sure.” she jumps down and rolls on the ground, “Okay, I got the other card.” “Wait what?” “I barely noticed it; we need two cards for the safe.” “Oh-” “Come on!” Niara cuts him A pleasant chime sings through the halls with a timer above the doors, “Wait what? Oh come on.” She spies the gate before noticing the machine guns above. “I’m going to provide covering fire. Can you do anything to the safe doors?” “Uh? Not that I can see.” “Okay, good to know. Um.” Five minutes were counting down at a glacial pace. “Right. I’ll see if I can get you above.” She climbs up the balcony and kicks most of her body out, her arms locking her from falling out. “Can you grab my legs?” Trevor jumps and barely grabs onto her ankles, before she pulls him up. Her injuries wrangles pain out from her legs. “Now we wait.” -- -- A loud click rings from the doors, and Niara kicks the door open. They cut and pry open every container they could find. “Ah ha! Found it!” Niara cheered. She took it out, and like found her entire livelihood, she stabbed herself with a girthy syringe, her eyes sparkled, her leg’s flexing, flinching to the injection. She places it back inside the kit aside and puts on her armor on,
She slips herself into the bulky plates and tendrilly armor, it fits like gloves and socks. She sinks her helmet on, the tendrilly tubes wriggle, fasten and lock it in place, a satisfying fizz sings out, as the length of the cords fall onto her breastplate. A shotgun, a tactical axe, a karambit, an auto pistol, and a multi caliber bullpup rifle rests on her back. Trevor did a similar procedure with his purple, black and red suit, only in a more swift, sleek, glossy style, where the armor pieces snap together like a puzzle, Niara grabs her rifle and checks the magazine, exchanging the magazine for a new one, the leftover one snapping to shoulder, before her eyes peel open at Trevor’s suit, her rifle drops to the floor. “What? Wait, oh no.” Trevor freezes, legs and arms starstruck at Niara’s transformation. He is still frozen. Chills rumble and shiver through his spine. “Oh my god. Oh my god, it all makes sense. Wait, what the hell?” “Listen, if you don’t forgive me, I understand-`` “I don’t even. What the f**k? You’re the Kraken? Don’t forgive you? You don’t… You literally… what the f**k!” “Listen, I am sorry, okay? I didn’t know what they were going to do to you. oh… oh no.” She falls onto the floor. A guard yells, “Oh my f*****g god. What nightmare happened here?” scaring the both of them. Trevor looks at his hand and shakes his head, “Let’s move.” He gives Niara her rifle and drags her back up. “A result of some prison- what are you, no way!” “Yeah, there’s no f*****g way this was part of a riot! And no way there would be so much carnage!” “Why are we all so scared? Come on! Square up, we can take these-`` The door flies away in response to The Kraken’s kick, the black tendrilly uniform of her armor casts specters into the entire room. The same man’s stance shrinks, dropping his gun. “Nope.” he walks away from the scene, “Wait, where the hell are you-`` “I ain’t fighting this fight, no f*****g way, I’m out if y’all want to come along, go ahead.” The rest of the guards look at the Kraken standing there and shake their heads, walking away from them. “That was easy-`` “You can say that again.” -- -- -- The warden sits at an executive chair, with holographic screens and displays everywhere. A clang clatters, a blade cuts into the metal door, before shearing it away, the warden falls back onto the monitors, his eyes reflecting the Kraken’s threatening aura. Without even a chance to speak, her rifle rings an iconic, mythological gun shot shriek, before his mouth gargles the shot. Trevor gets to the control console, and operates, by hitting the alarm, disengaging the locks for ships and life pods.” “Okay, now. Alphas?” “I’m right here. Glad to see you back!” “Who’s Alphas?” “My Sylph.” Niara nods her head in disbelief. “Uhh Trevor, you do know the Kraken is right there, right?” “Uh huh, I’ll deal with her later- just, call the SkyLancer in.” She mouths an ‘o’ and runs with him to the elevator, pausing suddenly. “Wait, you said it can carry one person comfortably?” “I guess so, I haven’t ever tried with two people before. Yeah, I’m pretty sure you’ll break the chair with that armor, but I think we can fit? You’ll have to strip a lot though.” She looks down at the floor, before shrugging. Marching stampedes through the halls, Niara turns her face towards the sounds. “Okay, that’s our cue!” She grabs Trevor and runs towards an elevator.
-- -- The door pings, bullets ping off armor and the two swerve and sprint across a bridge, escaping into a cavernous hangar, the grey canvas that is the metal interior scars with scuff marks and bullet collateral. A hail of shots pound Trevor’s armor before shattering the plates like glass, warnings popping up on his visor. The Kraken retaliates and colors the scene in bone marrow and blood. Gunships, and turrets appear, grinding the theatre, the harrowing sounds of metal splintering and shattering fills the harbor. Niara pushes Trevor into a metallic corner, ammunition pattering the steel like rain, “Dude, here!” she tosses a device with the label: “Rapid Plate Repair '' on it. He follows the instructions and jabs it into his chest “Nanite interference detected, interlocking and replacing damaged nanites.” Trevor’s suit begins to disintegrate and materialize at the same time. “Wait what the?” The suit grows and decays at the same time in different areas, before it begins growing a second layer. “I’m trying to force it to go faster, but the suit is confused.” Alphas says “Provide cover to Trevor, I will relay all updates on the Skylancer’s delivery-” “What the hell, how’d you-” Bullets fly against her, she pushes back with a shotgun at a crowd of goons. “Aight will do. Wait… isn’t it not a combat-” “It’s getting re-equipped. I will tell you when it’s close.” A shot from a sniper stabs Trevor’s foot. The Kraken grabs her Multi caliber, hesitating with the shot. “M**********r.” A bombastic whirl blasts through the room, a railing mere inches away from the sniper’s head. Niara inches her head at Trevor's armor. “Here, inject yourself with these.” she says, dropping several futuristic red colored syringes on the floor, Trevor says internally, “What is taking the SkyLancer so long!” “It’s nearing your destination, just hang in there!” A gunshot rings next to Trevor’s ear, the Kraken fires a burst at the opponents. She puts her eye down a scope at the turrets. “I-” She glances at three tubes on her hip before another shot fires out, denting the Kraken’s armor piece. She pulls the trigger, a long volley scratches the edge of the turret’s gun, bundles of gold sparks burn her opponents. She presses a button at the front of her gun, which unlocks the barrel and shoved the bolt carrier back. She switches the barrel and the magazine for a heavier, much more feral round, before smacking the bolt release. She fires another shot, this time punching the attacker’s shoulder. “Good enough.” The SkyLancer arrives, and answers the carnage. Spears accelerate, and shred the interior, disintegrating and volcanoing through the steel, and turrets there. Magma is left. “What the f**k! What, when? What is that?” “Your Skylancer.” she speaks in reverent fear “What? They loaded that! Oh my god-” he stands up with his half assembled suit, as blades of thunder strike the men in the hangar, making them faint at once. Trevor stares, breathing electric before he shakes his head, grabbing Niara’s arm. “Let’s go!” She grabs on and rockets off into the colorful void, the Skylancer swording through to catch them, The two of them bulldoze hard into the cockpit of the SkyLancer, the seat fractures, and the canopy locks Niara and Trevor into a ball. The ship trucks backspace, with the two of them tumbling together like they were in a washing machine, breaking anything inside. “Ow.” Niara removes her armor and looks around her to see enemy interceptors chasing them. “Alphas, how many of them are there?” Niara commands. “Fourteen!”She rushes to click a button, noticing the weird shape of the wheel. Her finger slaps a button, several green ellipses track onto five starfighters before she rushes to press them again. Rockets hurl out the ship before they run and flash a bright star near each vehicle. “That’s not what that key does, what the heck!” He presses the button and an orange trail of spikes rush out in its afterwake. “Oh my, why?” “Trevor! Just shoot them, they’re shooting you, it’s self defense-`` “No, never again, I will not!” She grabs the left triggers and her fingers jerk the triggers in. Missile types on the glass canopy switch rapidly. She presses another button, this time, a rapid line of missiles splinters and crashes into enemy ships following, rainbows of explosions followed. She pressed again, only for a singular missile to cruise straight into the middle of the remaining ships, it stopped for a second before discharging into a disorientating and nauseating wave of force, pushing them away. The last pilots’ hearts were pounding, fingers fidgeting the triggers. The SkyLancer had vanished.
-- -- Trevor’s breath is fast and hearty, he squeezes his fingers against the edge of the dashboard's cover, frustration lingering in the cockpit. “Okay… okay. So they went behind my back, and installed… weapons of war. I… I can’t-”. “Oh my Squash, You have a mini fridge?” Niara learns. She pops a soda cap as it dropped on the floor, “Artificial gravity too? Damn, this is a helluva ship. My ship doesn’t even have an adjustable seat in it.” “You’re not getting away from this clean Niara. Why the hell did you throw me into prison? Who contracted you? Hell, why are you even in my prison? “ “I did say you didn’t know me.” “No. I believed you. Just, why?” His head presses and pushes into his arms. “Alphas. Why? Why did you let them attach weapons onto my ship?” “It was to save you, you couldn’t fight!” He lies his head onto the dash. Silence once again, enters the room. “Niara, do you have sympathy for those you kill?” Niara doesn’t give an answer. “You never think about the lives you have probably ruined?” “Yeah. That’s what I meant… When I said I was a monster.” “Well. I don’t think so. I’m just, it’s like witnessing a murder, it’s like making a mistake. I can never go back.” Niara looks at her hands, her armor. “Yeah.” “Still. I don’t see you as a monster.” “Yeah. Well, you still don’t know me. I’d probably go back to that… thing again, knowing if I had the chance. I ain’t strong, I’m just… pathetic, that’s what.” Trevor goes back to stillness “Yaknow? I doubt that. You know it’s killing you. And you still had the courage to risk your life to keep me from death.” “No I don’t. I just fought back, because I had to… you would be dead if I left you.” Niara realizes. “See? You’re stronger than you think. Way stronger.” She looks at her skin, the dry blood and recent marks on it, distorting her clean tattoos. “Yea… or just insane, you know.” “Heh. yeah. Then again, I was the dumbass who tried knocking that gunner out with the handle of a gun.” Niara chuckles. “Yeah, true. Sigh.” she relinquishes. “So now what?” “... I don’t know. Go home?” “Oh wait s**t. My jet!” “You have a jet? “Yea, my ship… those b******s took it from me.” Trevor’s eyes widened. “Oh s**t. Where is it? Oh wait, they took my plant too.” “I don’t know? I got knocked out when I turned you in, so I don’t-I dunno.” Trevor looks at the cockpit in front of him, seeing his reflection bounce back. He sighs, “Okay. uh, I have an awful idea.” He swipes right on the dashboard and does a loop gesture before a ping sings through. “We’re getting picked up. I’m sending a note to my employers.” “Oh… oh no.” “Yep. They’re going to know who you are.” “Wait, can’t you just find it from here?” “Yes. but also, have you seen my suit? Have you seen your gear? Yea, no, I’m not going to come back in with a f*****g t shirt and expect them to give it to me.” She slumps back into the space that was her seat at the minute. Trevor’s cockpit barges in front of her, his head still waning against a moon’s revolution. “You’re chasing after the omniscient right?” “Yea? Wait, how do you know that? And why?-`` “I saw it on your record.” “Oh s**t. Oh no… oh whatever, I’ll deal with that later. Why do you want to come with me to see this… omniscient thing? You don’t strike me as the gal to care about plant samples” Niara looks at her reflection. “Because… I don’t really know. ‘Sides, you don’t really strike me as someone who cares either. I guess, I just wanted to see it. That’s it.” she admits. Trevor’s eyes shine with the same luminosity as the moon behind it. He shrugs, “Anyway, so, what’s your serial number for the ship?” “Uhhh… actually? Hang on… is it off of the actual serial number?” “What else? I mean if you have a Ping Code, that’d be nice.” “Mm. okay… uhh, nah. I’ll just give you what it is from the rangefinder.” “Wait what?” “It’s complicated, I'll elaborate later, just ehre.” She brings out her rangefinder and shows it to Trevor. He types it in. “I’ve located the Leviathan.” Alphas displays a map detailing Leviathan's location on the canopy glass and the console via two dots, and several solar systems apart. Niara sends her head back before dipping forward and spitting air. “Yeah.” “Whoa, okay? Trevor’s getting attention over there, lucky you.” He gives her a flat face before he pushes forward on the throttle and swooshes through the black, ocean-like void taking a beeline path back to a brown beacon. -- -- --
Free Trial“Are you nuts!” Bixvah yells to Trevor with Niara in the middle, while they are inside a Landing Shuttle, with The SkyLancer parked on the exterior of it. “You worked along with one of the most dangerous people in the universe, to escape a prison? And you’re expecting me to just let that go?” Bixvah surges through Trevor responds, “I know, this is crazy, but trust me, she wants to come with us.” “The Kraken? The same one f*****g person responsible for massacres and bloodbaths all over the galaxy, including the one you just escaped from? Not to mention she’s the same person that threw you in there in the first place?” Niara cuts in, she rams her face into Bixvah’s face, “Listen, I’m not here to get people riled up, I’m just here for Trevor. I owe him anyway.” Bixvah stares at her reflection in Niara’s eyes, “I’m not convinced.” “I didn’t ask for your opinion, I’m doing this as a favor.” Niara bites back, Bixvah winces. A small, shielding smirk draws on Bixvah’s lip. “Well. That makes two of us. I wasn’t planning on allowing, you, in here anyway. Pretty sure Livo wouldn’t appreciate it either.” Livo’s mug was glued to the table, acting as a handle for their hand. Mug slips, they drop: Niara, Bixvah, and Trevor rush to grab her. “Livo! Are you okay?” Bixvah commands “Ooh, sorry. I thought I saw the Kraken was on our ship. Please tell me-” They see Niara still in her armor looming over her, “Oh dear god.” Their eyes go back into their head, Bixvah drops her to the floor, raising them up onto the chair. M “Keeping them alive?” “What if she does?” She examines Livo before their eyes open. Her eyes open, her pupils sees Niara’s face. “What? You’re clurvaen?” she says, recovering from their state. “How could you tell?” Niara snaps her head slyly “Wow, that’s a revelation.” “Shut it Bixvah, I’m trying to get my senses back, okay.” “Senses? What sense do you need, she’s a war criminal!” “Can you let her think?” Niara says, Livo attempts to stand, they raise a finger. “What do you say Trevor?” Trevor leans against a corner. His arms folded into each other. “Even with the fact that she threw you in prison?” “Yea. She did help me to escape, so.” “Well, how do you know she wasn’t doing it for something selfish.” “Because she would’ve done it by now. In fact, she already did, and it didn’t work. Why would she go after something that she already knows doesn’t actually exist nor work. I looked through what Alphas recorded when I was out. The Contract was not just for me. I think they were going to try to hit two birds with one stone and have me questioned when I was captured.” Livo, Niara, and Bixvah look at Trevor, their brains whirring at his theories. “Plus, thinking about this more coldly, she would be valuable. You sent me on a mission into the Titan Faction, where I would’ve been totalled, if I didn’t have any of my technology on me. Niara, is the f*****g Kraken-” “Okay wait a second- I’m not that good.” Niara interrupts “Well, there’s another thing, what if she turns on us? Get a job for better pay?” “What? Then why do you fight?” The words stunts Niara in the head. She takes a gander at the ground, arms folded. “I don’t know. Revenge? Anger, rage? I-” Bixvah and Livo stare with bewilderment and fear, dueling against Trevor’s soft, generous glow. “Besides, Titan taught me that some jobs just suck. Yea, they pay well, but… ugh.” “Whoa, how do we know you’re not going to leak Trevor to the Titan-`` “Like I said. Their jobs are boring and kinda dumb.” Bixvah folds her arms. “Well, I didn’t say I cared, I came here to find the plant.” Livo and Bixvah look at each other. “She sounds serious.” “Heh, showing an attitude eh? Agh, it’s not like I have a choice anyway. F**k it, I’m giving you a chance. We can track your ship from our console. What is it’s serial number?” “I can type it in.” Niara walks up towards the glass cockpit of the ship, its view comparable to an observatory. Bixvah walks up to the console and inputs a pound symbol. “Type it in.” She urges. Niara clicks her rangefinder, a code shows up. A red point pops up on the canopy and console screens, displaying the coords above it. her head hangs down, she hisses.
-- -- --
After a few hours,The landing shuttle strides close to the escaping ship, just far enough away from its LIDAR scan. Trevor sits, his hand holding his Rej; Livo holds a shotgun, with yellow and black at its tip, it chirps when the handle is pulled; Niara holds her multi caliber rifle across from them, her mind prancing for the announcement. “Ready for deployment.” “Plant sample, my ship, then rendezvous?” her hand thumbs up with shakiness “Yeah, but we’ll be right behind you if things go wrong. That is the plan that we discussed.” Livo says, wearing a black space suit, nodding to her statement Niara sighs and checks the chamber, examining the barrel, before continuing “Swear y’all are going to slow me down. I’ve done this a thousand times before anyway.” “Really now?-`` “Three, two, one.” Bixvah calls out The side door opens and the three clang onto the steel shell of the ship. Empty as space itself. A smaller ship departs from the one they were standing on, soaring off somewhere, Livo looks at it with a small confusion. Thirteen guards show up with weapons drawn, Niara counters with a venomous strike, a parade of orange shells, before she tosses out and detonates a grenade dead center of the fireteam, forcing them to fork outwards. Guards try to recuperate, when suddenly, all of their weapons were stripped and torn apart, Trevor’s hand fulminating teal as he spears their equipment away from them. The ship's airlock door bursts open, a battalion floods out, incidentally sending the three into space. There were at least twenty men, weapons pointing and no cover or walls in sight. Trevor unleashes a blue halo, before realizing: “Wait, no- f**k f**k f**k f**k-” spam pressing a button on his wrist, a minor orange dot deploys, before it detonates, launching Trevor straight back to the ship. He claws his hand out, grappling and hauling Livo and Niara back onto the ship, releasing at just the last minute before they land with a slam. Niara draws her pickaxe and hooks onto a ledge, rolling herself back to her feet. She catches Livo in a blink. “I am not doing that again!” Livo shouts A laser blast shreds through the particles still in the air, Livo barely catches what was going on, before Niara bear hugs Livo, a giant hump on Niara’s back shielding the shot. Livo’s eyes were open, as another hail of bullets rained towards their left. Trevor catches the projectiles and reoriented them to slash the hull in front of the goons, before sending the rest to sparkle the sky. Niara stamps the ground and opens fire, disseminating bursts at a terrifying yet delicate efficiency and precision. The Henchmen find her, but she responds with a quick toss of another grenade. She detonates the ‘nade in front of their faces and dispatches the threats with her own shotgun. She loads the top barrel of her shotgun with a peculiar round before she switches back to her rifle Trevor nods, She thumbs up, and reequips her tomahawk, swinging to kick at the airlock, interrupted by a guard in front of the door, shooting her away from the entrance. She pendulums to meet Trevor, he starts to count down, his hand begins to glow blue. She trapezes back through, sending the man into the airlock door, the aperture whines and ruptures with a startling crack, like ribs snapping. She unhooks and calls, “Ey yo!” The two of them run towards the entrance, a hook tangles around Livo’s leg, they’re thrusted into the airlock. Trevor drops in, and Niara rolls over the floor, gravity spinning them perpendicular. She pulls a tendril from her armor, cording out to become a sash for her rifle. Click, click! She draws her pistol and fires. -- -- Niara’s ax head pierces and tears the bulkhead off. She looks around. “Huh. No one’s here-`` The captain turns in their executive chair and fires a loud shot, knocking her head back by five centimeters, before she leans right back forward. Niara draws her sidearm, as a single bullet sieves through the captain’s hand. They scream. She then picks up their handgun. It was big, bulky, and ugly. Only one thing she has to say: “Nasty.” and unloads the thing, kicking it away. She shoves her sidearm’s muzzle into their muzzle. The Kraken crackles out, “Alright. I admit it, you got me pretty damn good. But now you got an entire other organization involved in this mess as well, as a result. And if there’s anything I know about best, it’s when s**t going absolutely sideways.” she pushes out the air trapped behind her mouth. “Right now, you’ve got two, clear, not so grimey paths. Either, you pay me and tell us where to find our plant and my ship, or I kill you.” “That plant is not on this ship, but your ship is!” Livo’s face freezes, before shaking her head. “Oh whatever, we can get another plant sample. That flower’s extremely common anyway.” Niara stares at Livo before shrugging as a storm of a million strong approaches, an earthquake conjures below their feet. Niara rips the gun out. “I’ll find my ship alone, y’all’s can go-” “But we don’t know where the ship is?” “It’s in the hanger, please don’t kill me!” the captain screams. “Oh right,” she points the gun towards their head. “Here.” the captain whimpers, as they throw them a small circular disk. She swipes the disk from the captain’s bloody hands. “So now what?” Trevor asks, “I want you to take a guess.” She gazes at the captain before they wince and grabs the mic. “Disable all security and reinforcement around Hanger sector 1B.” “Reinforcing all security in Hanger Sector 1B. You made a deal with us, now you either commit or-” The call cuts, the Captain’s head turns, their body quivering furiously and backing up more. “Oh f**k!” Niara grinds her teeth, before sighs. “Sorry dude.” She places her hand on the captain’s shoulder, and exits the room. “Right, I’ve got this." states Niara, “Wait, who was that from the intercom?” Niara swipes the disk off her gauntlet, seeing a digital currency rise on her visor. “Tsk, don’t really know, I don't really care either though. Obviously I pissed off someone, but I have a lot of those already; I could try to theorize, but it’s barely worth it anyway.” She checks her rifle ammo counter. “In the end, I’m just a hired gun. I finish the job, I get home, I pay for food and s**t, I get ready for the next fight.” “Wait, a lot already?” “I’ll explain later, it’s a long one. Until then though, try to keep things cool.” She runs off, the other two giving chase. Multiple guards meet them in a confined stairway, before The Kraken jumps off the handrail, slides onto a wall, and rolls, extending and turning the buttstock of her hand gun into a brace, and literally, singlehandedly rends through the crowd. Trevor and Livo stare down, awe by shock, before noticing the men about to open fire on the cake walk. The Kraken notices and chucks two frags, one above and below. The goons below split apart, while the ones on the cakewalk clump together. She sees and sprints into another room, seeing enemies in front and below. Swift, slick shots barrels out of her rifle ends them before it clicks. She realizes she’s out and back kicks the man off the overhang. She draws her tomahawk andsmashes one over the head, proceeding to trap their arm onto the railing. She switches to her machine pistol and rattle the last target with five shots. The Kraken reloads her rifle at demonic speed, already releasing the bolt after a nanosecond passed, as she flicks a switch. Her rifle transforms into a bullethose, lasering and streaming bullets all over the heads of the goons below, sawing their heads in half. She throws and drops herself with the corpse over the edge, using it as a way to break her fall. She pulls out the auto pistol and finishes off the rest of them, before moving to the hangar. The Kraken sees her ship and sprints to her ship. She stamps her foot. Multiple guards stand in courage against her, her leg spins to rail one of them onto the side of the jet, dropping him immediately. Niara enters the cockpit of the Leviathan and starts it up. The console bleeds red text down, She grabs onto the throttle and the ship hovers. Turrets aim before a gazillion hot spikes impale it like a fish. A million green triangles highlight the ship. The Kraken presses a button as lasers pierce the targets. Livo and Trevor pant at the edge of a doorway, “Is the Skylancer-gasp- ready?” Trevor says. Alphas answers, “Yes-`` the roar of the SkyLancer enters the hangar, with the cockpit open. Livo, “Wait, what about me!” “Climb aboard!” Niara says. -- --
The Leviathan and the SkyLancer swoop out of the hot zone,“Ay yo, LIDAR’s got something?” A small speck glints, before a laser blasts the Landing Shuttle. “Bixvah!” Livo calls out, Niara presses a combo of buttons before wrenching back on a trigger. A dart throttles out, as she and Trevor swerve to get back onto the ship. Warnings spurt everywhere, electricity stings and sprains the Leviathan, Niara jumps out, beeping shivering the ship. “Shai… Come on.” Bixvah presses a button and the ship goes black. A swarm of drones parade towards the Landing Shuttle, Bixvah panics, witnessing the Leviathan already racing towards the drones, Livo and Trevor watching. Pellets, bullets, thrash and trash the pests, Niara takes a gander at the distance, with several highlighted drones and a titanic replica looming in the distance. Booms shouts, the Landing Shuttle crashes by her suddenly. Bixvah screams, doing and feeling a thousand things at once, but nothing was slowing down the vertigo. The stars were beginning to catch up, next thing she knew, Bixvah’s face flings into the dashboard. She looks above to see a hanger, as she was being dragged into the ship. “We go here once, and we’re already in some cartel’s f*****g ship, great” The doors crash, many goons and henchmen try to barge in. Lightning strikes terminates the armies surrounding the Landing shuttle, as well as several missiles detonate in the air, creating high volumes of acid, thermite, shrapnel, electricity and smoke. Finally, The Leviathan approaches the arena, an electric line runs over the top edge of the entrance, forcing the bay doors to open, the ship knives through the interior. “Point defense enabled.” Niara abandons the cockpit and tosses two grenades at a doorway, a balloon of colors walls it off, while the other concusses the hall. She looks around, feeling the quaking fire of the cannons beneath her feet. “I’ve got eyes on them!” She quickdraws and snaps a bullet into their head, before multiple gangsters catch on. Their heads explode before they could even try getting a glimpse onto her. A missile launches towards the Leviathan before it bursts a few hundred meters away from the ship. “Okay, where are they?” She sees that Trevor was trying to restart the ship, with Livo and Bixvah dealing with the threats in the meantime. “I need to help them…uhh, I’ll just support-” she jumps onto the railing and runs away to cover the exits. “Niara, where are you going? Eh’d… f**k.” The console on the shuttle was in a safe start menu, with nothing but red and error messages filth up the screen. “Black out caused by severely ruptured circuitry-” “Okay, uh, any broken wires?” “Broken computer systems, broken avionics, broken power systems, cooling-” “So everything’s fucked.” “Pretty much.” “Bixvah, the damage is much worse, can we get the Monarch, or some Solaris support, or something?” A tailwhip of yellow eviscerates a guy, Bixvah replies: “Sorry, but the Monarch is going to take forever to get to us. And it will take a long time for any support units to-” a round strikes Bixvah’s right shoulder, making her drop. A shot from above winds through the crook’s windpipe. “Bixvah!” Trevor runs to help her, before Livo intervenes. “Get us out of here!” “But I can’t, the ship’s no good!” “What, that can’t be-” “Motherboard’s… trashed, the battery’s trashed, the engine and main power, everything is trash- we need to… we need to ditch the ship!” Bixvah gets up, feeling out her shoulder. “But we can’t…” Livo switches gears to help Bixvah out. Niara sees the situation, she panics. “Wait.” An antagonist tries to engage her, she shoots her face off. An explosion breaks through and the colorful balloon from before deflates. I’ve gotta help- But it looks like a superficial injury, But what if it isn’t? Why is she just standing there then? Why am I just standing here, I need to move! She drops her head, a prism of lasers rips through the heads of the villains trying to grab her. Her brain jumbles and tangles, stuck, seeing the ever growing army of mobsters and outlaws trying to push back against the Leviathan. A whole bundle of rockets and mortars hurdle towards the jet, each bombshell explodes in the air. “I need support, but I can’t- I can’t organize-” she shoots at a few of the rocket men, before one of them fires an explosive at her, it detonates only a few meters from her face, blasting her off the edge and on to the ground. Something is ticking in her mind, a bomb yelling at her to move, but she could barely flinch. “Come on, you dumb-” She pulls with the force of a bull, but nothing moves. “Bixvah. Come on. Arms, come on. Not today. Please, something works for once. Guys wait, no!” A shot from the enemy’s gun strikes Trevor when he was approaching, Bixvah reeling and blasting an electrical claw at the opponent, Livo leaping to tend to Trevor. “Why can’t I do anything… No. I am not powerless. I am-” Niara pulls herself up before she notices her rifle missing from her hands. “Wait no s**t!” A concussive blast strikes a man about to shoot the woman, weapon drops away from their hand, before reeling it back to her. “Thanks.” she tries to get back up, before glass shatters. Violent, oily flame screeches across the floor, Niara and Trevor back away from the fire, before an electrical shock bites them both. The SkyLancer unlocks and flies back. The Leviathan backs out of the battle zone and lines itself up, digging multiple arrowheads into the corridor, some detonating into piles of thermite, bright but snowy smoke, and sharp, hard spikes. Livo and Bixvah approach, only to see the ever growing flame, as lasers spew from the top. A few grenades roll on the ground, each beeping red near the fire. They go green, the bubble of colors extinguishes the flames. “Thanks?” They run towards the downed before orange splinters shriek passed the two. Torpedoes blast near the Leviathan, forcing it further away. A net wraps around Bixvah’s, her head falls flat; Livo is punched out of commission. The four of them are surrounded by thugs, each trying to figure out pickings and things to loot.
-- -- “Let’s just kill her. She’s too much of a risk to have in our captivity. You saw how she decimated the prison right?” “Yet she didn’t decimate us-” “Doesn’t change her kill count. She’s gotten slower though, so I'll give her that.” “That addition to your suit was a great idea by the way, I still have a bit of your suit still attached, so we can still chat. They won’t know a thing.” Alphas cuts into their conversation “Where am I?” Trevor asks, “A small holding area.” Livo, Bixvah, and Niara right near him. “Great.” He overhears some guards. “So what now?” “I don’t know. The boy needs money. So, I guess this is what my job is.” “By the way, how is he?” “Joli’s up with her aunt, getting an actual life, unlike me. That’s how he’s doing.” “What is he now? High School?” “Yea, nearly ‘bout to graduate too. I just hope he doesn’t do anything stupid like I did.” “Well. Seniors are Seniors. He’s still a kid.” “He’s nearly an adult though, 19’s the magic number right. He’s got a year left.” “He could say something stupid like: ‘oh, I’m gonna bomb this school, because Mr. Teacher gave me a Pass Barely +’ or some BS.” a female thug replies “Yea, but he has made some pretty good decisions so far. So.” They shrug. “Oh what the hell. Damn boss wants us for something.” “Did she specify whether or not to bring these fuckers over?” “No.” “‘Course she didn’t!” They walk away, locking the door. Trevor looks around, to see nothing but a black, greenish grey room.“Really, again? Where’s my stuff?” A small glass piece comes out of his arm. He looks through it to see a red highlight. He knocks on the wall. He hears nothing. “Kay. Wait, why are we here?” “What do you mean?” “Didn’t these guys just try this? And it didn’t work? Hell, who even are these guys. They’ren’t even trying with security…” “Members of the Simvingala Cartel-” Trevor pauses. “What? The-” Trevor stares at Niara on the ground. He thinks a minute, brain drawing imaginary swirls. “What do you suggest we do? Is it possible that we can just take a ship from their loading docks?” “There’s probably more security around the docks, but I believe they’ll concentrate on the docks that you just came from.” “There’s more than one?” “Yes. I believe it would be very advantageous however, to get the rest of the team back up. Although, I’d be cautious with Niara-” “Why?” “They did this whole operation just to capture her. I’m just suggesting to be wary of that possibility-” “I’m not abandoning my friend. I can’t abandon her, not after what she sacrificed to help me out. Not after… not after seeing that.” The image of Niara’s scarred, blood rotted body, fighting to stay up, sears inside of his mind. “Not again. Not again after that.” Alphas don't say anything. “Alright, I have a plan. First.” Niara was on the ground, as graceful as a sleeping puppy. “Alphas, how the f**k do I wake someone up?” “There are many ways. According to HodgePodge, there are many methods. One is to use music, but I don’t think that’s a good idea, considering there may still be guards in proximity
Trevor goes to take the glass piece and props it next to Niara’s ear. He sits down and clicks on Melodia, and sorts through the music on the list. “No, that’s too loud. That’ll make her sleep harder. Yo, when did I last organize this thing? Oh… Jeez. Yea, that’s- that’s a long time ago.” he sighs out. “Trevor, I think you’re thinking too far into this.” “Yea, well, I ain’t going to blast heavy metal into her ear-” He looks at his library. “She’s a galaxy renowned mercenary, she’s literally had to endure the sound of gunshots without ear protection, she’ll be fine-” “Listen, there are proper, much better ways to wake someone up, that’s for sure.” “But you’re inside a gantry cell, there’s not much room for eloquence-” “But you see, that’s where you’re wrong. Watch.” Trevor props the glass piece near Niara’s ear and goes to tap the play button, before her ear flinches. Suddenly, her eyes and body snap to a prepared state, she instantly whips her legs at Trevor’s shins, throwing herself back to a fighting stance. “Who the f**k goes the- oh s**t!” Niara jabs her hand out, smacking Trevor by accident. “Oh, you okay!” Trevor clenches his teeth, he bunches his lips to reply. “Ow, yeah I’m fine. Owww.” “Sorry, force of habit, are you really okay?” He massages his knee gently before standing back up. “Wait, where’s our stuff- oh come on. Again?” “Yeah.” “Oh, goddammit!” Niara looks around and notices Livo and Bixvah on the ground, her palms drags her to the floor. “This is the worst thing that could’ve happened to me. This is the worst thing that I could’ve done. If I had just kept y’alls on the ship, or not ran off like a coward. None of you would be in this mess. This is my fault again. I ran away again.” “Hey. This- this isn’t your fault really.” “What do you mean?” “Well.” he hisses, “The ship wasn’t going to work anyway. I don’t blame you for moving away from us-” “But you should, I blatantly abandoned you to try and do something else. I thought it would be better. It just happened. Again.” “How about this? It's no one’s fault. No one, We could've seen this whole capture thing a long ways away, but we didn’t do anything to prepare for it. Not to mention, when it did happen, we also didn’t clarify or say anything to direct people. Honestly, this whole operation is a mess, but hey: At least we’re still here.” “Yeah. I guess so. Doesn’t change the fact that we, I, all of us have done stupid s**t. I should’ve been better. I could’ve gotten y’alls killed.” Niara imposes a commanding silence. “Just, why did you follow me? I’ve literally done this gig for years now. I know what to do. You guys… nevermind.” Niara throws her head away. “What’s up?” “I hate blaming people. I feel like I’m blaming others. God, I hate this.” She stands up. “Why’d y’all get in my way. It would’ve been easier to just let me do it.” “You had a guy pointing your gun at your-” “Yeah. I know. Still, I would’ve had to figure something out. I’m still alive because of that.” “But what if you make a wrong move?” She pauses. “So be it. That’s not worth pondering over during a gunfight with some jackass. All you can do is just recover and learn, you gotta keep moving. Give yourself space, don’t overextend, don’t rely and huddle over one spot, reposition: use other angles to engage- use your surroundings and tools. Et cetera. Sure, I am experienced, but I’m not flawless. At all, just, why did you guys come at all?” Trevor goes to say something, before stumbling over his words. “I don’t really know. I know why I came, but not why Bix or Livo did.” Trevor sighs. “Why… Why did you come, honestly.” Niara asks Trevor takes a moment. “Because I made a promise to myself. I cannot lose another one again. I cannot have another get hurt because of my… because of my failure again. I failed them. I failed them.” “Trevor? Trevor!” He begins to cry, tears watering out from his face. “Hey, Dude! you’re going to be- you’re going to be fine.” “Trevor, you did not fail them-” Alphas whispers into his ear. “But I did! I wasn’t there… they were my literal parents, and I just left them like that? Why couldn’t I do anything sooner. Like a f*****g loser.! His body slumps towards the floor, but Niara catches him. He looks up to see Niara’s eyes. “Sorry.” “Don’t be sorry. Guess, we’ve both been through a lot. So, you wanted my answer right? Of why I’m here? I’m not very good with people. It’s like a tightrope. But, it’s better than nothing, right?” Niara sighs, “When I first met you, you reminded me of someone. The someones who believed I could, I could be better. I haven’t felt that in ages.” Niara closes her fist. “Really? I, I made you feel-” “Yeah? You did. Sorry for being abrupt, but I can’t stand seeing someone like you cry and get hurt. Especially because I was indirectly the cause.” “Funny. You do the same to me, you know?” “What? Really?” “Because after seeing you so bloodied. I can’t, I couldn’t, never again. And then, I realized you had your armor. Maybe you’d be fine, I thought.” Trevor mangles out. They go silent. "So. What now?” “I’d say we should just jet.” Niara gets up from the ground and then examines her surroundings. “There’s not a door.” It is a solid block, with small inlets on it. Trevor looks and spies around. “Hmm. This sucks. Wait, Niara, what can you see?” “Nothing, it’s just a hallway with open rooms. Wait. Actually, I can kinda see a panel at the edge of the entrance. Too far though.” Niara spots a glimmer on Trevor’s glass piece. She realizes. “Hey Trevor, can I borrow that? The glass piece.” Trevor inspects his glass piece and gives it to Niara. “This? Why?” She cuts off a dark piece of her clothing and presses it against the pane, before slipping it through the gap. She sees the reflection of the panel perpendicular to their view. “Got it.” “Oooh, smart.” Trevor says, he goes up to the wall and passes his finger through the gap. Nanites emerge and crawl out, before they protrude ninety degrees to the left. “Nice. Okay, the nanites need to increase their length by, mmm, about three inches more.” Niara suggests to Trevor Nanites scutter and grow the protrusion by the amount. Niara takes a second, “Move up just a tiny bit.” Fingers move up. “Add about five more inches. The protrusion reaches a surface, before disentangling and sprawling all over the panel. The wall bisects and opens. “We’re so smart.” Niara casually interjects. “Yea. Yea we are.” Trevor admits, a shallow voice albeit. “Come on, let’s go! Wait, grab Bix and Liv.” Trevor goes up to them and attempts to wake them up “Or, that works too. We just need to get out of here.” “Yea, so more manpower right?” “Yea, but I’m wondering if this might be a bad idea?” “What do you mean?” “If we have too many people active, we may run the risk of being played with. If someone’s smart enough to either pin us and wipe us down in a precision strike, or divide and pick at us individually, we’ll just repeat history and end up here. It doesn’t help that only two of us are reliable combatants, Bixvah and Me. I’m saying that if we were to split up right now, we would have a better chance, because we both have a decent chance at fighting them-” “Wait, I thought you said that Bixvah was the only other combatant.” “Yea, mm. I meant that, no offense, as people who could consistently dish out and hold their own in an individual combat scenario. I can totally see you pulling that off in a scuffle, in fact, you’ve done it before-- but if we were to get stuck in a prolonged fight, if we were to split the wrong way, it’s game over. There’s just a lot of variables at play here, which I believe will increase if we add more party members, that’s what I’m getting at. What do you think?” Trevor looks at Bixvah and Livo. Niara looks at the wall and sees a small grate spying out to space. “Okay. Wanna wake them up?” “What? I thought you said-” “I did, but I think, I think you’re right. However, we must stick together and engage as a group.” Niara urges. Trevor and Niara go to shake the two. Livo and Bixvah’s eye lids slowly roll open. “Hey sleepyheads.” Trevor playfully replies, the two ascend from the ground. “What happened?” Livo asks, Niara smacks her hand twice with her fist. “Oohh.” Bixvah laments. “Yeah, but it’s fine.” Niara contemplates, resting her vision on a wall. “God, I’m so bad at speaking. Okay, let’s rest right now, I have an idea of what we can do; tell me if it’s s**t.” “Huh, what’s up? I can’t, everything’s fuzzy.” “Yea, let’s take a minute.” Trevor pokes at Niara’s shoulder, as she realizes and passes the panel back to him. He looks through it, several smudges and stains litter the pane, a pout curls on his face. “D****t. Whatever, I can't do anything about it.” He puts it in his hand and inspects it. He points up and sighs. “Okay. Ready?” “Yea. So, how’s the guard situation actually?” “I’ve reported ten contacts. That’s it.” Alphas projects. Niara just bunches her lips. “What? No way, that’s… that’s it? Ten guys, that’s it? What is going on?” “I believe they might be going after you.” Niara pans her head, before shaking it. “Okay, whatever. Uh, yea if that’s the case, we can just get our stuff and get out. Hm. Though, once they see that we are moving out, more might come in. I’m also curious about other things too. Nah, not worth it, they’re probably going to kill me.” Niara stands up. “Okay, I know what I said earlier about not splitting up, but I’m changing my mind about that too. If anything at all goes wrong, run. Forget about me. I can take care of armies, y’alls can’t.” “What? But you got chucked off a balcony by a rocket launcher!” Her face pauses at Trevor’s statement “That’s true. Uh, that being said, the guy had a rocket launcher for the Leviathan, I doubt they’re going to pull that on me, just to get me-” “Yeah right.” Trevor, Livo, and Bixvah say together. Niara jerks her eyes away, “whatever, but seriously though, if anything happens, just run and get out. I will be back, trust me.” They all stand back up; their heads nod together. -- -- A crook with a black and yellow suit with electrical symbols tattered on, walks through a corridor of doors, with a panel in the center. “Why am I doing this, can’t she send anyone else to do this. Ugh. For Joli. For Joli.” The guy rips open a control revealing electrical circuits, and a port. He connects a tablet to a couplet, the panel reading data about voltage. “Of course there’s something wrong, dunno why I’m the one doing this.” A needle slips inside the port and pricks tight, a blue circle illuminates onto the guy’s face. Thundering footsteps bumbles through the hall, the guy swipes his gun out and points it at the doorway in front. A purple speck appears, his finger yanks at the trigger. Out of nowhere, his body presses and flails back, his hand catching onto an electric wire. Zap! The guy falls and flails onto the walls floor, electric shock shivering his body. Trevor screams. “Wait s**t no!” he lies his hands over the guy’s body, “No no no no. This, this can’t be happening. Not again!” “Trevor, we gotta go- oh.” The Kraken realizes, an explosion splashes her reaction forward Livo runs to him, “It’s okay, it was in self defense.” Trevor is still, his arms quivering and wandering. “Trevor?” The Kraken watches her back, guards and goons get louder, she watches the front. “Trevor!” His eyes, breathing, body blots more and more. The steps hammer harder and faster, a ticking noise crawls and scratches deeper in her mind. “F**k, we don’t have time!” The Kraken throws the butt of her rifle at a slab, a door opens to reveal a chamber with windows seeping out. She notices the two entrances on either side of her. Her brows furrow, before she tosses an ordinance at the one on her right, it expands into a wall of fire. The Kraken grabs Livo and Trevor tosses them into the room. Her eyes draw towards the ever growing thunder on the right entrance, hearing Bixvah move into the pod off hand. Suddenly a small twitch captures her attention, to see the corpse’s head drag leftwards and up. “Niara, come on!” Bixvah grabs and wrenches the Kraken back into the pod as the door shuts. Zoom! The pod pops out of the ship, the black sea of space drowns and melts the capital ship’s silhouette more and more. “Destination Locked: MHN ‘Rockziban’s Cantina’” Niara looks out the porthole, seeing nothing but space. Trevor kneels, locked to the floor. Livo shakes him, trying to get him out of his trance. “The guy’s fine. I saw him get up like minutes after. He didn’t die.” “I saw him get shocked, there’s no way!” Trevor exclaims, “He was wearing an electrical suit. Trust me he’s fine.” He takes a second before shaking his head. “I, I don’t know what got a hold of me. Sorry y’all. Let’s get out of here.” On Trev’s hud, a small caricature of the Skylancer and the Leviathan approaching their location. Trevor looks through the window, spacing out at the sight of the stars pacing by.
-- -- -- “I can’t… I don’t know.” His voice echoes. His vision blurs, warps and oozes. Images of the capital ship, the stars, the pod, the cantina waver in front of him, his ears ringing like spill of blood and oil. “I don’t know!” It is pitch black. Smokescreen surrounds Trevor, he recalls his steps onto a stone path. Birds, flowers decorate the scene, a phone rings in the distance. “Yeah. Sorry, I was busy with something.” His own voice replies, but his mouth doesn't move. “S**t, I didn’t know. Uh, I’ll be there as soon as I can- wait, what do you mean don’t come? I know I can help.” Trevor spots a bench amidst the fog, his own back towards him. Trevor approaches. “Hey, excuse me, do you happen where I am-” A blackened, scribbled out face twists and screeches at Trevor, “Agh!” Trevor slams to the floor, panicked at the distorted figure in front of him. “It’s your fault.” The blackened figure scratches out. “A terrible son you are. You don’t know s**t about anything. You never checked up on your parents. You never even bothered to ask how they were doing. Hell, you never even said a goddamn hello.” “I’m sorry, I just got really busy?” “Oh? Partying, watching movies, gaming- you’re really that busy?” “What, but I never… I had to study for most of my time.” “Right, so you value money over the health of your parents, your caretakers, the ones who literally nurtured you?” “I get it, it’s my fault. I- I should’ve done something. I’m a failure, I get it-” “You already knew that you were a miserable failure; even the dormitory threw you out because you didn’t know how to count the months you let that debt pile up. So why are you still trying? What, can’t handle the feeling of failure, the feeling of losing? Are you aching just to get away from the pain of your miscalculations, of your mistakes? You dumbass, what kind of engineer doesn’t know this basic math?” Rain and thunder howls like a beast. Relentless tapping and battering of a window causes rain to seep, moonlight oozes through the cracks. Slithering, a tail of blood stalks, circles, and unwinds at a bed in front of him. Two lifeless, abandoned, dusty bodies lie in front of him. “Stop.” his voice seethes, anguish and grief buried beneath a thousand layers of sand, sand that weighed like sins, regrets, and fault. Like viscous tar drowning, the weight and pressure strangulates, cutting and edging further and further into his skin, like wires tangling and contracting in. “You think you deserve authority, after your lack of restraint? You’re scum. A criminal, you steal, and you take. You never think for others, only for yourself. You thrive off of it even.” Droplets rain down his cheek, the crimson tainted dirt and sand cords him, pressing him back from his parents’ visages, each second a patch of skin disintegrates. Blood and dust spills over his hands and face, until the threads finally snap, but not without a violent, talonly gash whipping right across his arms and legs. Trevor screams, glancing back at his wounds, before he shakes his head. He runs straight, only to catch nothing, but the dissolving ashes of his parents hourglassing through his hands. His tears follow downstream, mixing and stinging with his wounds, but he’s too stricken to care. He hugs his parents ashes, his tears and screams rampaging all over his brain. Soggied fabric splits Trevor’s eyelids open. His vision is sporadic and faded, a blurry photo. It is just his cabin. He leans forward in his bed and looks around. He feels the sodden pillow licking his hand Syringes, tablets, warm lights, bagels, a can of Bepis strands on his bedside. He looks forward, “Oh. Bad dream again.” He sighs, swiping and sipping the Bepis can. The cold and sweet mix and dance all over his throat, before he slumps the can back. He gets up.
-- -- -- A Rainy Day.Niara steps outside her room with armor plates, her guns racked onto a strap, and a bunch of maintenance equipment on her belt. She sighs and walks to an elevator. She slams her stuff onto a desk and taps a screen, she tosses the damaged armor plates into a recycler and shoves a drive into a port. The machine blurts as a counter. Niara glares at it, grabbing a bag of metal clumps and drops them as well. It beeps in satisfaction and a loud whir occurs. She grabs her guns and starts to field strip them, while grabbing her knives and ax to inspect them. Someone walks into the recycling room, before they realize and slowly retreat, tip-toeing their way out of the room from Niara. She reacts with a simple turn of the head. “Okay, I get it, I’m scary.” Niara jokes. “Oh Claus, you talk.” “What do you think I did? Stand, shoot, kill, cry as I realize how much of a pathetic loser I am? Come on, I’m not that forgone.” she replies “I, I was just not expecting… that, or you for that matter, from your profession.” “I get that a lot, that’s fine.” The guy stands still, yet in a quivering stillness “You’re too calm.” “You’re too nervous. I heard it’s bad for your skin, although, I’m pretty sure that’s for fleshy skin. Anyway.” The person stands in shock, shaking their head. “Um, I just gotta make some parts.” “Yea, go ahead.” Trevor walks into the room, with a bag of metal spears. “Oh hey Trev, uh.” Niara notices the spikes. “Are those my fault?” “Not particularly, no. I just got these from the dogfights. That’s it. I am just recycling them for material crags.” “S**t. Yeah, I should’ve figured.” Niara voids Trevor’s glances, staring at her stuff and the machine whirring. “So you guys are after the Omniscient right? From the Botany Sector of research?” Niara yips out an answer, “Huh, oh yeah. I guess?” “Hm. And so you’re all the new members?” Trevor looks at himself in a t-shirt, sweatpants, hands covered in oil, dirt and metal debris; Niara in a tank top and shorts, that only barely distracted people from the alarming amount of scars on her. “Yea, I guess we are.” Trevor replies Silence brews inside the room. “Heh, I could never imagine such a distinct crew working to find a f****n flower.” Trevor and Niara look at each other. “You might have a point there.” Niara chuckles out. It is a goofy, hearty sound. “Anyway, I gotta go.” The guy walks out of the room. Niara sighs. “So you’re not upset?” “No? Just a s****y situation, that’s it.” he sighs, “I do have a question, what were you doing with those guys that pissed them off?” Niara takes a second, before blowing air out of her nostrils. “Interrupting and rupturing their trafficking rings. And maybe a few other spots of their cartels.” Trevor steps away. “Whoa!” “Yea. I even went under a moniker because of it, before I became the Kraken. I’m surprised how no one has found nor realized a connection between the two. The Wendigo, I used to be called. I honestly thought it was kinda ridiculous at first, but uh, I also figured out why they thought that, considering even a magnum round from a sniper couldn’t kill me. S**t.” “What did you figure out?” Trevor asks, she frowns, “It’s something to do with my skin, I think. There’s this thing that happens with species like us, where muscles, fat, and flesh compress together to keeps wounds from getting too deep. Our receptors are able to recognize similar pain and damage, and press more mass in between vital organs if needed, or that’s what I was taught in school. Basically, if I get hit with a talon, that same talon strike won’t go deeper afterwards because of the muscles reacting, I think. Anyway, yea, so it turns out, if you mix chemicals, drugs, and other factors, it can cause those muscular functions to misbehave.” “Oh. So you’ve been affected by this?” “Pretty much, so that’s what I figured happened during those times. Still think it was dumb though, someone could’ve just dump a mag into me, or beam me with a thermal laser or something, but at the same time, I’m still alive because of those muscular functions, so I shouldn’t be complaining.” She looks away from Trevor for a second. “Sorry.” Her words drag Trevor away from his task, “What, why?” “I don’t know. I still can’t get over how I just left you all like that.” “I mean, I think you helped as much as you could-” “But that doesn’t mean I didn’t risk y’alls lives. I’m so f*****g stupid.” she sits onto the table behind, her guns and weapons in her peripheral vision meanwhile. “The worst part is nevermind.” “What? Why do you think that?” A glimpse of her pupils poke out of her head. A minute flies by, “I don't know. It’s just, I’ve been doing this for so long, I feel like I lost so much, I forgot so much. and yet… I miss it, and yet, I still don’t think I can get it back. Like it’s gone forever.” Niara slumps her head onto the machine. “Sorry for the vague emotion dump.” “No no no, it’s fine.” Trevor says Niara takes a second. “No it’s not, but what do I know, I can’t do anything right. But at the same time, I can’t just sit around. I gotta do something. I can’t, I can’t let that happen.” Niara fights to say “I mean, I do have some recycling I wouldn’t mind getting help on.” “Wait, really? Oh s**t, I can do that!” Niara sees and processes her own outburst, and then reels back. “Sorry. Uh, yeah.” “Nah, it’s cool. You in or?” -- -- --
The SkyLancer’s airfoils might as well have been a fencepost with the amount of needles protruding, with a swampy metallic spray all over the engine cover. Niara and Trevor were scraping off the metallic goop on the cover. “Well Alphas helped.” “Yeah, but that’s still super impressive. Like, I know I fought f*****g militaries and armies before, but making a ship like this? Dude. How are you not a star engineer for a cosmonautics firm?” “I don’t know.” “You should apply!” “Then how come you don’t work for the military?” “I did, I think.” “What does that mean?” “I don’t really know if it was a military or not. I think so? I don’t know, Silaphasa Solutions made a big deal out of them, so. I’m still confused about their role. Meh, either case.” Trevor looks at her, then to the SkyLancer. “What should we do next?” she asks, The metal stain pries and dangles on the floor. A few hours later, the wings of the SkyLancer were cut. Trevor’s greaves, gauntlets and an eyepiece were left hanging on a crate. Niara sits on the same crate, her hands on a portable recycler. “I missed a lot when I was blacked out.” Trevor says. He puts down a wrench on the large engine, “Oh you did, Bixvah and some rando at the cantina had a drink off, while Livo was utterly hogging the goddamn chips from the casino, I didn’t even know those fuckers could go so hard.” Trevor laughs, “Oh, oh, and after the drink, the two of them played Governor and Never Have I Ever, and, oh Vroi, their answers were total gold. Holy s**t.” “Wait, who won the drink off?” “Hmm, hmm, should I give you the real answer or no?” “Tell me!” Niara looks and then gestures to Trev. She whispers into his ear, “No! What?” “Yea. I couldn’t believe it myself.” Trevor takes another chuckle, which prompts Niara to join in. He and she sigh, before Niara looks at him. “So, I actually wanted to know something. Uhh, how did you black out?” “From the drinks, right?” Niara’s brows raise. “I took a look at the cup you sipped from. There wasn’t any alcohol in them.” Trevor looks at Niara with a blank stare. “Uhhh-`` “I mean, unless you chugged them as soon as we landed, then its totally a possibility, I’m just wondering…” “Oh s**t, uhh, um. Are you okay?” “Wait, I thought I had too much to drink?” Niara looks away. “What happened?” Trevor asks. Her surroundings zip around her. “Uhh, umm. Uhh.” Niara takes a step back. “I, uh.” “You don’t have to tell me now if it freaks you out that much. I can just ask someone else.” “Oh. Yeah, uh. That would be better. Way better actually, thank you.” her foot slides forward. “Heh.” She scratches her head. “Yeah, I’m bad with these things.” Her hands tip and tap against each other “Um.” She pauses herself, her foot tapping, mind ticking and racing. Trevor slips recycled components into a bin. Niara turns around and walks away. “Huh, wait, where are you going?” “I’m just, I realize I should probably fix my armor plating a little. Yeah.” “Oh. Uh, okay. Would you like my help?” “I mean, not really, it’s really just a matter of pressing buttons and waiting. There’s just not much for you to do.” “Ah. Oh, I see. Well, in that case, uh, say anything if you need it?” Niara nods and turns around, walking away only a couple inches. Her head steers slightly. Her mouth tries to articulate something, but her lips fall flat instead. “What do you want to say?” “I don’t know. As long as you’re okay, I’m okay.” She curls her head to see his face, before shaking and walking away. -- -- “D****t, why’d I bring that up!” Niara oils her handgun and glides the slide back, resetting it with a satisfying clink. The hangar’s light blankets the gun’s sleek, slick paint job and stickers. The gun’s name: Seconds pass, she is still staring at it. She peeks up, seeing the clear expanse presented to her, stars and planets drift and sail. Something ticks behind Niara’s brain. “I’m not even in danger.” Her right knee fidgets. “What the hell, this always happens. I do anything to help and immediately screw up. What’s wrong with me?” She scoffs and answers, “I know what’s wrong with me, I just can’t ever make the right decisions.” She stares at her gun. “I mean. He said he didn’t need my help.” Niara mopes her head down. “He could also just be saying that to get me off his back. Doesn’t seem like him though. No, it definitely isn’t. He might just be doing that to pity me.” Niara grabs her gun and walks away, catching something. “Wait, is Trevor? Oh-” Niara runs.
-- -- Tears rolled down Trevor’s eyes. He cries. “Trevor! What the, are you okay?” Trevor sobs, head face first on the table, the table saturating from the salt of his tears. “I… d****t.” Niara hits a verbal roadblock, “What the hell do I do?” she whispers. Her brain paces back and forth in a swampy labyrinth of thought. “I miss my mom, I miss my family. I miss them so much. I’m sorry that you had to see me like this.” Trevor says. Niara’s grasp and mind loosen, flinching her sight back onto Trevor’s sorrow-drowned body. “Did I break down and pass out at the bar?” She takes a second. “Yea, you did.” “That’s what I figured.” Niara observes her area, noticing the parts and pieces lying around. “I wanted to ask, but considering your reaction, I’m not so sure if I should.” The tablet screen flickers in front of him “That’s why I didn’t want you to come. I’m sorry if this comes off as mean. You have been really helpful.” The two stand with their gazes spread far, the tears dissolving. “It’s just this space is really personal to me. I didn’t want you to see me crying or hurt again. So that’s what I did.” Niara reaches to examine a few parts, before his words stop her. “You did something I would do.” She replies, her hands backtrack. The room returns to pitch silence. “Really?” “Yeah. I think I’m rubbing off on you,” her voice chuckles but then comes to stillness. She spreads her fingers. Niara sighs. Her thoughts dump out along with her exhale Trevor is stuck on the screen. “I can’t leave. I… I’m tired of leaving, but I swear it’s the only way.” She slumps down onto the floor. “I want so much. I know.” She pauses. “God, it’s so frustrating. Every move I make, it makes everything worse. Every single step I take, I can’t.” Niara’s head wanes “I really don’t know.” Trevor swivels on the chair towards her. He looks at her. The feeling in his body is heavy. Heavier than emotion and words. “You know, there something I’ve learned over these years, and that, there are times where things aren’t always so clean. Days and nights where stuff happens, and that’s it. Maybe it’s because I messed something up the day before. Maybe because I just wasn’t having a good day. Maybe, the world is going insane. Maybe. Yet constantly, I am reminded that things move. The light is still glowing, we are still attached to the ground. Maybe that’s enough. Maybe that’s the best that I can do for that day, and I move with it. Like the clouds. Sometimes, it’s pouring. Sometimes, it’s small and fluffy, and then there are days where they just exist. Floating idly by. Sometimes, just floating, just existing is good enough.” Dust flies and scuttles through the air, Niara in a rut of thought. “But I feel like that’s what my life has been. Just constantly stuck, just existing.” “What’s wrong with that?” A second passes, “I don’t really know. I say that a lot, don’t I? I just, why won’t I say it. Is it because I’m too scared? I’d call for help, but even then, I… I couldn’t, I don’t know.” “Well, you don’t have to know. Sometimes, it’s better to wing things. You never know until you try right?” Niara glances at Trevor. “I mean, I guess sure. But then, how do I know if it’s-” “So what? Yea, sometimes the decision’s horrible, but you can’t keep still, watching and waiting for it to change. Things move. Like I said, or maybe I didn’t, still: The clouds can’t stay gray all day; The only thing that they can do then, is to keep moving.” The words line up in her brain, Niara takes a second to comprehend: “Huh.” She stares at the parts around her room, she stands up and studies a component. It was a model of the Skylancer’s wing dissected, with solar panels, electrical cell packs, and mechanical cords exposed and demonstrated to Niara. “Whoa. You made this?” “Kinda? Again, Alphas helped me a lot to fill in the gaps.” Niara casually overviews the wing. “Mhm. Sure she did all of this. Wait-” Niara takes a peek out of the window, the Skylancer locks onto view. “Is that actually going on there?” “Uhh, yea. Why else would I have made a model?” She looks out of the window again. “You wouldn’t even need a galvo station. You could just hoggle near a star and get power that way. That's, that’s actually sick.” she says “You think that’s cool, you should see what I have planned next. Hell, I already have the functioning prototype attached to Skylancer right now.” “Wait, what?” “A particle collector. Grabs and clumps matter around the galaxy so that it can be turned to fuel.” Niara looks at him with surprise and glee. “Well now, you won’t ever need to stop. Damn.” “Yeah. I basically got a flying home now. Once I get done with some of the things I have planned, I won’t ever have to touch the ground, you’re right. Well, actually, I’d still have to buy food and cook. So not exactly.” “That’s, that’s super cool. And I have nothing but blood and hatred bound to my name.” She looks at her handgun. The name emblazons into her vision “Huh. I never noticed that you have stickers on your gun.” “Huh?” Niara realizes what Trevor was pointing to, “Oh yeah. Yeah, I do have stickers. It doesn’t have the weird glare coating, so that’s why you probably couldn’t see it” She glances around on the shell, seeing a sticker for Bepis, a ‘keep cool’ and a ‘keep fresh’ sticker in her natural language, as well as angled stripes of the rainbow on her contemplative, oceanic blue, and velvet purple and magenta furniture of the pistol. “Heh. Yeah, this gun and I have been through some s**t together. That’s for sure.” “Hm? What do you mean?” “This old loudmouth’s been with me since… literal childhood actually.” “Wait what! How long have you had that?” “Well, it’s not like I had the thing stitched to my hand or anything, but, damn gun couldn’t leave me alone even if it wanted to. No matter how many times I lose it, throw it away, or whatever, it always shows up right back in my hand anyway. Heh. Yeah, but we’ve been through the ends of the world together, so, I honestly wouldn’t have it any other way if hell breaks loose.” Trevor sits on the chair with his legs crossed. “Damn, you sound like you have entire stories to tell.” “Hah, ‘guess you’re right. I do have a lot of those.” She looks at her arms, seeing the tremendous scars all over. She pouts. “You don’t have to share if you don’t wanna.” The scars start to draw black walls around her, before she realizes, “Nah, I’m okay with it. Thank you for the generosity though. Say, remember when I said you reminded me of someone?” “Sorta. Yeah, I kinda remember.” “Wanna hear a story with that someone in it?” -- -- -- Niara stood with the Son,The Son threw a punch, and Niara blocked the feint. The Son hooked and slugged Niara’s stomach. The Son kicks, Niara grabs his leg, bare seconds before touching her scrunched body. She pulls and pushes, tossing the Son into the ground. “Ah. Nice catch.” He stands back up, laxing and swaying his hands like a leaf before a hand viper strikes a tree, with small wooden shards back splashing onto his hand. Suddenly he was in a fighting pose and readying another shot. Niara stumbles back two steps, her back and his fist slams together; Niara kicks off a tree and rockets her knee at the Son’s face. Leaves rustle, and branches crack, the Son stands with aches wedged inside him. “Ow. S**t, that was clever. Ow. Never seen anyone do that before.” He handstands back up, his shoes grinding against a tree before he dropkicks Niara, planting his feet into the ground, before a revolving back kick drives her into some bark. The Son boxes, traps, and corners her into a tree with his fists, her leg stretches out and clobbers the Son’s leg. He winces and a foot rocks his chest back. Niara unleashes, her fists weave and butt into his face, before he blocks the assault and catches and throws her arm back, lashing his palm right back out. The branches of the leaves slow to a crawl, leaves float as if they sails in the wind. Niara brings her finger up, instinctively drawing a line in her brain, before her elbow breaks the wind to match and rupture the Son’s next punch. His fist stings, and he yowls, “Ow! F- Ow!” Her fist launches before he softens the blow with his hand. “Hooooohkay, no, I think I’m done.” he says slyly, panting his a*s off, “You’ve improved a lot though, good job. You’re shaping up real well. Sigh… want to see the view again?” “Eh, I want to go somewhere else. The stars are pretty, but I think I want to go to the lighthouse at the end of the bridge.” “Oh, that place. It ain’t a lighthouse, that’s for sure, but I can show you what it used to be.” The Son stands back up. “You wanna come?” -- --
They walked over on the side of a rusty bridge. Steel bars grid the two rails on either side, though the bars looked as if they were losing their grip. They look outward to the side, seeing a forest split by a canal that went on for miles. “That outpost is the remnant of years of conflict. An overlook to observe the river for enemy ships over the horizon.” “When was it built?” “No one knows. It was around back when this planet was occupied by some imperial force back in the… I can’t recall-`` “The Federations?” “Yeah, somewhere around there. Although, I don’t think anyone really knew what it could have been. We assume it is an outpost, or an observatory.” He continues on the bridge, seeing the grass leading up to the outpost. “Come?” The two enter a room, a staircase loops around a dark window. They escalate by inches to see several stories spiraling up. They approach the top, to see the top of a gun barrel on a clock work shaft poking out of the floor, and a telescope on a turntable. “What is this?” “I don’t know. I think it was used to check shipments moving by the river over there, I think, or maybe it was used to mark the stars above, or maybe it could’ve been used to quench targets.” He pushes down on the scope to point it up. He shrugs. “Those are some wild guesses from someone who’s just thinking.” Niara laughs, looking over, a computer on the side wall, with dust covering the keyboard. “I’ve got it.” He takes a microfiber cloth and presses it against the table, wiping it off to reveal strange symbols, icons, and letters on it. “And I guess this was used for communication.” She noticed the stars above were slightly brighter and bigger than usual. “Wow. I can see the stars so much more clearly. In fact, I can see a nebula from here.” He looks at the window above and in front before peering through the telescope, seeing the same image as on the window, idolizing the constellations. “Hey, You've heard my story a thousand times already, I don’t think you’ll want to hear it again.” “But like, I mean, your sister sounded really cool and sweet. She reminds me of my friend. Myrane. I miss that goof.” “She was. She really was.” Tears rolled out of his eyes, before he wiped them away, the tears glistening and glittering away. “I miss her so much, I remember we would mark the constellations.” The Son points up to one group. “That one’s called the pegasus of the angels, or, that’s what the folks here called it. She called it ‘God's geometry homework.’” “Ha ha ha.” Niara chuckles, “what about that one, kinda looks like a bird.” “The Gryphee? You mean the rock with wings? She literally called it that once” “Oh,” she scoffs, “Thought it was going to be something more extra, or something, you know?” “Yeah. Well, that’s my sister for ya.” The stars twinkle and sparkle throughout the twilight. “Flowers??” “Yeah. we were wandering around in one of our school’s garages when we discovered a set of flowers, Haruas I think? Anyway, we decided to name those little brats. Hah, I still remember the nonsense we went just to take care of the plants. Seriously, we literally had to plan smuggling and purchase routes in our school, just to get plant food and water to the garages. Oh, and the time we were caught by the administration, the look on their face.” “That’s funny.” “Dude, you should’ve seen them. They were so certain that they got some kind of drug trafficking route too. I can’t, hehe. I miss Myrane. I miss my aunt. I deserve this, don’t I. I deserve to be alone.” Niara says. “Hey, don’t say that. All blaming yourself is going to bring more unneeded travesty. You’ve already been through enough.” the Son says, shadows covering his head as his head slants down, “I lost myself that day, it’s like someone tore out my spine, and threw me out into the wilderness alone-” A gunshot shrieks through the forest, with a voice speaking within their room. “Wait what?” Niara responds to the voice. It continued in its foreign speech, the shaft climbed to reveal a rifle from the ground. “No way.” A small LCD on the side of the rifle shows text that was gibberish. “Uhh?” the Son screams, before the window zooms in on a mansion. “Wait, oh s**t!” A woman, contempt convulsing in the hand that strangled the grip of a shotgun, the barrel smacking and ramming inches away from a man’s face. By the time Niara turned, the door had clanged into the wall. Niara hop and skips off the wall, trying to chase after the Son.
-- -- By the time she had arrived, her voice was yelling at something at jet plane volume. “Why are you here! You sack of s**t! Why are you here, just so you can protect your deadbeat father? My life is ruined because of you two.” Niara sees the son standing there retaliating with: “You think killing him will solve anything!” “You shut up!” The woman slapped him back with the shotgun. Niara howled, the shotgun barked back, the buckshot singed through her flesh and the wall. “And you replace me with some s**t on the street?” The Son punches her, the shotgun jumps and tumbles down the stairs. “You b***h!” the woman screams back, grabbing an ax from the wall and slashes the Son with it. “You stay away from her!” She hurls the ax, “why should I care about your w***e-`` He defends himself well, with most of the scratches and cuts swinging onto his forearms, with him throwing the blade back at her. “I won’t fight you, why are you attacking me!” “I’m burning every last bit of this family!” she cuts the Son’s chest, knocking him down to the floor. She raises the ax. “No!” Niara’s voice calls out. Suddenly, a thunderous flower of pellets detonated out of the mother’s face. Time slowed with several chunks of flesh, skull fragments, and blood spurting and flying through the air, the skull being dissected with piercing shot. It was a horrifying setpiece of mortality. The hole drilled showed Niara’s face, frozen in time, while the shotgun in her hand shouted steam that spiked through the woman’s head. The mother drops, and blood rained all over the Son’s face, him screaming and spitting out, “Oh my god!” Niara looks with shock, “Wait Niara! No don’t!-`` Too late. She was scrambling to the door, legs the last thing the Son saw. His face was stuck, everything was stuck. “She was my only friend.” The forest covers and shadows her footsteps, the winds and the trees create a darkness hollower than the night. -- -- -- “And that’s how I got the scar on my forearm.” Niara says, pointing to her arm, smirking.“That was intense.” Trevor says “You should have been there. I honestly thought I had forgotten everything. Heh, guess some things won’t die after all.” She grabs her handgun. “This was the first gun I had ever bought; This was the first gun I think I ever used.” “Really? So that’s what you meant when you said you couldn’t get rid of it.” She holds the Categis and inspects the chamber, before the slide slacks forward. Time paralyzes, her eyes spying the tiny specks in the air swirling near the weapon. “Yeah. I still remember my first day.” -- -- -- Niara’s Categis was stuck in her hands, her eyes gently observing the target: the slide whips forward, her tattooless hand tightened, constricted the handle. Concentration burned bright and young in her eyes. Footsteps ran askew from the basement open door, “Took me hours to get the locks on this thing to stay locked, but alright.” Niara twists her head to see her Aunt remarking about the laser gridded, cement covered, steel caged, titanium plated safe that was torn open somehow. “Oh” her index finger panicked and punched the trigger, a bullet plows and ricochets the range. The aunt had her hands raised, leaning towards cover. Niara said, “S**t, I’m sorry-'' her hand moved to gesture, but her gun was still in her hands, finger fidgeting inside the guard, “Whoa whoa whoa, hey!” The aunt sprints over and yanks the gun from her Niece’s hand. “Okay, firstly, you never have your finger in the trigger guard if you’re not ready to shoot, and you always point your gun in a safe, harmless direction.” Niara’s aunt rotates and pins the gun onto the table, the barrel facing the range. “And also, why are you even here? You have homework, don’t you?” Niara’s head prances around for answer, “I don’t know, I was bored, and I wanted to be like you.” The aunt grows a second chin. “Me? What why?” The aunt sighs, “I, look you don’t have to be like me, I mean--” She looked at the targets and saw how the bullet shots were hitting the inner circles, dangling pretty close to the middle. “Actually, it’s not bad, to be honest.” She looked at Niara and then towards the safe. “Hm… she’s going to have to learn about them eventually, might as well start early. Alright, if you’re gonna learn it, ya gotta learn it right, which means safety rules are the highest priority.” The aunt grabbed a chair and sat down in front of little Niara. “Alright,” Niara stared shocked, her demeanor like the twist of a horror film. “I didn’t think you’d be so quick with this. I thought you were going to tell me off again.” “Heh. You think I’m going to act like your parents? No, the truth is, these rules exist for a reason.” The aunt continues, sighing, “I have seen so many times, stories, anecdotes, what have you, of idiots getting in major trouble and prison sentences, just because they decided not to abide by basic safety rules that day, and I am not letting that happen to you.” The aunt stands up. “Why I’m doing this is so that you know how to properly handle these weapons. Contrary to what some say, these things are not designed as toys; these are designed to hurt, maim, and more often than not, kill their opposition. If you want to learn to shoot, you must learn safety. I will not let you hurt yourself or others just 'cus you forgot to check, that’s it.” “Okay, I get it.” She nods, eyes locked on her Aunt, “I’ll play along.” “Alright, first, most crucial rule to remember is that this--” She presents the gun in front of her, noticing the name emblazoned on its side: “F37 Categis.” shining under the light. “Wait” “Yeah? -- -- -- She stares at her Categis And now I'm a monster. She puts the gun down and walks to Trevor. “Are you done with the stuff?” “Uhhh.” Trevor glances at the models and the slightly invasive snoring of the 3d printers operating. “Meh, basically.” he gets up from the chair and walks out of the room. He peers at the Skylancer before realizing, “oh wait, f**k.” His hand slaps and taps his bracelet, a module unlocking on the ship. “Wait, what are you doing?” “Getting rid of the weapons on my ship? This isn’t a warship, come on now..” “Didn’t your ship get trashed by those splinter things?” “Yeah. I know it’s a bad idea. I don’t care.” Trevor rips the cannons off. “I… uh,” Niara clenches her fist, passing air through her nostrils. “But you can’t expect to get anywhere without some protection.” she says demandingly. He looks down at Niara, with the small lights shining on them, making her seem like a puppy begging. He says, “It’s not like, like I’m going to completely disarm myself. I already have armor on myself.” “And yet it is still totally pulverized.” She looks down at her weapons and Trevor’s relatively trashed ship. “Is, is it okay that I help you-” “No. No, absolutely not.” “Wait what?” blurts Niara, her face backs up Trevor stops what he’s doing, waiting a few minutes “It’s because it’s better that I make the mistake, so I know how to fix it.” “I, but the thing is, that doesn’t matter. Your ship got totalled even with the armor upgrades. Trevor, I know all about your pacifism, I get it.” She stops and breathes, “but, there are things that are more dangerous than you think. you can’t expect that things will go easy on you. People are dangerous and ruthless; they will do anything if they get the chance. If they see you as an easy threat, they will not hesitate.” Niara’s hands descend, she notices that they are quivering. Trevor looks at her, “Why are you telling me this?” She takes a second, glancing at the injured Skylancer. “I don’t want you getting diced.” Trevor drops to the floor. “Niara, I think you’re overreacting to this. Once again, I’m not completely disarming myself, but I am not going to be associated with something that kills people. I’m not doing that, and you know why.” She thinks about it. “And also, it’s not like I can’t handle myself.” “Yea, maybe I am. But considering what happened last time, and how close it was to being… gone, I think it might be best to put something on your ship.” Trevor sends the modules out of the room. Niara looks at her crunched body, sighing. Her eyes land on the Skylancer’s damage. “I can’t let that happen again. There’s no way.” she stands up,
-- -- Clank clang. Gun Modules lean on the armories walls. A wrench clinks onto a table. “Trevor, please.” “I hear you, and I get it. I know, I know what it’s like to lose so much, and you don’t want that to happen again. I don’t want to either, but I’m not going to allow myself to burden others with the same tragedy that I had to go through. It’s the least I could do.” Niara goes to say something, but she backs off. “Oh. That was why.” Niara slumps onto a table. Trevor’s fingers bite and taste the sharp, volatile stalagmites of the armor plating on the gun module. “But, I’m also wondering. Is that s**t really true? I mean, I know it is, I know people can be cruel, sometimes out of desperation, but is it true that I’ll, people like me will get diced?” Niara looks up to Trevor, still sifting his digits through the cracks. “I mean, not really. I’m just saying, if you don’t have anything, then people will see you as easy pickings. If you tell them to back off however, and show ‘em a reason why not to mess with you.” She jerks her head, “Well. Also, I bet you know this, but you don’t actually need to fire a gun to make people bend the knee. God knows how many times I’ve seen this fact proven true.” Her feet plant onto the floor. “If you demonstrate your power to them, they will know not to mess with you. They will have proper reason to fear.” “But I don’t want to be feared.” Niara jets out of her nostrils. “Yeah. Still, fear is a very good deterrent against people, even if it really doesn’t do anything.” “Wait, really?” “Yeah? Not everything has to get bloody. I’d prefer it that way actually, it makes my life easier.” “Really? I thought you liked the killing?” She unleashes a cackle. “Hah, you thought I was that loony huh?” “Oh s**t, I didn’t mean-” “Ahh, it’s fine. I can see why though. Especially the way I do my missions, yeah. It’s, it’s-” Niara stops. “I don’t actually know why I still do these.” She grabs her handgun, sighing. “You said that was the first handgun you ever used?” “Yeah, I still remember all of the goofy s**t that we’d do together, my aunt and I.” Niara sighs, “But yea, I, that was my first time using this hunk. Maybe I am just someone who kills for the kicks. I don’t know, and quite frankly, I don’t know if I wanna know why, but one thing’s for certain, someone has to clean the messes left behind by the madmen of this world, and someone has to do something against these mad men. Heh, as if I’m not a madman. Still, sometimes, if you want to keep things safe, you have to lose yourself a little, if it means the protection of others. Sometimes, the best way to fight against hell is to be worse than hell.” Niara leans up, “That’s the way I see it, or I saw it. That’s at least how I feel when I fight.” Trevor’s eyes match with Niara’s. A window purrs its luminescent tail next to the man, tickling his interest, bringing him to a spare parts depot. “Huh. There’s a lot of s**t here. Like, woah.” He picks up a nose cone holding a bunch of electronics inside, the glimmery nature reminds him of something. “Hey, Niara, didn’t you have that laser thing? The thing that like, destroys missiles-” “Oh, you mean the, I forgot what it’s called, but like an anti armament defense system or something?” “Yeah? I guess, something that makes my craft as tanky… theoretically tanky as I can make it.” “Hm. I think you can definitely find one. The ones on my ship were proprietary.” Niara looks at the vast ocean of wreckage and rubble. “Mm. This will take years going through this.” “I think there’s a search bar though?” He taps on the window and a map pops on the screen, with a bar on top. “Mm, might not be reliable though.” Trevor thinks. “Wait. I know someone who can help me with this.” He taps his head and looks away. Niara takes the chance to investigate the armor on the weapons. “Mmm, these things aren’t the variable variety as I had thought. Yea, you’re going to need some better ones anyway, to be honest too.” “Okay. I’ve made the call. “Wait what?” “To Jiapor. Oh, you two don’t know each other… wanna come?” Niara freezes on his words. “Uhh.” The modules and parts lie in the shadows, her eyes sniff out. “Ahh, I don’t know about this one. I think I would slow you down, gonna be honest, considering I don’t actually know what they're called. uhh. I mean, I don’t really know how I’d help--” “I mean, you know how to fight better than anyone I know. You know this more than some generals may claim. Heck, didn’t you say you wanted to help?” “I mean, yeah, I did, but I don’t know really anything about this. This, all of what I’d said was just things I’ve observed that worked. I don’t actually know the doctrines and what not. I just had to live and learn to survive, I never learned these things.” “Right, but that’s still what you did. You know this more than I do. Besides, I think you’re really cutting yourself short.” Trevor sits on the table. “I think you should come.” Trevor suggests “I don’t know.” her mouth jumps but her mind and body stays, “I mean, what’s the worst that can happen?” “Well, those are trying words. Still.” Niara’s words stumble “There’s stuff I just, I think I wanna think this out.” Trevor nods.
-- -- -- The cold blue, dark scene of space bleeds into the nightly blue of the planet’s crater surface.A sign that reads, Huichiara, above a doorway illuminates with green and orange schemes. Trevor and Niara stand outside the yard. “So this is the junkyard?” “Uhh, I think they went under some rebranding.” Niara notices the inside was like an Italian parlor, the aforementioned schemes swirling around in a rustic, comfy style. The walls rotted and rusted with red though. “Mhmm, yea, that’s for sure some rebranding.” Niara quotes, her teeth gritting. Trevor walks up to the front desk, where two chairs laid with dust bunnies brewing on them. “Jiapor?” Trevor yells in spanish, “Ay, long time no see, eh?” A husky chihuahua walks in, “Trevor? I haven’t seen you in forever.” the alien eyes opens, and responds back, “What brings you back?” They shake hands “I need parts for my ship. I got into a dog fight, and ended up tearing the middle of my right wing.” “So, like everytime you come-- wait what?” “Yeah, I got into a dogfight.” Jiapor’s body prances a little bit, a verbal gap is left in the air “I, wha, nevermind. The yard’s your playground.” Jiapor responds. “Heh,” Trevor grits a smile, “Gracias.” -- -- A shovel stabs the dirt. Trevor looks at the junkyard, filled to the brim with wasted, rusting vehicles. A wheelbarrow rests just slightly right of him, littered with junk like solar panels, armor plating, radiators, battery units, circuit boards and motherboards, avionics equipment, and a car. “Huh.” He spies his Skylancer nestled inside the hangar of Jiapor’s workshop before hearing the scuffing of dirt next to him. Jiapor gets close. “Trev, how’d you get into a dogfight?” “You have a new job, and it made you do what?” “It didn’t make me, it just uhh, got that way.” Jiapor facepalms, “Trevor, it got that way?” “Did you just stack a car on top? And how has it not fallen?” Niara asks, They both glance at the car precariously balancing on a motherboard. “Uh, with the power of magic?” She looks at him, before she giggles under her breath, before Jiapor continues. “Are those guns?” he asks. “Yeah, I was hoping that we won’t use these, they look like they’ve uhh.” She sees how it is clicking spontaneously, and neon sparks sputter out. “Yeah, nah, I’m not letting Trevor use this.” “I wanted to see if we can get stuff similar to this, and if you know any places that have less volatile versions of this.” “Oh, Trevor would never put weapons on his ship! Hell, why would he even need those?” “Because Trevor is no longer in the same positions as you’re used to--” “so? He could just quit right?” “Quit? Dude, you’re not his dad; I know you have history with him, but you can’t call the shots for him.” “So, what makes you any different? You’re also imposing your needs onto him by making him stay.” Niara thinks about his response, “That’s true, but it’s not a reason to like, make his decisions.” Trevor looks at them, “Wait, what? I can’t just leave.” “A job that forces you on and treats you like s**t isn’t a job worth chasing man, you need to stand up for yourself--” “Stand up for himself? How do you know what he wants? You’re not him.” “You’ve known him for less time, how do you know what he wants?” “What? Nevermind, I’m only doing this so that Trevor doesn’t need to kill in order to defend himself.” “Defend himself? What type of kangaroo operation are y’alls running over there?” “Did you not tell ‘em?” Niara asks “I was about to.” Trevor mumbles. “What changed? Trevor, you’re still… you’re not doing that accountant job right?” “Accountant?” Niara asks, Trevor swaps glances with the two in rapidity, before sighing. “Yes, I’m no longer a telemarketer for that shithole of a company. You were right there, She is awful, Scylla is. It wasn’t a decision I made on my own though, and Alphas helped me a lot.” “Alphas? You mean the Sylph?” “Yeah, her.” “Heh, yeah. That’s… ugh, I don’t know what to say. I’m glad you made the right decision though. Wish I had heard it sooner.” “Yeah, sorry--” “No biggy, just don’t leave me hanging about that type of stuff man.” “But really, the thing is, I thought I made the wrong decision after a few months, after I jetted off into space. You have no idea how hard it was, having to go by off of basically scraps and unforgiving jobs and positions. I thought, I was the wrong one, I thought I made all of the wrong decisions: Just, abandoning, letting my parents die, stealing, lying and hurting people so I could get paid that day, abandoning my company when they needed me most. Hell, the jobs I had to take, they were nothing clean. So many things… I thought, I was a monster. A horrible, selfish, pathetic loser, that’d rather survive to be a prick in someone’s behind, than to be dead in honor.” He sits down. “But then, I found them, Livo and Bixvah. One day, I heard about their quest to find the most rare, intelligent, omniscient, beautiful, and wise species of plant, no, lifeform in the entire galaxy. Saying this out loud, I realize how f*****g stupid and crazy that sounds, to fight and run after something so… wild and mad, to waste my life probably chasing for some dead end. But, I, Alphas, I don’t know, I knew I just had to try. And so, that’s what I did.” Trevor lies down, the dirt and dust puffles up, the stars, a nebula, and an aurora borealis directly in his focus. A sigh draws a cloud over the specular cosmo show. “So yeah, I guess you could say some s**t happened.” “Holy. I had no idea. Trevor, I’m so sorry. If I had known, I would’ve said something right away--” “It’s fine Ji, it’s really fine. Alphas and Niara, Bixvah and Livo, they helped me a lot.” Niara’s ear and head perks. Like it was on mute, Niara’s mouth moves and tries to speak, but no sound comes. Finally, she reels something out: “I, I helped you? I helped you?” “Yeah. You did, you really did.” Niara fights something in her, before a smile finally shows itself. A full, healthy, heroic smile. “But seriously though, I shouldn’t have left you hanging. Sorry about that.” Trev says “Jeez. Nah. I think what has to be instituted is a new rule: Every year, on this very day we must visit each other, and watch a full marathon of Star Wars, the entire franchise, no stop, no excuses. It’s the only way.” Jiapor tone puts its foot down. “Haha, hah, haaa, uhhh…” Niara’s thumbs and fingers tap together, Jiapor and Trevor’s heads whirr before snapping to Niara’s face. “You don’t know what Star Wars is!” “Wha no? I heard Takoy talk about it, but ah!”
-- -- The couch is nice, a plush and lush blue.Jiapor and Trevor slump onto the couch, Niara’s squeezed in twine. The end credits of the movie finally dropped away, revealing nothing but the background of space. The two of them were snoring, but not enough to noticeable, while Niara can barely feel the hilt in her hand, “Heh, so that’s what a lightsaber is. Hell, so, that’s what they mean by ‘use the force.’ S**t, maybe the force can help me get out…here.” She pulls up, barging herself out from the raw grasp of the couch, the two men, and her unwillingness to move from the couch. Her back fluffs the couch. “Nah, too much effort.” She looks ahead at the tv before the remote jumps out at her. “Ah!” She points her hand out, and curls her fingers. Her muscles bulge, arm reels in and veins pop, before she falls out again. “Damn, okay fine, be like that then. Guess this is what I get, for all of the things I have done.” A lightbulb activates on her head. She sinks into the couch, her body dribbling closer and closer to the floor, as she feels her butt smack something hard. “Ow.” she relents, standing up and then grabbing the remote, realizing the hilt still in her hand. “Should probably put this back. Though--” She looks at Trevor and his hands. “Nah, I’d probably break a window or something.”
A door opens to reveal an X wing. Niara’s jaw drops. “Talk about a passion.” She scurries around, finding the lightsaber hilt’s home, opening cabinets, drawers, and lockers until finally finding a podium with a hand, a light, a glass casing, and a decently sized hole. “Ah, this has to be it.” She pulls it out, and slips the hilt in. “Incorrect Key Inserted. Please Insert the Right Key.” text frosts over the glass. “Wha-what? Then what is this for?” A sticky note resides behind the podium’s spot: “resync the damn lightsaber keys… dummy.” Niara hears a whoosh before the hilt uppercuts her and clammers onto the floor. “Mm. Aggh--” She suppresses her call, and looks at where the blade landed. “Ow.” she grunts, massaging her face. Her head peeks through the doorway. The two were like two oversized babies on a couch. She sighs, and picks up the blade, examining it, before noticing a stack of VHS tapes with the names of “Zenith Commission Reels.” Niara’s mouth goes ‘o’. She moves the blade away “This is a terrible idea.” as she presses the button and the blade fires out away from her and into the air. “Hoh good, it works.” she presses it again and the blade evaporates. She nods and then rummages through the garage for some newspaper, when a headline catches her. “Zenith Champions Jes da and Iron Suplex win in a landslide; Shiiki Les Saiyan, and Mklarin de DevilSlayer win by mere seconds before Novra Castilliava and Sky Jackireya; The Golden Thunders do it again, and pull a last minute comeback to the finish line; JC The Gutsy Berserker dominates competition with his Titan Breaker.” With pictures of all of the champions standing next to Jiapor, a man and a woman, with the name “Tekton Shipbuilders.” written in the back. Niara notices the similarity of Trevor and the people in the pictures, and decides to look inside the papers. “In a shocking turn of events, Leonardo and Olivia Barros have recently announced that they are going to transfer executive control to Jiapor Lonsok in order to support migrants and refugees from the Seraphim Regime. The Barros are on hiatus for development and aid to this Season’s Contestants due to Leonardo’s degrading health, according to the WatchDog.” Niara sits in the lonely garage, staring at the paper. “Wh… oh wow, that’s cool. Huh.” Niara looks at the X Wing, and the lightsaber in her hands. She hardens her grip on the blade. “Right, let’s see I can make this blade land.” She wraps the hilt in the sheets of paper and tosses the blade into the cockpit, aiming for the seat. A bounce and a clang rings. “S**t.” She climbs into the cockpit to notice some tapes and another lightsaber in the deck, while unwrapping the original blade. “Huh.” She quickly tests the blade and then drops it in the cockpit, before spying closer to the tapes. The name of the original was scribbled out, replaced with: “For Trevor.” in place. She pulls the tape out. “I have a feeling I shouldn’t be looking at this.” She probes around with it, seeing how it looked like an updated VHS tape. Her eyes finally land on the “for trevor’ note on the tape. Should probably say something, huh. Then, more tapes popped out to her, all with sticky notes and renamed labels saying: “For Trevor” on them. “Sheesh.” she whispers, a clock grabs her attention. “3:34” it reads. She yawns and then looks at the two men asleep on the couch. “Always thought people were cuter when they’re asleep. Then again, I’m probably just being weird again. I should probably do the same then, to be honest-- it’s kinda late.” Her eyes spy for a good place to sleep, before she shrugs and then dozes off into blackness. -- -- “What are we watching today Takoy?” He shrugged at them and then pointed to a box filled to the brim with discs, cassette tapes, chips, cards, etc. “I dunno man, you choose.” There was a whole stack of them, with names such as “The Godfather,” “Scarface,” “Nightmare on Elm Street,” “Neon Genesis Evangelion,'' and “Cowboy Bebop.” Niara looks down at the pile and picks up “Cowboy Bebop.” “What is this one?” “Oh that’s a classic. It’s from the Homapian archipelago Japan, same with Neon Genesis. It’s basically about a bunch of bounty hunters trying to live and get by through capturing outlaws, while also struggling with their past demons and hardships.” “Bounty hunters eh? Like Baby Thora?” “Uhh, sure. Though, these guys are a little more… ragtime, I’ll show you.” He pops the VHS into the tv player, and the room goes dark.
-- -- “Isn’t it bad for your health to drink it all in one gulp Annie?” “What’s bad for my health is seeing you coming back to life, it’s a shock to the system!” “Thanks for the warm welcome.” The TV said. “Huh. I wonder how they’d feel if I came back now.” The dark room transitions to Niara standing in front of Myrane, Takoy, her parents, her aunt, each of their faces obscured by shades of certain colors. “Where were you? We didn’t raise you just so you could, w***e around and assault people! Our daughter, more like a psychotic brat.” her parents said, they were shadowed by colors of shameful black, and disappointed gray “Where the hell did you go Niara? Why-- what’s wrong with you? I thought, I thought you’d be better, I thought you wouldn’t, you wouldn’t be like me! After all of these years, and this is what I find out?” ardent red and tragic blue razes out from Myrane’s shadow. “I am so disappointed in you Niara. I thought, you were going to be someone special, someone that helps, not… not whatever this is!” The aunt’s royal gold is tarnished with iron blood thorns and blackened edges. “How, you became, you became a bounty hunter, I just, I just can’t comprehend. You’re a monster.” his pleasant, horizon purple melts, distorts into crackling, sharpened perverted bluish gray. “I’m sorry. I, I don’t know what happened to me!” “But you still had power to do something different. You still had the chance, and you ran from it, just like you did with your family, your problems, your life, everything.” Niara stands, her body urging her to push away, to run. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I can’t, I won’t. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.” “And yet you still run away. You’re still running. You were never taught to run. You were never taught to lie.” “I don’t know. Please, just--” She pulls something out, and holds it. She has her hand trained on an imaginary trigger. “Leave me alone. Please, I’m sorry. I don't have the words, the feelings, anything. I don’t have anything okay. This… this is all I have left. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for burdening you, I’m sorry for all of the pain I have caused you, I’m sorry for everything that I have done to hurt you all. You all don’t deserve any of this, I just, I don’t know what, I just didn’t know what to do. I’m sorry!” “Niara!” She wakes up, her hand still extended out, and the day is bright and blue all over. “What? What happened?” “A bad dream, I think.” “You know, Neeeeyara? Nyarara?” “Niara. It's Niara.” “Niaracalifragodocious, you know this place has like, the best bedrooms in the galaxy, you didn’t have to snooze in that rusty old thing.” “Oh, yeah. I got stuck here because I saw these tapes.” Niara pulls out the tapes. Trevor’s eyes widened. “Oh yeah, s**t! I forgot to talk to you about that. Jesus, If I’d my way, I’d have forgotten about those completely! Thanks girl.” “Not a problem. I guess.” even Niara’s face and voice was shrugging. “Oh, that also reminds me, um, we’ve gotta get going.” Trevor says “We still have to make adjustments to Trevor’s vehicle. I’m going to honor your wish, to not put weapons on his vehicle, but he is going to need something at least, considering his job has gotten much more hostile.” “What, what is he dealing with? What the hell are y’alls doing with him?” “Oh those things. Yeah, there’re plenty of warships around here y’alls can steal from, but whaddya mean by planets not being so nice?” “Like, planets that are kinda opposed to outsiders in general, even if we ask politely and don’t bother coming in.” “So you all take it by force?” Niara lips bunch. “Yea, I guess so. I never really thought of it, but yeah I guess that’s what we do.” “I mean, that isn’t what happens all the time. Livo and Bixvah do usually request samples. But, if they’re important enough and they’re stubborn enough, according to Bixvah, that’s when we come in, though that’s not why I’m putting these things on. It’s for self--” “Self protection.” Niara conclude the sentence together with him. Jiapor looks at the two, sighing. “Well, if it’s what Leonardo’s son wants, that’s what he's getting. I just wanted to know what you were doing with the stuff, and what you’re up against. Let me see what I can hook you up with.” -- -- Trevor sits on a bench, reviewing the tapes. Niara sits close, her knees hobbling about. “So, I have a question.” Niara asks, Her words fly right by his ears. His eyes and fingers tasted the dusty, elder plastic. Then he realizes, “Oh, uh, Hi.” Trevor turns his head to greet Niara. She takes a second, “Uh, nevermind.” She stands up. “I should probably get looking at stuff too.” His gaze wraps towards Jiapor, before sighing. “Niara, girl.” he exhales, “Are you okay?” “What? I’m fine. Really.” she repels away from Trevor, “I guess, I wanted to ask. You know Jiapor, you’ve known him for how long?” Trevor does not have an answer, his mouth tastes nothing instead. “And, I have friends, and family that I haven’t since… since in years.” “How old are you?” “I’m, I think I’m 33.” Trevor looks away. “I’m 30.” “You’re younger than me. Heh. Guess I know who’s better.” “Better? How so?” “Like, you have your life together… nevermind. I’m trying to be funny. But, at the same time, I swear, it’s like you have your life together. Look at me, I can’t talk to people, I enjoy getting shot like I’m a maniac, I literally deserted all of my friends and family… I- I don’t know.” “Well, I assure you, I don’t have my life together either. And, you weren’t bad at talking when you talked about Livo and Bixvah, at the bar that I missed.” “But you see me when I’m talking generally about something. Like when I want to get to know someone, I freeze up. Like, I just feel awkward. I don’t want to interrupt, but I also think I should put my hat in the ring, you know? But, it’s also everytime I try, I always screw it up somehow. Like I say something I don’t mean, or I lead myself somewhere where I don’t have a response. So, I just get out of the way, it’s not like it’s that important anyway." Trevor goes silent for a second. “Yeah, I know what you mean. I was once that way too, back, back a long time ago. In college I think” “Heh. Mine started in school. I never, well that’s not true. I was talkative to people, and I could make friends. Hell, I remember being so good at it a long time ago, but when I got older, I feel like I lost it. Although, I guess in retrospect, maybe I wasn’t as good as I thought. I don’t know, it’s just, all I know is that I was able to talk to people a long time ago, but something happened.” “Did Myrane help you?” Niara smirks, “yea, I guess she did. Or maybe she didn’t… either way, she did something. Literally the first day I met her, I saw her climb a tree. Not some baby tree too, this was like the tallest tree in the neighborhood, which was at least the height of that billboard, hell twice as tall.” Niara’s pointing finger retracts away, Trevor’s face droops with awe. “I know, that was my response to that! Anyway, I knew I had to ask how the hell she got up there, so my bright a*s decided it would be a good idea to climb up the thing. Myrane, I think she noticed, but continued to climb the tree, so I got higher with her, until eventually, we both got to the peak. I remember asking her how she did any of this, and she was like: “Oh my god, what the hell did y’alls do?” “Her brother decided to be the family electrician and grabbed the wrong wires for that science project. The result was totally worth it though.” “What’d you do with it?” “Had it running the whole night, making spooky, creepy noises in our cousins’ basement. God, they were screaming, you had to be there. Anyway. So eventually, I got to meet some more of Myrane’s friends and then we kinda had a little ol uhh, friend group. And then we graduated from elementary to advanced school, and… I dunno, people changed, and I changed as well. Sorry for rambling, but I feel like the reason why I’m just thinking about this is because of you two. You haven’t seen Jiapor in so long, and he welcomed you with open arms, even when he was disapproving of your career. He was still, he still loved you, and I’m over here wondering if, if my family and friends will be as accepting, if I ever do come back.” Trevor looks at her. “Alright, I’ve got the stuff.” Jiapor comes back with four arms sprawling out of his back, with giant crates filled with armaments and parts. Each of them quakes the ground as they land. “This is everything. I need to organize this yard eventually, but that’s for another day.” Trevor and Niara look inside. “I’ve also got a whole banquet of names and networking addresses that can get you some premier s**t.” Jiapor lends the paper list to Trevor. “Jeez, you’ve got a whole jackpot to work with!” Niara says “Yeah, maybe too much to be frank.” He picks up a dome piece. “Is this an anti missile array?” “No, that is a plasma shield. Basically, whenever something enters a vehicle’s proximity ring, or whatever, these panels eject and form a plasma field that melts anything that passes through.” “Oh wow.” “Yeah, it’s quite the thingy. However, well A, this thing is based off of the lidar sensors of your vehicle, so if those fail, this fails; B, these things uses drones to produce the plasma, and so the panels are not going to output the plasma the same amount each time if the vehicle moves; C, since the plasma emitters are exposed, someone can just knock those out and then create a weak point. Also, this thing is only effective against ballistics, and not full on laser weapons. Maybe electro lasers too, but thermals ain’t cutting it.” “I see. Do you have any suggestions?” “Suggestions? Well I think my first idea would be to not get into situations like this in the first place, but since that’s just what happens nowadays, I guess here’s some tips. Now Trev, your Skylancer is a pretty hearty vehicle. Already, its engine power, weight, and overall muscle, makes this vehicle a pretty darn beefy thing to have here. So, I’m saying this just to demonstrate what exactly you have on hand to work with, so I believe you can definitely throw in a couple more things, like, armor, or thicker, more intense force projectors. Stuff like that. Personally, I would probably equip some G9 Skulker Ablative material armor and some J16l5 rapid ‘react’ ion FPs, and maybe some of that combo hydrodetonatory ion s**t too.” “Okay.” Trevor drags out of his mouth Niara thinks. “But we’re probably not going to need so much anyway. Like, I know I said that, yes we’re probably going to need to engage in heavier fights or whatever, but it’s not like we’re going to be sending ourselves into warzones. Mm.” She looks at Trevor. “What is it?” he asks, “What do you think?” “I don’t know. Just stuff that won’t kill me or others.” he wants to say something else, only for his tongue to roll empty. “Okay.” She blows air out of her nose, “Okay, I guess I’ll finish what I was saying. Main thing is engagements will happen more often on the ground, and we probably won’t need a lot of crazy nonsense on the ship, though having some things would still be beneficial. What would be very nice is if the Skylancer could possibly support us while we’re on the ground.” Trevor looks at her, “So, my suggestions would be some ordinances for ground support, and then something basic for defense. What clients sell the flash darts, sonic peeper, reactive foam?” “Uhh, I’ve got a bunch of addresses and numbers.” “Okay, and what about smart lasers and… Hey Trevor, how fast can your ship go?” “Uh, about, Heischk 52 .” Jiapor looks at him, “52 times? Sheesh, what the hell kinda stuff did you give her?” “It’s not like I'm trying to break that record.” “Well still son, that’s insane.” “So, what’s the standard for mach on this planet?” “Around 310, so, mach 503.” Jiapor’s gaze lands on Trevor. “So yeah, you should be able to make a supersonic crack. We can get some of that audio conduction dust--” “Oh, you’re really making this something people will hate huh.” “Yep.” “Wait, what are you putting on the ship?” “Do you want the enemy to hear where you’re coming from?” “No--” “Then set the SkyLancer to go supersonic at a relatively low altitude. Combine that with the dust, and you won’t hear yourself scream.” “Jeez. Okay, uh maybe this is a little much. Like, I wanna support, but it’s not like I want to burn the world around them to support. Maybe, can my ship be more for recovery, or rescue, or something?” “Recovery?” Niara glances at Jiapor. “Yea, we’ve got stuff. Wait, what do you mean by rescue?” “Like, being able to put down shields or send down supplies. Or maybe force projectors to pick things up? I don’t know. I just, I don’t really like the idea of my ship having the ability to hurt someone. Or at least, so much that it’s worse than death.” Silence. Niara looks at Trevor, seeing how his gaze has drifted away. She sighs. “Yea, that’s understandable. That makes sense.” She takes a glance at Jiapor. “I mean, Trevor, the stuff that she’s mentioning, it’s… it can be adjusted.” “Yeah, but I don’t think Trevor is okay with potentially blowing people’s eardrums out.” “But it can still be changed.” “Well, that’s true, but still.” Trevor eavesdrops on their conversation, the tapes that he acquired shines from the moon. What would my parents think of me now? Their best friend, working to put weapons, the very thing I swore to never install, on my ship. He peers back. They’re talking about all the things they could put on my ship. His vision shoves a notebook in his hand, detailed and meticulously crafted drawings lay inside the sepian papers. Years, I’ve spent perfecting this design. Years, I’ve spent trying to make this… better, the best I can make it. And yet, they’re going to take it. They’re going to break it, they’re going to make it worse. “Like, do you know, like, do you have weapons that are more subtle or less than deadly? Like refraction missiles or something?” They’re going to turn it into, into a poison. So why won’t I say anything? Why won’t I do anything? “I mean yea. We’ve got those. Although, if that’s the technology we’re looking into, then we’ve got more options available.” Niara and Jiapor’s words creeps in, I thought Jiapor, I thought he would turn this thing down. I thought-- “EMP and radar jammers, rupture pellet rain or mist. I’ll give you a list, eh, another list. You can tour through all of the options then after.” Their next sentences tip toe in. Trevor has his mind torn back to the world at hand. “Wait, what do you mean by you?” “Oh, sorry. I meant we. I mean, you all. She seems to know about the armaments that exist, and I thought she would probably be the best person to tailor your vehicle, or at least in a combat sense.” “What?” Trevor exclaims, in an uncharacteristic panic “You sure?” Niara turns herself to Jiapor. “I mean.” Jiapor looks at her face, seeing how many scars she’s collected. “You seem like the type.” She jerks her head a little and grunts “Hoh okay then. Then by that logic, you look like a washed out dad who binge watches anime all day.” “Oh hahahaha, very funny. But really though, considering you know about flash darts and sonic amplifying particles, I trust you’d make good decisions for Trevor.” Niara pouts. “I don’t know about that.” She observes Trevor’s isolated state, how his gaze was so distant. Jiapor… has, has he changed? Have I changed? He takes a second glance at the tapes “You know what. I think we’ve spent time here. Thank you, uh, sorry for the rude comment--” “Oh please, I get called worse. Come back anytime, I’d love to show you how much of an anime freak I really am.” “Oh jeez, that sounds really attractive.” she jeers, “Haha. Well, or at least you and Trevor can come and we can cut watermelons with my lightsaber.” “Heh, alright that sounds like a full deal. I’ll think about it.” Niara looks at Trevor’s shrunken pose. “But, for right now, uh. I think Trevor should herald this thing.” His head jolts back to reality, he turns to greets, “Huh, what’s up?” “What do you wanna do? This is your idea anyway.” He looks around. His mouth opens. -- -- --
Something clasps shut.Trevor looks at the tapes, while skin tears away off of an airfoil from the Skyhawk. He presses play. A display projects into the air. It flickers to show a camera feed videotaping a man tightening a screw. “Hey, hey Leo.” The man turns to meet the camera. “You’re on the air man!” “Heh, what, is this supposed to be some sort of practical joke?” “No really, you’re on the air! Say something!” “I dunno. Uh--” “That Taylor Swift is the best and you know it!” Olivia jumps in. “Isn’t she like, more than a century old?” “So? Mozart is like 3 centuries old, and he’s still rocking the speakers.” “But there’s a difference, he literally invented things.” “You’re saying that Taylor didn’t invent?” “No? But isn’t Taylor just a pop star?” “So was Mozart effectively, at least in his day.” “But, okay, fine whatever.” She grins to the camera. “You’ve heard it here folks! The already legendary Taylor is legendary--” Leo cuts in, “well cuz she’s old news!” Olivia smirks, “well, you’re one to talk, binging f*****g centuries old anime with Jiapor like they’re going to out of season or something.” “Okay, there’s a difference there! Evangelion is a classic with a t.” “And you’re saying that Taylor isn’t a classic either?” “Well I’m not saying she isn’t, you just can’t compare the two, because of--” “Oh you little-” She runs off camera to chase Leo around, panning over to the two. “I’mma gonna get ya!” “Not if I have anything to say about it!” She pounces and puts Leo in an armhold and noogies him. “Ow, why do you do it so hard!” “I am u-unicorn man. Prepare your butts.” Kid Trevor chants from above the ship while t-posing and hurdles himself below, plunging into his parents. They all scream together before it all cuts with a thud. The camera pans to the three of them lying on the floor. They chortle together. The display goes black, Trevor glances over, with a tattoo pen-like device in his mouth, barely holding back a giggle, and in his hand; a dentist light sort of object projects above the whole thing. He examines the pen and checks the material at the top. “Perfect.” The stencils jab into the airfoil and construct a semi metallic, elastic, watery, silicon composition within the airfoil. A cart drives over to him delivering a large block of porous silicon. He places the block on the edge of the airfoil and the block disintegrates, before morphing and solidifying into the air foil, creating a flush, smooth surface on it. He nods, before his eyes catch on to the VHS Holo Projector. Another VHS tape slides in and click goes the button, before he notices there were multiple videos per tape. “Huh.” He presses play: “So, if y’alls are ready for the Scarlet Edge Galactica, give it up and let ‘er roar!” Olivia chants, The crowd unleashed a sonic boom, “Yeaaah! That’s what’s up baby!” “Who’s ready for the party of their lives. Bepis on us!” An onslaught of noise floods in. Somehow, the speakers did not pop. “Alright now!” Olivia grabs the camera, while flashing a rock on gesture. “See you in the ring champs.” The recording ends. He presses next.
-- -- Niara wields the lightsaber, the neon blade flickers. Jiapor pulls out a watermelon and holds his finger up. “Ready?” “As I’ll ever be!” The watermelon throttles and her hand takes a swing. Slash, gas and some juice splashes onto her. “Holy s**t!” “How about another one?” more fruit and melons thrust, the blade ravages and pounces through, juice covers her all over. “Hell yeah.” “Okay, let’s kick it up a notch.” He pulls out another. “You what?” Niara proclaims, “how many of those things do you have?” He just shushes Niara. “Okay. There’s a machine that launches fruit over here.” They walk towards a garage. Niara shows the ground a ponderous look. “Hey Jiapor? That’s your name right?” “Yes?” “Uh, do you know why Trevor said that? You know, the way he said it?” “What do you mean?” “Like. I don’t know. He’s never said he needed to work on his ship, or at least like that before.” “He sounded desperate. Afraid or something. I’ve never seen him get like that.” “That’s strange. Well, actually not really. This whole thing, it’s been hard on him. That’s why I gave him, or I wanted to show him the tapes. He needs to see his father in a different light. Hell, he just needs to see his father again, and I think the tapes will help him a lot.” Jiapor pauses his actions. Shaking his head, he tries to open the door. “Though… dang it. I wanna say something, but I don’t have the words.” Jiapor drops the shutter door. “I don’t know. I’m still trying to recall whether the Trevor now is the same Trevor I knew. I’m still trying to figure out if he was ever like this. I remember my first encounters and conversations with him felt more like trying to convince a hopeless man to keep pressing.” -- -- -- It was six o'clock in the afternoon, the sign of a scrapyard invited him in. “Trevor, you’re back? Ah, you’re no quitter. Heh, reminds me of another person I knew.” He responded with a “Mmm hmm.” “I think his name was… damn, can’t remember. They spoke Spanish though, I’m pretty sure.” Trevor dropped a crowbar, wrench, hammer, and shovel, when he turned to face Jiapor. “Speak spanish?” “Yeah. Something like, Bla bla bla,” Jiapor chuckles before saying: “Al menos no estoy muerto. No aun de todos modos” “You can… puedes hablar español?” “Si, I learned it back when your father was near my home planet. I eventually picked up his language from just being around it. Call me a polyglot.” “No way!” His expression dies. He picks up the wrench. “Sorry, I don’t want to talk about my father.” He grabbed his tools and went on to work at the pile. Jiapor exclaimed, “Aight, fair enough, just wondering when I could see ‘em again. I am curious though, are you doing something with those parts?” Trevor only gives a sly, snarky sliver of a smirk, before shutting the door, making Jiapor chuckle.
-- -- --
The sign of Guisianos flickered and flashed. “Ay Trevor, you need help? I swear you’re going to pop your back doing it like that.” seeing how his back mimicked a shrimp “Mmm, ah no I’m good. I can carry this.” “Ah hah, no no no. I ain’t letting Leonardo’s Son turn his back to jelly, come on now.” “Leonardo-” The box slammed onto the ground, his feet just millimeters away from impact. “What! Wait wait wait, what?” “Wait, wait, wait. Hang on. I… Only friends call him that. Like, really close friends?” “I mean yeah, I was pretty close with him? I don’t know, I don’t hang out with people all that often anyway. Gotta help out the racers somehow.” “Racers?” “Well, racers, technical jobs, junk storage, ship repair… shop repair, anything that pays the bill really.” “Wait, how do you know my father?” “Well, that’s a helluva long story, but basically, I was there when he first landed here. We even helped ourselves start a shop.” “Oh, that’s cool, and wait, there are races on this planet?” “Uh, duh? What type of planet doesn’t have those?” “Oh, I meant professional racing?” “Oh yeah. Heh, there’s, your father and I actually got a contract from The Zenith--” “The Zenith!” “Yes, that Zenith. I still can’t believe it, even to this day, but yeah, we were contracted to repair, tear down, and basically deal with any mechanical job the Zenith had to deal with. Ah, dude, I could tell you so many stories from then.” “Tell me, tell me!” “Okay, well. Where to start… oh yeah. I remember this one time where we had this gig for a holiday humans celebrate. Something like, El cuatro de mayo. I don’t know, it was for some sort of movie, Star Wers they called it? Whatever, anyway, so your father was geeking out every second of the job, and I swear, he was on something wild with his idea of an entrance. Basically, he had the bright idea to ‘test drive’ the x wing, I dunno what it’s called, but whatever, he had the great idea to use that as his ride to the race! He even equipped fireworks to the craft, and to our projects to ‘set off the event’. Heh, ah, I can still remember his screams from when he shot the first firework, as well as the stellar light show it made.” “Holy, what in, what was my dad doing?” “Wait, you have the X wing still?” “Yeah, sure do, I haven’t done much with it though.” “Omg, you have to show me.” “Alright.” Jiapor stood up and pressed a button on a garage unit, to see the four winged ship gently stowed into the container. “Okay.” Trevor chuckled, as he dashed towards the ship, caressing its metal skin. “And you still have footage of my dad?” “Yeah. Yeah, I do. Heh, gotta admit, he was one sweet guy.” Trevor looked down. “Uh, yeah. Know what, I think I gotta finish what I started.” “Ah. Okay, I’ll let you go then. Til next time then.” -- -- --
A garage opens to show off a tennis ball turret, but the funnel and muzzle was much bigger. “I’ve modified the f****r to coat the fruit in ferromagnetic paint, so.” Jiapor states off camera, Olivia and Leonardo glare at him in fear, before she looks directly ahead towards the muzzle. “Hope you three have fun!” he presses the button, and fruit launches at them, their blades gash, slash, and gnash through them. Juice paints them. The machine churns a loud pop, it was out. “Oh, hang on!” “Jiapor, I don’t think I wanna do this anymore!” Olivia remarks. “Oh come on, it’s just fruit.” “That are being hurled at literal railgun speeds--” “I did it earlier, I was fine--” “That’s because you have literal robo arms to help you!” “Tomato potato, you were doing fine anyway!” “Trevor?” Jiapor and Olivia sprung a glance before rushing, the camera smacking against the floor as soon as it laid sight on his body. “S**t! Get emergency care!” Jiapor says, “No, get him on his back, we may not need it!” The camera saw Leo and Jiapor turn Trevor on his back. “Is he still breathing?” “Yeah, he’s breathing. I think he might’ve stood up too fast.” Trevor starts to speak, “Wha, wha--” “Oh thank god, okay uh, keep lying. Uhh, do you need ice?” Leo asks “I… I” “I’ll go get some in case.” Jiapor says, Jiapor picks up the camera and checks the lens, covering it. Trevor turns his focus to the ginormous cradle surrounding the Skylancer besides him; Arms sway and probe about, ready to install glue stick sized stencil pens into the ship. He presses a button prompt on a tablet and the stencils stab into the ship, nanomachines spread and sink to points on the vehicle. He realizes something and checks another tablet, this time of a blueprint of his ship. “Nah, I can do that after.” He looks right to see a recycler and a fabricator sitting left of his workstation. “Hm.” he goes to the pair of machines. “Jiapor has the stuff for IMMs, so that’s good.” he presses a few keys on both machines and dumps his wheelbarrow of parts, including the fileted remains of a car. “Okay, so other than the new seats and weapon systems, I still can’t believe I’m saying that, what else? Well other than reducing moving parts in the thing, I think--” Suddenly, the holographic screen flickers through bright blue, sandy, and black colors. “Wait it’s still going?” he says, “You know Leo, you’ve told him about this right?” “What? I mean, I guess, he already knows.” “Well, that’s not an amazing answer, but alright. Just, you don’t think these genetic problems are going to be more, eh, problematic in the future?” “I mean, yea. Now that you say that, yeah definitely.” He pauses “You could get it fixed.” “I could, and you’re right. But what about for Trevor? Do we actually know how long it will take to get the genetic makeover, how long it’s going to take for me to get used to it? I might be completely different, and is this even an option for Trevor, hell, I think he’s doing a helluva lot better than I was when I was his age.” Another pause. “Maybe I’m being selfish, maybe I’m being selfless, I don’t really know. But I’m not going to lie in his face about things. You know this about me right, I hate lying, especially to my own child. I hate pretending when I don’t know, I hate spreading rumors, I hate spreading lies and false facts. You get it. I’ve been through it before, and I’m not doing it to my son.” Another pause. Olivia sighs, “I’m sorry for not saying much during our time here.” “What do you mean?” “I didn’t know how to feel about anything these past days. I don’t even know what my opinion is on this. On Trev, on you. Really this whole thing has been a fever dream. How long ago was Trevor’s first faint?” “Like, months ago. Only now, it’s becoming more prevalent, like, once per two weeks or something, and even then, those were because of him standing up too fast.” “Even then, that doctor’s report, saying the problems have traceback to your, our DNA… duh, and the fact that we’re contemplating if this is a good idea?” The camera slumps, with its gaze now directly observing the dust dancing with the wind, under the earthly blue sky. “I mean, I hate being a downer, but shouldn’t he make the decision?” “Yes, he should be, but he’s also not old enough. Like, who knows how long these symptoms will persist. I remember being a lot worse off when I was young, and yet somehow I got and pushed through, but it also could be my symptoms got weaker. What’s to stop that to happen to Trevor? One thing’s for certain though, when he is old enough, and if his symptoms persist, I will bring it up to him. Then again, I don’t even know if he’ll need it, considering right now, he is handling this fantastically.” Then Jiapor interjects: “oh s**t, i forgot to turn the came-” The screen goes black. Trevor casually watches from afar, with his body leaning over the fabricator. “Well, from my eyes, I was a total loser that couldn’t stand for two minutes.” Those same eyes rest in front of the fabricator screen in front of him. His reflection shows him his eyes. He sighs, trying to think of something to say, but his mouth’s words go tasteless, and he clicks the print button on the fabricator. Meanwhile he collects the already created parts and sits himself down, getting welding, cutting, measuring, soldering, glue tools ready for use, when a thought pops into Trev’s brain. “Should I put a water maker in my ship?” He thinks, “I mean, I think I have the parts for it, I can just take some of the s**t from the Hydrogen and air tanks to get water. Yeah, but I’d have to build and make the actual mixing chamber, and that might not be worth it. But I can always turn off the thing if I don’t need water… actually, when will I need water?” his ship situates itself in the middle of his focus. “Mm, I guess I could install outlets on my ship, just for luxury’s sake. Wouldn’t be too hard, and it could help me do other things too. A beep tastes the metallic, dusty air, Trevor swivels to investigate. He reaches the tablet and swipes away, the arms on the ship retract away. He presses a button on the blueprint tablet and the Skyhawk deploys, its airfoils drop away leaving only the pilot’s seat open for edit. He grabs a drill and screwdrivers, and removes the glass canopy. The teal reflects his eyes again, tinting them in a solemn light. -- -- -- Trevor was crying on his Father’s bed. “No. No no no no no no.” Tears dribbled out like rain. The room was dark green, with a semi smile frown on his dad’s face. The Father’s skin was cold, ice. Only sobs could enter the room, with his mother hugging Trevor. Wetness dropped and streamed over their hands. The room’s light was grey, but incandescent and heartwarming almost. The time seemed to stop. The clock's hand ticked, but no sounds were heard, just the cold wraith of silence swept the room. “I’m sorry mom. I couldn’t… I didn’t make it. I… I’m sorry.” “Sweety!” Her hug clenched tight. Her love burned; her soul felt like it sung love deep within Trevor’s heart. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t need to come, and you did. You did everything you could.” “No, I didn’t.” “Yes you did, and I’m proud of you. We didn’t want you to come, because we knew you worry too much, and yet you still did, because that’s who you are. I’m sorry for doing that to you, we just, we love you, and we’re really, really proud of you. I just want you to know that even though it may not seem like that. I’m sorry for the harm this may bring to you, I’m sorry.” her hug and her tears broke Trevor. Tears rained out of his eyes, as their embrace became more anguished and strained. “I’m sorry, we’re sorry we weren’t strong enough.”
-- -- -- Olivia’s voice hollows around Trevor’s skull. He realizes that tears had dribbled down on to the faux leather of the seat, and he’d been hugging a headrest cushion. “Oh goddammit, not again.” He puts the cushion down, and sits on the floor, trying, forcing himself to compose. “D****t. I, I can’t. There’s so much, again.” His breathing quakes, shaky, his body slumped to the floor . “God, god f*****g d****t.” Tears continue to drizzle on the floor. “What, what’s wrong with me. Have I lost control? What am I doing.” His voice struggles. “This is all of my fault, all of that time, and I still couldn’t. Why couldn’t I have been faster, why, why, why!” He fights to stand, but he keeps losing. “I can’t even trust if people’s words are true anymore, I don’t even know what is, or what was right… what’s wrong with me?” He curls up into a ball, staring at his feet. “I am so pathetic. I miss them so much.” Niara and Jiapor stand in the doorway, with their hands carrying fruit. “Trevor!” Jiapor chants before Niara tails right behind They rush to him, Trevor backs up, his palm a stop sign for them all. Jiapor recognizes and pauses, Niara mirroring. The only sound present was breathing. Just basic, walking down the street breathing. Tears continue to flow out of his eyes. “Please, I need to be alone. I… I can’t let you all get close. Please. I’m sorry.” his sorrowful eyes screamed. Niara glances around, while Jiapor approaches slowly. Trevor cuts, “And I only want you to be okay, I know I’m a burden, just please let me protect you--” “You’re not a burden Trevor, and hiding your feelings will only hurt us more. Trevor, please, just let us talk.” Jiapor laments. “I’m sorry. I just have a lot right now. Please, just leave. For, for our sake.” Jiapor approaches again. “Trevor, please, I can’t do that, not to my friends’ son.” “I’m sorry.” “Don’t be sorry, you’re not going to make me upset.” “And how do I know that? How, when every move I make, I regret in some way. I can’t. I can’t let that happen again. I can’t let them die again, I can’t let you die again. I can’t stop, I don’t want to worry anymore. I am so, so tired. I just want to go back, when I didn’t have any worries. When I didn’t have to know whether I made the right choice or not.” Silence. “I’m sorry, I can’t. I can’t. I’m tired of beating myself over the head over someone’s health, over my smallest mistakes. You’re going to make me worry, and I’m tired of worrying. Please.” Silence. “You were the one to make me realize why I shouldn’t worry about my past mistakes, that things move everyday, even if things don’t go the way they’re supposed to, they’’ll just keep moving.” Niara stops talking, her face back to contemplation. She finally continues, “I realized a lot of things when I was with you here, back in the prison, back in the Monarch. You made me rethink things. I never really thought how someone like me, with a profession like mine, with a life like mine, how could they ever change. I have always felt that I was never a help, just someone who wastes and kills. And yet, you were the one who changed that. You changed my mind. You made me realize, I can change.” Silence. “You helped me. You did that. You made me change for the better.” Silence again, another mask of contemplation. “And, I know you don’t want to put weapons on your ship. I understand, you don’t want to hurt or kill anyone, so that’s why I want to keep hands off, and I want to let you choose the tools yourself. You changed me, and, in some ways, I’ve changed you. It’s time I return the favor. Besides, it’s your ship, I know jack s**t when it comes to that. Anyway, that’s, that’s all I got.” She exhales, Jiapor looks at her, and nods. Niara shifts her glance to Trevor. “I… uhh. I am thankful for your care. Sorry about all this. Uhh, I think we’ve had enough here, or at least I am.” Trevor says He stands up and wipes the dust off of his pants. A glance at his seat makes him realize. “Oh wait, I was going to make a second seat, and then that happened.” he looks at the two, taking a second. He hisses in some air and opens his mouth, “Wait what?” Niara says, Jiapor approaches, “Jiapor, can you remove this bracket here, and Niara, you there?” “Huh? Wait, what, what do you want me to-” “Grab the power tools and see if the second chair motors are already fabbed. Uh, if they’re not, just print them, we can put it together later.” -- -- --
He tightens a screw and resolders some wires, before stitching the fabric over the electronics. A button is pressed. The chair ascends and slides forward, to allow another chair to pop up right behind it. The whole platform slips into the fuselage, screws turn and then flatten onto the surface of the chair floor. A few taps on the screens and the second seat slides forward and opens like a clam, almost inviting another passenger. The teal canopy closes and locks, pressure seethes into the ship. The ship beams to life and booms into space, the stars blurring by. “Alright Alphas, no disturbances, all out ride, let’s go!” The lights in the ship dim, with only the floor strips illuminating the wooden, natural stone composite interior. “Now Playing: Varien & Mr. FijiWiji - We Are The Lights.” The radio writes on the screen. The Music breezes in. The smoothing, soothing warmth of the notes bring a live, simultaneous pleasantness in the already cuddly, soft mood into the liminal but cabin cozy cockpit. Stars and planets race by, with faint blue light bouncing off of Trevor’s visor. He reached back for the mini fridge and grabbed a can of Bepis, sipping and slipping the coke into a cup holder. Trevor pushes and pulls on the joysticks, and begins commanding the craft to swift and drift through the empty void in aerobatic freedom. It’s almost like he’s on ice, gently nudging the ship to roam and skate across the milky, silky, but also vacant space around him. The first song finishes its serenade, with another taking its place. “Now Playsing: Eagles - Hotel California.” He tilts a pedal on the floor back, and brakes the vehicle, leftover momentum and inertia still keeling the ship forward. In a slick translation, he circles a moon with the front, side, and top thrusters turning and orienting his ship, having the top and front of the ship facing the planet’s surface. His fist and foot punches the controls. The Skylancer’s bottom blasts the vehicle hard into a slingshot maneuver, the gravity and Trevor fighting to keep it straight. The moon disintegrates into streaks, stripes, and trails when suddenly, the roof thrusters kick the ship forwards and the ship bullets away, centrifugal vertigo and velocity literally catapults the vehicle into forever yonder. “Hoooh s**t yea! I’ll never get tired of that! F**k!” he jabs his hand for the soda in the cup holder and chugs when suddenly A beeping noise was getting louder, shrieking through the fading music before it became a loud, shrilly noise, sharpening its edge with Trevor’s ear “Hoh s**t, f**k--” Alphas stating, “Reaffirming control!” The music halts, a record scratch plays. Trevor slams the brakes and punches the steer: Two red outlines jumped onto his radar and canopy, scary red highlights and numbers grew bigger and bigger every second, an exclamation triangle screams at him about the peril, with an orange distress call signaling him at the same time. A harness forms over Trevor’s body, the object literally misses by an inch, the momentum tussles, throws, shoves him forward, restrained and pressed against an invisible force and harness. The ship eventually slows to a more reasonable speed, Trevor’s mouth mews out an “Ow.” Veering his eyes down for the drink. “Oh dang it. Hey, uh.” The stain on the floor and control panels disintegrates. He puts his fist up for a holographic fist to appear right beside it. Alphas and Trevor fistbump. “Thanks.” he says. “The f**k was that?” “Seemed like a damaged pod, an emergency signal was broadcasting from it, but it was a faint one.” “More like a goddamn injured bird yelling.” Trevor hovers himself closer to the pod before exiting. He lands on the pod’s hull. “Toyota Star Cruiser, what the? They make those? Also, hey…” He inspects the miniature ship, and sees that there is a pilot inside of it. Trevor brings out his hand and a beam of light passes through the bulky arrowhead. “Crap, I don’t have a thermal laser on me. Wait, well, no.” He pulls out his pistol and points at the hull. “Yea, I can’t risk the damage.” he references his gauntlets. A cross section of the vehicle’s body is shown, its overall integrity was at 65%. He stares around the abandoned vessel, before he groans.
-- -- “I am already hating this.” The SkyLancer shifts two centimeters forward with The Pod attached onto one of the folded wing. Trevor could feel the weight of the right side of his ship drag and wobble the interior. It is incredibly disorienting, as one side of the ship feels like its moving briskly while the other feels like its hauling thirty tons. “I can inject medicinal aids if you’d like.” “No, I think I’m good.” He tries to turn and roll the SkyLancer, the uneven mass continues to rattle the ship’s body. Trevor grinds his teeth, the yokes pressing its texture prints into his hands. “How about I take it from here.”
Break Through
Trevor leans up on a bench in a space station. “Alph, you there?” “I’m right here. Antibiotic kit is coming to you.” Trevor catches the kit mid air and unpacks it, injecting and sticking a multi needle syringe into his bicep. A trill of beeps chimes out and a surge of relief sings through his body. He takes a second to taste the sweet yet dry barrenness in the air, before pushing off of the bench. Trevor knocks twice on the SkyLancer, while walking and observing the whole thing, searching for any immediately dangerous cracks or damage. “Scan complete, structural integrity at 34%, life support and vital electronics at 55%, navigational and flight system integrity at 44%--” The back was barely holding itself together, broken and distorted metal barred the doors on the ship. He runs back to the SkyLancer and opens a section behind the cockpit, revealing an entire inventory of supplies, pulling out a few tools from the interior. He presses the button on a rather large wireless cable, rewarding green enchants the air, He sinks his fingers onto the handle bar of the space cruiser. Two beeps blurt through, “This vehicle’s safe mode is active, please use the necessary cautions when attempting rescue procedures. Manual overrides and release mechanisms will open in 3, 2, 1.” Loud clacks jump out of the vehicle, but some of them came with concerning mechanical motor whirring. The side door rammed into the outcropping damage of the pod, jamming it stuck, but the window jacked itself wide open, completely clear for removal. Trevor rips the glass panel away from the vehicle, and examines the man’s body position, before reaching in. Trevor grabs the man’s clothes and pulls his torso up and out of the window sill. He then gets under the victim and pulls him out. The SkyLancer lowers and opens its canopy. The second seat of the ship reveals itself. Trevor lays the victim on his side and checks for a pulse, he pulls a safety knife and slides it down against the fabric on the back of the patient’s space suit. He removes the helmet and vest and juts his ear up to the man’s throat. “Breathing, chest is normal. Okay. okay.” Trevor walks away from him as he grabs the medkit and gets it closer to him. He notices the face of the victim. “You’re f*****g serious.”
-- -- “You’re kidding.” Livo says, Trevor stood with Niara near the entrance of the cold labs. “Yep, Sullivan Grace. The Toyota Space Cruiser was his vehicle. Yep, him.” Trevor explains. Bixvah adds on, “And I found some stuff from Sullivan’s pod, turns out the Fenrir faction had something to do with this.” Bixvah says, “Wait, The Fenrir?” Niara said, a dread stains her voice. “Yeah, oh, just so you know, we’re not actually going into Fenrir territory, so don’t worry about that.” Niara looks at Sullivan. “I mean, are you sure they can’t track us?” “No? Why do you say that.” Niara’s face reeks with fear. “That’s not a good answer, are you sure they can’t track us?” “No, it doesn’t look like they had anything remotely Typhoon, and even if they did, we did a complete quarantine and phage of all external electronics. Even then, the space cruiser was attacked as a result of entering enemy space. No actual fire from Sully caused their aggravation.” “Why are you so worried-`` Livo says, “It’s the goddamn Fenrir. What do you think? M***********s started a war once just because the nation of Girlsmaf cut a tree on their land. And Girlsmaf got f*****g crushed. The nation of Girlsmaf for god sake too!” Livo’s expression changes, “Right.” “Yeah.” Trevor shakes his head and asks, “Is he going to be okay?” Bixvah squints, “Yeah, for certain. I think he was trying to give us more information on the Omniscient, but he got intercepted on the way. That’s what I hypothesize though. I’ll give you a header once he’s fully, actually awake. But for now.” She exhales, and grins. “Both of you, head to The Hanging Orchards.” Bixvah says “The, huh?” Trevor responds, “Where’s that?” Niara continues “According to the documentation and data, this is where Sullivan’s organizations first sighted this plant. Right now it’s Valpalinean occupied.” “Oh, cool.” Niara says, “yeah, uh most of my parkour stuff back in high school came from valpalinean theories and techniques, it also helped that I was taught by a Valpian instructor. “Really, in high school? How?” “I got to do it as a sport, like, we’d also have competitions too. I remember being really good apparently, I was at varsity level at one point. Do they not give you that option?” “I thought homapians, sorry, humans did parkour too.” “The human members of the PTA said that they were too dangerous for kids and teenagers, which I guess having them f*****g tackle and punches is less risky, but okay, we’re just going to ignore those safety risks.” “Well, that’s stupid.” “I know right? Anyway, so where do we need to go?” “You’ll know it when you get there.”
-- -- -- Hanging OrchardsThe SkyLancer and the Leviathan pierce through the stratosphere, weaving and threading through the gaps between the tall, titanic trees. Rolling around, office buildings, tree towers, and skyscrapers zip by, with billboards, posters, and advertisements decorating the place the picture moving in Trevor’s vision constantly switching between clockwise and counterclockwise rotation. “How does your ship feel now?” “Exhilarating? Why’d you ask?” The SkyLancer rips the sky apart one last time, pressing through the skies between the canopy leaves, seeing how branches were being used as crosswalks and platforms for more buildings. The sight below then cuts away, a cold but somehow cozy and airy hanger replaces it instead. The cockpit glass lunges forward and Trevor gets out. “Just wanted to see how you’re doing, since... Sorry about that, by the way.” “Agh, no worries.” “I’m just uncomfortable over how you were, I don’t know how to put it.” The Leviathan slides next to Trevor, the cockpit gliding back to reveal Niara’s armor exiting the vehicle. “Wait, you’re just going to get out as the Kraken?” Trevor looks around to see multiple Fox Robins whispering and regressing away from Niara. “Yeah, I mean, I don’t see why not. It’s not like i’m gonna shoot up the pla--” Suddenly, she feels something occurring to her weapons, a hissing sound branches from all her guns with a voice screeching: “Active Weapons are prohibited on planetary grounds.” She promptly stares at the guns on her, only pulling the pistol out to try to pull the slide back. It won’t budge. She hisses herself. “Well, guess what I’m not doing today.” She drops all of them into the Leviathan, the knife and pickaxe being the only thing she keeps. Her head and her breath fall over. “What? What are you not doing?” “Just, let’s just say guns are not an option today, and I have decided that cosplaying with a knife and pick is good enough.” “Hoohkay.” Trevor replies, She jumps down and finds Trevor. Trevor shows his ID and the doors open, an unlikely world beams in front of them. He looks down to witness the scale of the trees compared to the people inhabiting them, observing how dwarvish and tiny everything seemed “Now that’s quite the town.” Niara jests “Holy s**t.” Trevor pronounces, They walk across the taut bridges tying the branches, streets, together, to see jets and the people run by above their heads. “Holy!” Niara notices the cable on the top of the bridges, and holds her pickaxe by the handle. “Wait, what are you doing?” Trevor says She runs up a small wall of bark near the entrance of the bridges, and hooks the handle bar onto the cords the weight of her armor dragging her down. She is left hanging in the middle of the string, with the crowd looking up at her confused. A valpian streaks across the wire above her, smacking her head with a foot. “Shut up Kiti, use the trampolines!” another said She shakes her head and sees how other valpians did it, using the cord, and the walls to launch themselves upwards. Her face grows a massive grin. She takes another swig at it and punches her leg at the wall, swinging and then kicking against the cord to send her to another cord neighboring. “Ho, wait, wait for me!” he blasts up and forward, landing just so precariously on the rope. “Ey! Glad you could join me!” Niara jaunts He sees how one of them was running on the wall and skating off of a terrace, with another blasting off of the cords. “Oh good to know!” she pulls on the cord to hop, she grinds her feet onto the cords and flings herself onto the billboard. She springs onto a flag pole and swings to another railing, grinding across it. “What?” he does the same thing and hops onto a terrace overhang, before he bounces right off it. He spots a wall and tosses himself over to it. He pushes himself into the wall using the force projector and jumps to a bridge. The bridge accelerates passed his face and he misses the landing, noticing vines below it. He grabs them and spiderman swings up into the air. He looks around and sees how distant he is to walls or the ground. “Hey Trevor!” He looks to his right and sees Niara hurdling towards him. They smash into each other and fall, and fall. Trevor punches his hand out and propels against the air, a bridge uppercuts them apart. Valpians move away and to Niara and Trevor to see if they’re okay. “Ow.” she smarts, observing her armor. A Valpian and android paramedics flutters to the scene, Niara getting a notification of an armor plate and a shoulder fracture. “Why are you trying to zip wearing that? Don’t you have a tech suit?” a valpian med says, preparing to strip her of her armor. Niara presents a hand out, “I'm fine, I’ve dealt with worse.” She pulls out a medical kit, revealing a set of instruments, needles, pads, fabrics, etc. a multineedle syringe shows up in her hand, and injects it at a point in her armor, before the Valpian stops her. “I’ve got it under control.” Niara says “Uhh, I have a better idea. and we’ll take care of you.” “I’ve faced gunshot wounds, plasma burns, electrical shock, I can handle a fractured shoulder.” The medic face sifts to deep concern and scans her. “Sheesh, where have you been? we gotta get you to a doctor.” “What? I’m fine.” “I don’t think so. Here, why don’t we set up an appointment. Costs are covered already, don’t worry about that--” “Look, I get your concern, but I’m fine, really.” “You shouldn’t push away your own health like this.” “Niara, you okay?” She glances at Trevor, a feeling of realization strikes her face, She pauses, her mind racing to find something to work with, to think about, but it feels like a blur. She shakes her head and says: “I’m sorry. I… I don’t.” She takes a while before she speaks again, “maybe, maybe I should take some rest. You’re right. Right.” She continues to search through her mind, finding nothing to use again. A hand rests on her shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with accepting help; you have nothing to fear. We’re only here to help you, we’ll be there for you--” Something snaps. -- -- -- Snow bombarded the neighborhood, with lampposts burning a candle flame through the paper white environment. Footprints burned in the snow. “Niara? Niara, where are you!” The forest was cold, the snow’s icy touch needles into Niara’s skin Trees surrounded and obscured the moon above. “Niara? Niara please, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean what I said. Please, Niara, don’t do this to me. I never wanted you to get hurt, so please--” Her footprints snuff and scuff through the snow. “Niara! Where are you? I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to feel burdened. I never meant to hurt you, please, Niara, I beg of you, I just want you to be happy!” Niara sprinted and sprinted. Twigs, thorns and sharp vines raze her fur, she winces from the pain and trips into a ditch, pin dropping into a small icy river. The frigid temperatures became an icy venom and torpefied her. “Niara!” a girly silhouette spots her and jabs her hand out to catch her, before it disappears behind a wall of dirt, not even allowing Niara the chance to react. Niara grabbed the wall of dirt before it collapsed, dirt barrels into her mouth. “S**t, Niara! I’m going to get help… f**k! I’ll be here for you, just, stay put please!” Her voice bundles inside Niara’s mind, before the words arise action out of her, dragging her hand to catch a large root finally, and clawed her way outside of the water,. Her fur and body were completely wracked in their senses; her head and body meets the numbing warmth of the air from the sheer arctic cold. Niara coughed the dirt away from her mouth, spitting the sediment out from her mouth, her hand’s dig deeper and deeper as she held close to the root and stones embedded into the soil. She glanced around to see more forest and another ledge. She urges, pushes, presses her legs to move or push, but she could feel the dirt beneath her feet crumble away, and her body aching more and more. Suddenly, the ground fell away, her nails scrape off some bark as she plunges straight into the river water, the cold strikes its icy venom again and shuts her eyelids. The forest cuts to black. “I’m sorry Myrane. I’m sorry. I’m too weak, and I’m too scared. Too… stupid, to do anything. Please, I’m not you. So just, do yourself a favor and… and-” Snow. Snow continues to pour and land onto Niara’s fur. She could feel the soft ground brushing and caressing her. Niara tries to force herself up, but the cold, tundra snow finished her off, and locked her eyelids tight. “Be better than me.” -- -- -- She wakes up. In a doctor’s room, with bright, cold lights caressing her. I thought I liked the cold. She noticed how the room did not actually have any lights. It was just lit like a glittery, purple, bluish palace, like a winter princess’s bedroom. She gets out of bed and feels her body much more relaxed and jumpier than normal. “How was the rest?” a doctor moves to greet her “It was better, much better-er than usual.” “Good. Uh, so during your revitalization session, we took a scan of your body and identified many injuries that you have sustained. Fractures, sprains, burns, shrapnel damage, lacerations were only some of the most common that we could immediately identify. We also noticed that most of the injuries you gained were treated by use of nanomedicne, painkiller, and stimpak technologies, and that you’ve basically depended on those to keep you alive. Uhh, we can show you a more comprehensive view if you like.” Niara looks at them before she nods. An xray of Niara’s skeleton appears in front of her, with bone fractures, veins and artery damage, and torn muscle held together and mostly repaired via skeletonized bone and tissue lattices, with organized segments of the new flesh linking and interconnecting with the previously injured body parts. The doctors take another glance, trying to figure out what to say, “As you can probably tell, this is a photograph of your injuries up to this point. So far, most of the injuries have been completely rejuvenated with the makeshift cell constructs, which, I’m genuinely impressed by. Clearly, you know how to use that multineedle. May you tell us what kind of nanomed or nutrient package do you use, or you’re provided with?” “What? I use Vitalaid’s Surtigo formulas, and Med&Co’s Nutripacs. It’s what I had from my armax days, and I mean the s**t’s not cheap, but it keeps you alive so.” she shrugs “Hm, makes sense. Is it the military offer, the emergency offer or?” “Uh, I just get whatever I had from the PMC, which included the Surtigo vials.” She looks down at her hand. -- -- -- She could remember the sharp needles impaling her shoulder, her teeth hold shut to keep the pain from jumping out of her mouth. She could feel and remember the needles impaling her each minute she felt a gunshot rip through her skin, Each minute she heard a gunshot Each minute she was shocked, Each minute she was burned, Each minute that she was about near death or injury, another prick stabbed through her skin, She could remember the final time the prick entered her body, her mind in a rut of despair, fury, and longing until a shotgun blast woke her up and rended her body. The pain roared and ate through her like fire, her mind was ticking all over, yet faded almost; her eyes shut tight, anticipating, waiting for her heart to stop, or her brain to shut off. She slammed the back of a wall, gripping it. Another shotgun blast, a painful contraction of her chest muscles spasmed together, Her eyelids pulled harder, every inch of her body and being were left just waiting for her life to stop. But out of the mental storm, air brushed out of her nose. She could feel her chest expand and compress. Her blood was still flooding and running through her veins, her mind was still ticking, albeit with much, much less intensity. She pulled herself up, feeling every fiber of her torso throbbing as she ascended. The shotgunner winced from the sight before a bullet striked his face. Niara ripped his weapon from the man’s hands and tore them into oblivion. Her eyes were that of a wolf’s concentration, glistening, glowing from the lights’ reflection -- -- -- Suddenly, her arm was randomly pulsating, the doctors notice and sit her on the bed, “Shoot, you have that thing too!” “What?” “Chemically or psychologically induced myoclonus, veterans with thicker integumentary systems can go through this, either from traumatic events or interactions with certain chemicals. How often would you say you took the nanomed? When you were in service?” “Depends. I’d do it maybe before a major engagement, if I get enough or a big enough injury, or if I sustained something small and I haven’t fought in a while.” “How often would you say those happened? The engagements and all?” “Oh, um.” her focus points to the ground, “I don’t really--” “Give your best estimate.” Her brain gives her thirty things to think about at the same time, before she pushes a final answer. “When I first started, it was like every other week, but when I got into their spec ops divisions, it was almost every other day.” “How long was that for?” She takes a while, “five years ago, was when I joined the… when.” Niara trails off, “when I ‘joined’ the Armax PMC.” “Okay. So, the last two years, that’s when you had a nanomed spike? Okay. uhh, how often do you use it now?” “I use it very, mmm, not very often. My armor keeps me protected, and when I do get shot on the skin, it’s barely anything to worry about.” “I see.” “Heh, it’s funny, the spasming actually helps there. It keeps the bullets from pushing too far into my body.” “Hm. Interesting, so these bullets, are they from--” “Like, independent engagements. I work as a soldier for hire.” “Okay, that explains a lot. So it acts like another defense then?” “Yeah, pretty much.” “Okay, okay. So, what we wanted to know was, how willing are you to do surgery for your injuries?” “What? What do you mean?” “Like, replacing all of the makeshift cell casts with normal bones? And things like that. Don’t worry about the cost, that’s all covered.” “I… I don’t really know.” “It’s your call. If I were you, I would take it. Plus, we could add in the more durable composite bones for you--” “No, I don’t think I would want that. Thank you for offering though.” “No problem. Just, let us know of your decision. We only wish for the best for our patients so.” -- -- “I think you should Niara.” Niara sits with Trevor in a cozy antechamber, both of them in their normal clothes. “After all, they only wish to take care of you.” “I know, but,” She pauses, “This feels wrong for some reason. I can’t describe it.” She looks at a window near where Trevor sits, before sighing. “I don’t know.” Niara goes mute and thinks to herself, with her silence infecting Trevor. “How do you know it’s wrong though? It may feel wrong, but it may also not be. You can’t really know until you try, right? Also, is being wrong even a thing here? I mean, both decisions will get you something.” “Yeah but” Niara again tries to wrangle out an answer, but the emptiness weighed like a tank. “I don’t know, it just doesn’t feel right.” Niara peers through the window again, observing her reflection in the glass. Her hand approaches one of her facial scars. The ticking noise at the back of her mind kept running through, the noise of bullets screeching flew through her, aggressive screams and howls bash through her, her finger silences the noises by caressing the scar. “Niara, you said you changed right?” “Well, yeah. I did say that, but I also, I’m not so sure if that’s for good or not.” Niara stares at her arms, the way crimson lines were drawn by bullets, poison vines, knives, lasers, she grips her fur. “What if something goes wrong? What if I go wrong, what if it is wrong and--” “Niara, you haven’t even made your decision. I get it, there’s a lot that can happen, but worrying about it all at once… overwhelming yourself is not going to help.” “Take a breather. Relax yourself, and consider what’s actually going on here.” “Yes, but.” “Don’t worry about the but or what if. You don’t even need to worry about the future. Whatever happens then will present itself with open arms. Just worry about the now.” “But, I have to consider the future to make a good decision now right?” “Yea. I did not think that statement through, uh, ignore a part of that.” Niara giggles, “Okay, but for real, focus on what is important to you, or at least, to you here. What you think will be better for you. Even if you ‘fail’ later, you can at least set yourself up to be better now.” “Okay. Uhh.” her expression melts a little. “It’s just that, I swear, everytime I make a decision for the better, things just get worse at the same time. You know, when I left the armorer’s son, what’s his name… Takoy? Like, that, I didn’t want to leave him. Or, I don’t know.” Her body curls up. “I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to hurt him, like I hurt Myrane, but… but I killed someone! I didn’t mean to pull the trigger, but I couldn’t let him get killed either. I don’t know. And, I don’t know. I don’t know.” “Niara, you don’t have to know. I don’t know why I was so hesitant to go and help my parents. I don’t know why I keep running to work on my ship, even if I know it hurts me. All I know is that I do. Things, things happen, and that’s it. But, something I’ve learned from my years, is that it doesn’t really matter, because right now, those all happened in the past. As much as I want, I wish, I pray, I fight to get anything, anything to give me my parents back to me; I know, it will never happen at the same time, as much as I refuse to believe it. Even if you are supposedly at rock bottom because of your mistake, so what? nothing says you can’t get back up again. Nothing says that you have to stay this way. The pain may last, but so does your will. So does your resolve, so does your experiences, so does your spirit, and so does your future.” Trevor looks at himself, his hands. He could taste the tears running down his skin, the sweat bursting after every minute slept, after every bolt set, and yet, he looks at Niara. Her scars rest on the focus her eyes give, before her fist chambers itself. “Heh. Maybe we should listen to ourselves too, or at least you should. Trevor. I think you know this, but the same goes for you. You’re strong man. When you reported about Sullivan Grace’s body, the staff there told me about how you literally went against your beliefs and safety to retrieve him, after you heard that he was in danger. Dude. And you basically succeeded… against the Titan Faction. Bro, I can’t handle human campaign factions just because of what they have to f**k me over, and you managed to not only succeed against them, but you befriended one of their infantryman. Dude. You’re giving yourself too little credit. Oh, and you did it with no unnecessary casualties too.” Trevor steps back, letting her words bounce all over his skull, before it sinks in. “I mean, I had force projectors--” “Doesn’t change a thing of what I just said. I guess, my bigger point is, is that you… if your parents saw what you’re doing right now, they'd be so proud of you.” Trevor glances at Niara, eyes glistening a little. “You really mean that?” “Yea, you bet your a*s I am. From what I saw of your parents back at Jiapor’s place, they’d seem like really good people, and-d- and.” Niara stutters a little, “I can’t form words. But truly, if they were here right now, they’d be so glad to you have as a family member. And I am so glad, grateful, I don’t know, I don’t care. I’m glad you call me your friend.” Trevor looks away, a small tear drop forms before he wipes it away with his hand. “Hah, thank you. But I guess, one thing I wanted to say, actually, I don’t really know what to say. I think you should with your gut about this whole thing, cuz I, there’s no real wrong decision here, I fully believe that. Do what you think is right. I think that’s what’s more important here.” She looks away, and looks down at her lap, before she blows through her nose. -- -- “And you’re done. See, didn’t take long at all.” A certain jolt enters Niara’s body when she stands up, her shoulders jump when she lifts them, her arms lilt when she moves them. She leans up, feeling some of the bones jacking her nerves at the same time. “Whoa whoa, don’t try any super crazy movements yet. You need to get used to the new body parts first before you try any of that.” “Wait, how long will that take?” “Uh, it really depends, but usually it takes 6-8 weeks without medication.” “6 to 8?” “Give or take, but that’s without meds. As a courtesy, we will provide the medication for the treatment. Don’t worry about a thing. Just give yourself some rest. You deserve it.” Niara looks at her body one more time. “This is amazing, thank you.” “Ah, it’s no worries. Told you it’s worth it.” the medic says casually. “Thank you.” “Just happy to see you happy.” the valpian perks their head, in confusion to their statement. Niara walks outside, and sees Trevor holding a suitcase backpack hybrid. “You know, I’m surprised you can even carry this whole thing. This thing is thicker than a a cow!” Trevor says, “Imma be honest, I don’t really know how I pull it off either. All I know is that it all fits where I want it, and that’s all that matters.” She takes a peek at the bag and feels the weight of her trials pull her down. She looks up to see cords, ropes, billboards, seeing a valpian wallrun and zip across the trees. “D****t. I wanna try that.” “What, the rope thing?” “Yeah. Like, ugh, why do I do these things.” Niara stands up, “Know what. Meet me at that junction, I gotta get back my energy somehow.” She takes the bottle of pills and examines the label “Wait what? What are you doing?” Trevor asks, Niara sprints off a little. “I’m trying to figure out what these pills do.” “Oh wait. I recognize some of these medications; obviously, they’re for post surgery, but these meds are a combo of painkillers, anticoagulants, nanodose stimulants, body monitors, muscular soothers, stuff like that.” Niara keeps reading while walking along. “Dang it. It doesn’t do what I think it would do.” “What? What do you mean.” “Ugh. D****t, I knew this would happen. Every forward step, something, something has to punch my face and tell me it’s not, why does this keep happening!” Niara sprints forward a little bit before her feet start to slow down. “Why. God… f**k.” Her hand grips the bottle so much that the container caps’ rivets literally marks her. “I should’ve just waited or something, I have a job to do still! Why did I do that?” she looks at Trevor and realizes what’s happening. “God. God, I’m so stupid. My parents were right, I don’t ever think anything through.” “Your parents?” Trevor asks, “Uh, never mind.” She sighs, “Well, mm. I mean it’s not the end of the world. Just means you’re going to be taking pills for about, IDK, 3 to 4 weeks, maybe even less so? You’re pretty resilient so, I’d say you should be okay to get going in 3.” “How do you know that?” “I remember my dad talking about these drugs when he was very sick. He said they were extremely effective, fast acting and efficient too considering his condition. I think you’ll be fine.” Niara looks at her body and rolls her shoulder, feeling how fresh it was to move again. “Yeah. Guess it isn’t as bad as I thought. Let’s, let’s go, shall we?” Trevor nods, -- -- They arrive at the scene,“So you’re the two field workers Solaris assigned?” a valpian scientist said “Yea.” they said. “Excellent, I will show you to the ruins.” The two of them ride their heads back in shock, turning to each other with confusion. “Don’t worry, most of it is preserved.” Ruins with similar veins to mayan, azteccan, egyptian, and mesopotamian architectures have a cave open to Niara, Trevor’s, and the scientist’s beings. “Whoa. This is something else.” Trevor says “A plant made this. Damn, this is, this is insane.” Niara says. “We’re looking at about a century to a many millennia worth of evolution.” They enter the ruins, with small engravings and encryptions in the wall. “What is, what are we here for again? To investigate the sightings of the Omniscient right?” Niara whispers to Trevor. “Yes, that’s what we’re here for.” he answers, nodding. A vibration rings in the archeologist’s pocket, and they pick it up. “Oh come on.” “What’s up?” “Okay. If you do go on, you need this.” The scientist places a spray bottle in Niara’s hand and presses the trigger, with a spurt of orange popping out. “This is a counteragent against the black smudge you will encounter in the caves.” “Why do we need this?” “The black smudge is a bioweapon that kills plant life on touch, and the Titan faction, the ones that were here before you, used this to handicap the species.” “Holy s**t!” “But another thing, you don’t want to use it willy nilly. The bioweapon has made this place extremely structurally vulnerable. When using it, make sure the nozzle covers the base of your hand, before you spray like this,” they demonstrate by circling the spray bottle’s barrel with their hand. “Anyway, our team has something to deal with in the east most quadrants of the site, I am sure you’re both capable of operating of independently.” they run away with his voice getting louder, “Just be careful!” The two of them look at each other with concern painted on their faces. They examine the environment, Niara pulling out her knife in response. “Uhh, don’t you think that’s a little hostile?” “Who knows, they might see us as hostile. I ain’t about to be the unlucky one here.” They traverse into the ruins. Trevor, with the weight and coarseness of a feather, he drapes his purple fingers on the brick, seeing how it pulsed and throbbed when he touches it. “Oh my, what?” “What are you doing?” Niara scolds, “you know if we reduce the amount of times we touch things, the less we will worry about this place falling apart.” “Yeah, I get it, but I think we should try looking closer anyway if we want to find this thing, and maybe try to fix this thing.” “Alright, fair point. Let’s try to be careful.” He investigates the texture on the wall, seeing how it subtly expanded and depressed, like it was breathing. “It’s like it’s alive, it’s still alive I think?” Niara comes closer and pulls an armor gauntlet out of her bag and puts it on. “It could be like neurons moving from the brain, and these bricks act like skin hairs. It’s like it’s struggling though.” “I’ve investigated Trevor. It appears there is a matrix for food and water ahead.” Alphas chimes He steps away. “Well, that’s good to know. You’re right, we should keep our guard up. At the same time though.” He looks around. “It doesn’t look alive anymore. Like something was ripped out of it.” “Here. Let’s keep that bioweapon in check.” A light spurt spurt and the black stuff evaporates away. Suddenly, the bricks pulse in response. Niara continues, stalking around a corner, to see a corridor stretching down to a golden room. She gestures to come. They enter the room, to see a table with a hole in the center, about a yard or three meters wide, they look up to see large, dead, banana black flaps drooping down. “Interesting. I did a bit more digging with simulations. This seems to be a zenith of food production.” “Really?” “Those flaps are made of a transparent chloroplast, that increases the amount of light being fed into this room. In the middle, a flower is supposed to be there, but i’m not entirely certain its purpose is. I assume it’s the same as the flaps, but I feel that’s redundant.” Niara looks down to see another layer. “Hmm.” She looks through her range finder. “I think there might be more than one floor. She instinctively goes to jump but then remembered her surgery. “Hey, Trevor, do you have enough juice to drop me to the floor below?” “Huh, oh sure!” Niara descends through the hole and onto the ground, crouching in response to contacting the floor. She thumbs up and prowls about the second floor. “Hmm. We’ve got more stuff down here!” she calls out, Trevor drops to the ground, softened by an FP blast, “but why would they need all this?” he says “Don’t ask me, I don’t know anything.” They find out as in the next room, there was a tree of sorts. “A tree? Under here?” Trevor says, getting closer. He sweeps his hand over the elder bark of the revenant tree, only to feel a sort of goo ooze out. He continues around the tree, noticing via vine-like cables punctured deep into the tree. “Was this tree the Omniscient?” He looks closer to see bullets burrowed in its flesh, before he takes his projector and extracts it. “Whoa. Hey Niara, you recognize this?” She was looking around at the vines to see a membrane at the top, similar to a brain, before observing the bullet hovering in Trevor’s hand. She notes the small fins on the bullet. “Hmm. I don’t recognize this design, but the composition is very similar to what the Titan faction uses, or at least, from what I remember. Judging from its size, it’s looks to be rifle grade.” He pieces the puzzle together and groans, “why would they shoot it?” She gets closer to the dead skin of the tree, “Wait, how exactly does this bioweapon work?” “Why do you need to know?” “Because if we know how it works, we can probably use it to our advantage.” She starts poking at the dead material, prying it with surgeons’ level of steadiness before seeing how the inside looked bloated and swollen, small black veins spread in. She goes for a pistol. “S**t. Can you force feed this tree bark some air?” she asks Trevor. “Uhh. I, huh?” “Like, can you somehow sieve air into the body with your FP?” “FP?” “Oh. Uhh, I don’t really know if I can even do that?” “Wanna try?” “Not really, the FPs are for like, large objects.” “Okay. That’s fine.” She looks at him and shrugs, before moving to another room. “Wait, what are you trying to do?” “Testing a theory. I’m guessing that black gunk stops them from breathing by capturing their CO2.” “Oh, well we can test it another way.” She looks at him, “with what?” “We can break it and then I can scan for carbon traces.” “Oh. That works.” Niara approaches the plant, redrawing her knife. “Okay, how do we want to do this?” Trevor gets closer to the plant. “Honestly, just cut a piece off and I’ll just scan with my visor.” Niara looks at him and shrugs as an answer. She positions herself next to the bark and puts her finger on the already open wound. “Alright, you ready?” “Ready!” he nods, as Niara gently peels off the dead skin of the tree, before Trevor puts a hand up. His visor display mirrors to the outside and shows the amount of carbon particles acquired from the scan. “So that confirms it.” “Mm, okay.” “So, we probably can’t bring this sample, can we?” “I mean, I think we should.” Niara takes the spray and attempts to contain the spread of the spray, the blackness erodes away from the top, dirt falls to the floor. Crack! A chunk of the sample snaps clean off the plant, dropping to the floor. Their glares snap in half, staring at the chunk and the squirt bottle. “I have an idea. Niara, you said there was more than one floor?” “I said there might be? Although, better safe than sorry right? He nods his head in a pleading manner.
-- -- Minutes later, they find something.A room filled with small, blackened flytraps surrounded Niara and Trevor. A blue arc phases away from Trevor’s hand and over the plants. It flashes to indicate a result. “These plants are connected to the same matrix as the wall and the flap ones, but it looks like these are holding something.” he says, Trevor looks back to see the hall that was repeating the two rooms from before. “But why have all of this food and energy? They can’t just be wasting it, it has to lead up to something.” Niara says. Trevor thinks before realizing, “Oh wait!” and presses a button on his helmet. His vision goes dark grey, seeing nothing but an entire facility below. “Yeah, we were right, there are tons more floors down there. Although, there’s a room with webs and tape all over.” “What?” His visor mirrors exactly what he sees. “What is it?” “I have no idea. Should we see it?” Trevor asks She shrugs, “I dunno, though, I guess there are many rooms that could hold our treasure, so why not. Let’s go exploring.” -- -- . “Sigh, how far down is it again?” “It’s a long way. Tsk.” Niara groans, “you know, I guess it’s not a bad way to get used to new bones?” “Heheha, guess so.” Trevor sighs. The ruin’s caverns were dim and cold. The only light that was, was coming from the subtle glow of the suits of Trevor and Niara. Lifeless, every footstep echoes throughout the organic walls, as if the sounds themselves were trying to wake the place up from its slumber. They walk a few miles deeper on foot, the footsteps never ceasing. Niara looks around and says, “So, this is a helluva cave?” “You could say that again.” “Reminds of the movies I would watch with Takoy.” “Really? Which ones?” “Uhh, the guy was really big on old human films, like, 1970s onwards. Heh, he’s actually a lot like your dad and Jiapor. Though a lot less bratty.” “Bratty?” “Yeah. Has so much, always wants more, never realizes how much better he has to anyone else. Although to be honest, this itself feels like a movie.” “What do you mean?” “Like, this whole place, the fact that it’s literally breathing. Like, it used to breathe, well. It’s living, and it was able to just make a thing like this? I’m not going to lie, I feel like fear is a pretty reasonable reaction here.” “What do you mean? It’s not like you could know if the plant hated you.” “That’s the thing though, that’s the part that’s scary, you couldn’t really know what it was doing with all of this. I’m not saying their actions are justified at all, but also, I can understand why they’d be afraid.” She continues seeing around, casually. “Actually, why’d I say this place reminds me of the movies I watched with Takoy? I was going to say Indiana Jones comes to mind, but mofo, whenever does he enter a cave where the rocks are f****n breathing? Feels more like a fever dream adventure. Watch, at some point during this, we’re going to reach some sort of cave lake, and then one of us going to get the bright idea to jump inside, and then we’ll be freezing, and then we’ll feel bad about our childhoods being thrown away-” Niara stops, leading Trevor to stop too. “You alright?” “Something came, when I said that.” She spies around, almost searching for some sort of threat. But it was nothing. It really was just the two of them in a cave. She sighs, “Ahhhhh. Dang it, I miss Myrane, I miss Takoy. I miss my aunty.” She sits on the floor. “I miss all of them.” The room goes silent. “I let my friends get hurt, I let my family get hurt, I let everyone get hurt. I betrayed them.” and I know it’s going to happen again. I'm going to hurt them again. That’s why I became a mercenary. That’s why I’m doing all of this.” The room goes silent again. “Tre-trevor?” He takes a second and looks at Niara, “What’s up?” She looks at the surrounding cave walls, observing the dull air sniffling through. “N-nevermind. There’s just a lot that has happened. I’m sorry if I’m overstepping and taking too much of your time.” “Dude, don’t worry about that. Just, I’m curious. Please tell me if this is too far but, what happened with Myrane? What happened.” She looks at the floor. “Was it too much--” “No. I don’t really know. Although, I wanted to ask myself, how come you’re so caring?” “Me?” Trevor takes a second before his response, his tone of voice shifts without warning, a more mature man grew out of him: “Because family always comes first. No matter what gender, no matter what race. The fact that we are living, makes us a family. Not by the blood of our womb, but by the blood of our struggle. That’s what my parents taught me, or at least told me. No matter what happens, everyone is in this world together, and we leave no one behind, even if they deserve it.” Trevor realized what came out of his mouth, “S**t, that was word for word. Not really, but I just said that without thinking. Did Jiapor tell you what my parents did?” “No, I know what your parents did. They helped out with immigrants from the Seraphim faction, right?” “Yea. Their actions, I guess telegraphed that. It was etched into my blood to do so, considering that’s, that’s all I had, was them.” “Your parents sound really cool.” “Your friends sound really cool. Seriously, all the people I knew from my school years, and my not so immediate family, I never, I could never tell whether or not they were genuine.” Trevor’s body reels back “Yo what?” “It’s a lot more complicated than I described, but I remember walking away from my parkour practice, crying, freaking out about life, and one of the coaches saw me and took me to get help. They called my parents, my dad I remember, and a few mental health specialists. I thought I was actually going to get help, until I came back home to see mom. She told me so much of how she couldn’t believe that I would let some small things like college, and friends, and this being my final year stress me out, considering how many thing stress her out on a daily basis. How, how I was so scared of going to get help for my stomach because I thought people would see me as a fake, a lazy c**t with no life, even though I knew that’s not what people would really see. Somehow, the conversation escalated to some talk about me mentioning thoughts of suicide, and then she told me I should do it, if I didn’t appreciate life anymore. So I nearly ran off.” “Dear god.” “My dad got me of course, and said some things to me, but I just didn’t care. I didn’t who to listen or what to think, what to hear, but…” Her train of thought flies off a cliff. “Jesus. Niara.” “Yeah?” Trevor couldn’t speak. She exhales: “Sorry.” she sighs, “let’s, let’s move on from this.” Niara stands up, but Trevor couldn’t. “You good?” he answers after a long pause: “No.” Trevor looks at the ground for a bit, while Niara looks at him. “Know what. How about this, let’s, let’s not talk about the s****y part of our lives, let’s talk about the fun s**t--” “Not after I know how you’re handling this.” “What?” He gives her a solemn, grieving glare, forcing her to give an answer, “I don’t know how to handle it. I don’t really, to be honest. I just do what I always do, and just move on and learn. It’s not like I can do anything about it anyway.” Trevor goes silent to Niara’s response. “I-I can’t. I’m sorry, that was too… No. I can’t. I can’t go anywhere knowing that, that you’ve been that hurt by your parents. I can’t allow it.” “Well, like I said, I can’t really do anything about that. So, why bother chasing some dead threat, I’ve got other, more pressing things that I have to deal with. Like making sure y’alls are guarded and safe, so that people like those, like my parents.” she pauses, before finishing her sentence like she was ending a threat: “They can’t hurt others. Or if they do, they’ll die with their vocals shot.” Niara stands up, Trevor still trying to wrap his head around Niara’s story. “Hey Trev?” “Yes?” She forces another response out, “I just want you to know, that I understand your concern here. I’ve dealt with this whole thing before, even right after the shitstorm went down. It’s just, what can I really do about this? Fight against my parents? Have a serious talk with them that will just end up in another argument, that doesn’t get anywhere close to what I want? I’m sorry for discouraging you, but I want you to know that, it’s okay if you can’t come up with something here. I couldn’t, and I’ve been fighting this for years. Wanna get out of this dump?” Trevor takes a few seconds before finally giving an answer, “yes.” -- -- -- The dark caverns echo the same hieroglyphics and footsteps all over the walls, with wirelike vines passing through from time to time. Trevor and Niara feel like robots, mindlessly repeating the same movements all over the place. “Where the hell are we even going at this point? Haven’t Trevor says. “I dunno man, I think we’ve seen those same hieroglyphs about a bazillion times now?” “One thousand and fifty-three times exactly.” Alphas buzzes A groan growls out of both of them, They continue walking before Niara spots a metallic glimmer from the corner of her eye, slowing down her footsteps and turning her head. It was a weird device hooked onto wall, with a large influx of the black smudge surrounding it. She pulls out her knife and her axe. “Wait, what?” She points at the device and approaches it. “Trevor, can you get the FPs ready?” “Uh, yea, but why?” “In case it’s a trap.” Niara stations herself in front of him. The device was releasing some hexadecimal data over the surface. She investigates. “Trev, gotta light?” His head shines a bright spot on the device. Niara caresses the surface. “Alphas, can you get us a read on that code?” “It’s tracking and regulating the plant’s respiration processes. It’s trying to weaken it, for what I theorize so that the Titan Faction could control it.” “Do you think the Titan Faction still has sight over this?” “Considering the materials’ age, doubtful. Not to mention the lack of these installations across the entire location. Still, I’d keep your guard up on releasing or tampering with these electronics.” “What is the plant’s status?” “Carbon Dioxide Infiltration: 13.89%; Oxygen Exfiltration: 18%. Plant Subjugation Threshold: 78%. Warning: Disturbance of chokepoints detected, increasing threat deterrence aggression.” Niara looks at the walls and the increase in black smudge. Now we know why that scientist left. Her sight circles around the perimeter. “Okay. maybe we’ll see more of these devices once we get closer to the actual omniscient? Maybe an actual sample of the omniscient if we’re lucky?” Trevor looks closer at the modules, “Maybe we can reverse the effects?” The tip of his finger merely only brushes against the metal before an alarm razes through the air. “S**t!” “Niara!” he grabs the spray and points at her, only hesitating to register the danger of the situation. “Use the Force Projectors.” Trevor side steps and whirls back on the chemical, it instead lunges Niara forward. “What the hell is this stuff!” “Higher threat level detected, increasing aggression and defense.” Suddenly nano bots jet out of the device at once, Trev immediately slams them against the wall, teal leaves his palm. The nanite swarm and construct a nightmare creature straight from hell, with a million red eyes, thirty thousand spider legs, each jab at the floor creates an electrical spark to rival a storm. “F**k, run!” Trevor grabs Niara and bolts for the opposite direction She rocks her head, “what the hell’s happening, I can’t see!” “Doesn’t matter, we’re out of here!” The giant robot spider was hot on their trail, Trevor turns on his goggles, the sight bewilders him. “Okay, what are running from!” “Giant spider with a thousand legs, with like, lightning coming out.” “Lightning! Giant spider, what is going on? Is this the titan faction or satan himself?” “I don’t know and I ain’t finding out!” “Wait, hang on!” he looks back to see the spider has grown to a thousand more medium sized ones. Those were way f*****g faster. “Wait, I have nades!” she grabs her knife. “Okay, I’m going to prime them and then you launch them with the FPs, got it!” “What, s**t okay!” Niara pulls the pin, bashing and smashing the thing at the same time until she could literally see the active charge going. She gives him the nade and he rends it against the wall, a massive fiery, dusty explosion sets off against the spiders. “I think the spiders are making us bolt for an exit. S**t!” Niara wrenches off her helmet. “Can you give me an eye piece?” Trevor slaps Niara by accident, a glass panel forms over. “Okay.” she grabs another nade. “I am going to point and toss another nade to where we need to go! But whatever you do, don’t stop running. F*****g throw us if you have to!” “Okay!” The spiders make it out, they shrink in size and the swarm, closing the gap. He runs to an outcrop as Niara hurls another thermite grenade against the wall, this time it stuck to the wall. “Okay, now what!” “We get the f**k…” something figuratively hits her, “uhh, okay, let’s get out of sight!” “How the hell d’we do that?” “I dunno, find a cliff or something!” “Niara, the closest cliff is several thousands meters below!” Alphas yells out, “Whatever, good enough! Wait how far is this cliff!” Niara hurdles behind him, before she flies towards him, the two grapple into a wall at breakneck speeds. She literally felt weightless as she balled into Trevor, absolutely demolishing a wall on impact. Pieces of stone collapse as Trevor and Niara lose their grip on what up and down even means, as they pitdive into a deep, deep, deep ravine. Light became nothing. The wind, the air batters their armor, while pieces of rubble sail onto their plating. “Where the hell?” “You think I know?” Their voices lost identity, A blast of air to rival a jet engine punches Trevor onto a wall, spiking his back instantly. “Ah!” “Wait what-- oh s**t!” “Trevor!” Niara catapults herself to Trevor, he catches Niara using his force projector. He and she keep each other close. “Hit the wall!” “Right, I’ll brake against it!” he pushes them to a wall, grabbing a large boulder and grinds it against the wall, slowing the two of them down. Then the wall vanishes. Crash! The boulders and rocks fly and dunk into a giant cave lake. “S**t, below!” The darkness unveils a cavern, with a lake superior sized creek below. He blasts downwards, this time, the force shockwaves the air and the water around them. Niara points her feet down, Trevor registering and then pushing down harder onto the water before he finally releases pressure. Niara points their arms up, grabbing and tosses a balloon grenade last minute. Trevor closes his eyes: Splash. Trevor was clenching his teeth and eyelids hard while Niara fought to keep her senses from getting wracked and thrashed by the water, feeling their feet compress a rubbery bubble. Niara breaks through the surface, followed by Trevor. “Holy moly, that was absolutely, that was absolutely f*****g radical!” she shakes her head like a dog. “yawooooo!” she howls out “Holy f**k, oh my god, never again in my goddamn life.” They laugh together. Trevor and Niara hover and paddle on the surface of the cave water, as they observe the beautiful scenery of the cave. Trevor follows Niara and takes off his helmet “Now that’s what I call a drop, holy s**t!” “Talk about a cave though too, goddamn.” Their hands slip onto the craggy edge, dragging and slumping their bodies onto the rocky ledges near the water. They pant in tandem, their eyes and sight resting, before arresting over how the bioluminescent light shimmered and skipped on the cave’s ceiling, refracting the clean, crystally dancing surface of the water. They were amazed. The beautiful, aurorian blue and turquoise of the water casted, the tint amplified by alpine prism like crystals that decorate the cave. The light in the cavern gleamed like godrays, glorious gradients of velvet blue, purple, and red burned bright and proud. The sounds of water streaming and falling close by, feather their ears and delight the scene with soothing flow chills. She looks at Trevor. “Now can we talk about the dumb fun stuff?” -- -- They were sitting on a ledge, just an inch above the water “I remember my dad and my mom would take us to the arcades this one summer, and I remember being challenged by this girl who was absolutely crushing everyone in a gaming tournament, and I mean, like she would have five hundred points on everything else and no one else.” “Damn!” “Yea, so I was challenged to duel her in Mario Kart, and let me just say, I was in for quite the time, that’s for certain.” “Wait, you know Mario” “Who doesn’t? That’s like not knowing who Shill is.” “Uh, hang on.” Trevor thinks about it “Wait, actually, that was a bad example, that’s really obscure.” “That one music artist, they’re like a compositionalist for movies and games, right?” “Yeah, him. Surprised you know that.” “I mean, he’s the guy who made the Chiiko soundtrack. Dude, what a great album right?” “I mean, if you love Chiiko, you should see Animal Crossing.” “Yeah, wait. Animal Crossing?” “Yeah. The game with the cute animals and even cuter town? The game where all you do is relax and make your town a little better? Yeah that sweet game.” “That’s a human title.” “Really?” “In fact, it was made by the same, well, published by the same company who made Mario.” “Nin, nintendo right? That’s what they’re called, right?” “Yeah, them. How do you know animal crossing?” “I was playing Chiiko at Myrane’s house, and she suggested, well, coerced me to play some of her favorite games, and one of them was Animal Crossing.” “Well, she’s got taste.” “Mhm.” Niara pulls off her boots and rests her feet in the water. “Whatcha doin?” “What’s it look like I’m doing? Who won the Mario Cart game thing?” “It was close, like surprisingly, but she ultimately won. Apparently, it was just like a play along with friends and other players nearby. She did use the Blue shell on me, so many times oh my god.” “Blue shell, wait, what’s that.” “Some stupid thing the game has, that basically homes onto the m**********r at first place and stuns you.” “You f****n, that exists?” “Yeah. Literally, I swear she was bullying me the entire game, throwing those m***********s as soon as I was first, I swear to god! Anyway, so because I hate making things easy for myself, I decided that I didn’t want to use any items except anything that gives me a speed boost, so like the squids, the shells, stuff like that. Dear god, I still don’t know how I pulled that off.” Niara shakes off her armor, the black smudgy stuff pulverized, but still rather stubborn to getting off. “S**t. God, this crap’s awful.” she continues to shake it, dunking it in more water, only for it to stick even more. “Ugh. Forget it.” she takes off the armor and puts it aside. “Wait, what are you?” “My armor is feeling disgusting to wear. That smudgy stuff is just the worst. Ugh, anyway.” Trevor says, “You want to try to use the spray on it?” “Oh yeah!” Niara grabs the bottle and spritz the armor and her helmet. Snip! The bioweapon scrapes the armor, and scratches the helmet’s visor. She puts the helmet on. “Tsk.” she hisses “Can you see?” “Yeah, but it’s a bit blurry. God, this is going to f**k up NV.” She pulls it off. “Know what, I’ll worry about that later.” Trevor sets his head down towards the water. “You know, not gonna lie, this place looks like a good place to swim.” “Really? I mean, yeah. It’s, it’s a chill place.” “You wonder that?” “Yeah, like, having your back face the oblivion of the ocean, not really knowing what’s really beneath?” “Dude, Myrane could not handle that, she f****n hates the ocean.” “Really? She’s afraid of the ocean? Up until now, she might as well have been fearless.” “I mean, now that you made me think about it, yeah, that’s kinda silly. She could literally climb a skyscraper, or play roulette with a bear and not be scared shitless, but swimming in a pool of semi deep water, she’d say f**k that.” Trevor giggles a little, prompting Niara to giggle too. “Truth be told though, she told me why. She just, she hates the idea of being left with no way of knowing what could go wrong. Just, imagining how helpless and stranded to be swimming on the surface of the ocean, while also knowing that you know nothing about what’s below. It’s, it’s scary.” Niara dangles her feet above the water. “Huh, because I always kind of, how do I say this? I guess.” he gets lost in thought, “Just, being lost in the vastness, the openness. Not exactly helpless, but like embracing that flowiness, the ability to just drift into the unknown and let whatever happens, happen. Of course, I kinda did let that happen in college. All of everyone said that I should, well, I should not be afraid of trying new stuff. My parents, they said that I should do what I love, and that I shouldn’t worry about them. That they can take care of things. I’ll still remember the good ol days. The memories of them. I remember this one time, we eventually did find a beach to go to near us, and apparently there was some esports festival thing that my dad got tangled in by accident, and,” he stops to laugh, “he ended up accidentally entering into this league of super professional DDR players, you know what that is right?” “What? DDR?” “It’s a dancing game, it’s similar to Piroutte Sanctum or Guitar Hero, only there are these pads on the ground that you gotta hit corresponding with the screen..” “Oh, wait does it scale difficulty with time?” “Uhh, it depends on the song--” “Oh, that’s, that’s a yikes if it’s fast.” “Yeah so, what had happened was he decided to play against, for what he thought was just some other dude, and ended up in a competition against one of the best players in the entire sector we were in. Even crazier thing was that he was good enough to compete again at another event, like several months from then.” “Unfortunately, he didn’t. I think it makes sense though, he said he wanted to take a break from work, and didn’t want to stress himself out. Still, he was even given a trophy for his victory! Didn’t last long though, he ended up using it as a mug to drink from, and ended up breaking it.” Niara giggles, her voice cellos with an uncharacteristically childish glee and sweetness, “Honestly, that sounds like something I would do, just by accident or because I was dared to.” “Really now?” “Yeah, hehehe.” Niara chuckles, “Remember this one time where I was challenged to chug as many bottles of Bepis I could in a minute. Oh, that hospital ride was a complete helluva ride. Still have amazing memories from that. I’ve ever had. Hehe, sigh. I miss her.” “I miss my parents.” The two of them sit in solemn silence. “I haven’t seen a place this gorgeous since Myrane. Man. Know what, time to relive some memories.” Niara takes a dip and dives into the water,
-- -- -- Niara’s head ripped away from a sink of water.She saw how some of her tattoos were missing. A mirror showed a bag swooned over a counter, curtains dangling about near the windows, and the sun piercing into her room. Her eyes fall shut. Tap tap tap, “Hey, don’t you have homework?” said The Aunt, leaning against the bathroom entrance. Silence responded. “Niara. Come on, don’t slack. I’m not your mom, I know, but it’s better to get it done, so you don’t have to later.” Nothing still spoke. “Tsk, I see. I get that school can be a little, how do I say this, torturous? I’m not saying that you should give up and I’m not trying to say that every bit of school is worth it, trust me, I've been there. It does get better though, and I know you can do it; I’ve seen you get learn a brand new, well, dead language just for one event, I know you can do it.” She looks away from the door. “Yeah, that I guess I did.” she whispers, before walking and closing the door to her room, her aunt stares in pity. -- -- The Aunt walks into her basement with a blue colored drumstick before her eyes spotted an open safe. Niara sat there with a suppressed gun in her hand, her focus was dead center. She pulls the trigger, the suppressor whips the air A hole punches out near the center bullseye. Niara glances at the Aunt, and unloads the weapon. “Girl, why are you even here?” “I was looking for your textbooks on the Clurvaen condition, and I pulled on the wrong one.” Her face goes flat, before she sighs and shakes her head “I get it, things can get hard and it’s easy to run away, but you can’t let your fear drive your decisions. You’ll living a life of regret and pain that way.” “Yea, I guess you’re right. The assignments still suck though. “Never said the assignments don’t suck, it’s just, it’s better to face your fears and just do them, you know? I mean, I remember when I was a tot, my ma and pa would always say that the easiest roads are often the most underwhelming. And, sometimes that’s what you need, but underwhelming is underwhelming. That didn’t make any sense, all I’m saying is that, you’ll get more out of life if you pace yourself and try new things.” Niara sighs, “Yeah, even then though, what happens if things are too challenging? Like, I know they’ll just give me another long assignment after I spent half of my brain power on some test that I--” She stops to breathe. “On some stupid test, where I know like, most of the information I gain from it is not going to be used ever again.” “Yeah, I can understand that. You’re here to get away from that, right?” Niara looks away, at the shots near the center, her gaze unfocuses, “I guess.” her tone falling fifty decibels with each word “Niara, you don’t have to hide anything, you know.” “I know. I just, I don’t feel comfortable, that’s all.” Niara’s confidence shrinks with each word. “You don’t have to say it now.” Niara’s breath gushes out of her nose. “I’ll go.” Niara walks back upstairs, The Aunt stares at her as she exits, a pinch of grief flints the back of her mind. -- --
“Don’t grasp it that hard. You should grasp it hard, and firm, but not like you’re trying to strangle someone.” Niara stands among a gallery of competitors, guns pointed at targets. “Also, if the finger is too far in, you’re going to have some problems with accuracy. you want the middle of your fingertip to be the thing pulling the trigger.” Niara points the barrel at a target. Concentration ignited in her eyes, light reflects off them. Ping, bang, bang! The bullet sieves through the piece of paper, it is only a hair off bullseye. “Niara Kalos has hit 4 out of 5 targets.” she puts her gun down. “And here you have it folks! The results are in. Ramolhi has hit Champion, with a total of 38; Hatsorn with a total of 34 has the Diamond spot, and Niara, with a total of 33, has the Gold spot.” Niara walks away from the match with a medal proud in her hands. “Oh my f*****g god. Niara! That was awesome.” “Oh relax, I got third.” “Yeah, so? That’s incredible girl! Seriously, that is really cool.” “Yeah. I guess so. Then again, I do have the next stage of the competition to worry about, the active target challenge.” “Oof. Well, even then, you’re going to do great. Good luck!” “Hehehe.” Myrane laughs, Niara follows. “Aight, I’ll see ya.” She giggles and waves, before grabbing her things from the counter. She takes a look at her gun. “See! You’ve improved so much. Now, you still anticipate the recoil a little, but that’s fine!” a thought imitating her Aunt says “Really?” she says “Yeah!” “But it was you who taught it to me.” “And it was you who took it and persevered. This is your victory Niara, not mine, don’t make it about me.” She shakes her head and moves to the next stage.
-- -- -- Niara’s head pops out of the water, spitting out some of the water of her mouth. “Trevor, you not going in?” “What, hell no, it’s f****n cold!” “You went up against the Titan Faction, this is where you chicken out?” “It’s f*****g cold, and I haven’t swam in years!” “Well, I haven’t swam in years too dude, and look at me, I’m doin fine. Know what!” Niara jumps out and says: “Come join me.” dragging Trevor into the water. They plop out, as Trevor shakes his head and spits. “Dagh, gah, god! I… God, it’s cold!” “Take a few strokes and warm yourself up by moving.” “Niara why?” “Just take a big, deep breath and swim, you never know til you take the shot!” Trevor looks at the water below him. He holds his breath and dives. The water tickles his head with frigid temperature, but his body remained warm and cozy. He could see algae, bioluminescent flowers and fauna, stalactmites and open jaws of the deep black bottom. Pretty fish of many colors and camouflage skips through the water, as he could feel his body starts to tighten, his lungs get looser and looser. He jumps towards the surface. “Hah. huh. Not bad. That wasn’t that bad. I’m getting out.” his tone sterning through, “Was it cool?” “It was pretty, but it ain’t much if you don’t know what’s at the bottom.” He grabs his helmet, it slips on and pressurizes. “Wait, what are you doing?” “Showing you a real dive.” he sprints and jumps. His FPs nudges and fizzles out, leaving him to dive with his legs 45 degrees in the air. “S**t!” Niara dives and rushes to Trevor. He flails his body before he points his hands, stabbing the water with them; his body shrimps into the dive, the suit protecting him from the impact. Trevor sees Niara and thumbs up, before he dwelves towards the dark bottom. She sees and realizes, rushing back to the top for her helmet. “Trevor, you don’t know how deep that is!” “You never know til you take the shot right? I just wanna know how…” Fear strikes Niara, she runs towards the lake again. “I’ll be… I’m fine Niara!” he says to her through helmet comm He stops swimming, seeing how far he was from the surface. “How much air?” “The suit is more suited to vacuum conditions, the depth of the lake is 235 feet, the pressure conversion equals out to 100 psi approximately. Take the information as you will.” He splays his arms out and stares below, the almost alluring mandibles of the cavern slowly luring Trevor’s interest. “Trevor? You there?” “Yeah. Yeah.” Trevor reaches to the top, the wavering reflection of the water greeting once more. “Hey!” Niara waves. “How was the bottom?” “Too far down. I couldn’t make it.” “Yeah. Hey, sorry about just dumping you into the water. It was fun though right?” “Yeah, just uh, could you stand up here for a minute?” “Huh, uhh.” She notices his positioning. “Yeah, sure.” Niara approaches Trevor before he kicks her off the ledge into the water “There, now we're even-” Niara grabs Trevor’s hand last minute and drags him back into the water again. The two jump back up out of the water, “Oh you sonuva!” as he splashes water into Niara’s face, she barely blocks the water, “Did you really think?” she splashes water back into his face, the scuffle turns to a duel, as the two dish out equal splashes at each other. The two of them stop and laugh. -- -- Trevor exploits the heating capability of his suit, while Niara just carries her equipment drenched. “You’re not cold?” “No? It’s just some water.” “But it was like, 68 degree water.” “Hah, ah. Yeah, nah, I just like the cold. Our fur and fat helps us handle subzero temperatures, so it’s not the end of the world if I feel a little chilly.” “Damn, okay. How sub zero?” “I don’t know, I remember being told it was around -175 degrees or something.” “Negative- Negative 100!” “Well, that’s like comfy ranges. Point is we can withstand the cold, it’s nothing to us. Put us near something hot though and uh, we’re cooked.” “Gokay, good to know.” Trevor gravels out. The cave drips and dribbles as they traverse, as their feet echo across the halls and walls.. “You know, the best thing of that encounter is that now, we’re so much closer to our objective. Literally just a beeline now.” Niara was staring at the floor, thoughts and sentences echo through out her mind. “Trevor, I have a question. Actually, I have many questions.” “Shoot.” “Uh, just. I guess, what do you think will happen, once when we discover this sample? “I don’t know, we’ll probably just collect it, or tell the guys we got to the sample first, so they can get some more qualified guys to take a look.” “I mean, here’s the thing. This, she said this was the first time the guy saw this thing. Saw, the Omniscient.” “Yeah, and who knows how long that’s been. Like, we’re probably going to have to go scouring for more, better samples branching from this discovery.” Niara shys away, “oh.” “I mean. I bet it’s still going to be incredible, the fact that this whole thing is still here after for so long. It’s, it’s honestly an honor.” “Yeah. Why’d you join these guys?” “Huh?” “I mean, back at the prison. You heard my reason, right?” “Yeah. You wanted to get out of this lifestyle, and you did. I mean, you’re a lot better than you were before. A lot. I, on the other hand, I don’t know. I came to this job, because I was just like you. I was broken, sad, you already know that I left that company. I even resorted to stealing just to get by. And, then I found them. Or I guess it was Alphas, I don’t know. Um, but yeah, I came because something in me thought, maybe I could ask this plant some advice. Something, something to turn me back into someone normal. But, I guess, I guess this journey did that, huh. I, I learned much more about myself, my parents, and my previous life more than I thought I could ever.” Trevor shrugs. “Hey, I think I’m rubbing off on you. You’re shrugging just like me.” “Hah, yeah. Man, now you’re going to make me wonder… what’s next? You know, if we do find this omniscient thing.” Niara and Trevor stop. She looks at him. “You know. A wise man once said that I should focus on what’s happening right now, and doing the best that I can do now. The future, who the f**k cares what happens then, cuz in the end, I’ve already made a great decision. I should be proud of that.” Trevor smiles, and walks with her. “So, I asked that, because the swim made me think of a few things. Namely, just everything that happened before I ran away from home.” Niara goes silent. “And, I feel like, maybe if I share it, I can actually solidify what happened, instead of fearing it. I can finally face it for what it actually was.” Trevor and Niara sit together. “Go for it.” “Hm?” “Go for it. I’m all ears.” “Okay.” She sighs, “where do I begin?” -- -- -- “Eventually, you have to take your life somewhere right? You obviously can’t stay in school for the rest of your life, so why not take it to the most prestigious organizations in all of the universe?” A presenter stood at a stage, with a screen showing many, many flashy advertisements for many, many universities and organizations, with a sandwich ad also slipping by. Niara sat, Myrane right next to her. The light in the room finally gives a good look at her. She was much taller than her, and her fur was closer to a bluer ebony, ascending into a lighter, wooden tinted coat, compared to Niara’s lively and fiery coat. She had tattoos, but not the same ones of Niara, and in different places; white and black contour lines wrapped around her arms, and down her back, wrapping around to her temples in a deep black, “Well, maybe it isn’t such an issue right now, but eventually, that decision that will change your life; that decision of who you’re going to be, is going to come. That will be the biggest decision of your life.”
“Yes?” the presenter said, before a voice says, “What if you don’t choose, or if you don’t have a choice?” “Good question, uh, well, I don’t think y’all want to spend your life stuck on your parents’ couch, so here’s some reasons why.” She pressed a button, and a sheet of statistics comes on the screen, and several graphs pop on screen. Niara’s eyes widened, something about the statistics frightened her, “As you can see, there are literally more benefits that you can gain from committing to a choice now, then if you just wing things. So honestly, why not make a choice? Why not give yourselves the best future possible?” Even when I have so much to figure out? Are you kidding me? -- -- “That was a presentation.” Niara says, “Yea, that lady was definitely something, I swear I could see her sweating like it was a f****n play or something.” Myrane says “Yeah.” Niara spills out of her mouth, Myrane sighs, “Girl, I think you should relax.” “How?” she stutters out. “By not panicking. Look, don’t stress about it right now. It’s literal years in the future, who knows what could change. I don’t want you overcharging yourself over stuff that doesn’t matter, because right now, it’s just school and ourselves. Let’s just roll like we always do.” Niara's gaze falls to the floor; a smirk almost forms, before it falls away. A note rings before she could say anything else. -- -- “Well, that’s too bad, I want to be a doctor!” “An astronaut!” “A businessman!” “A politician.” She was at the center desk, her classmates voices carousel around her. She looks around her, and before a sheet lies in front of her. “Uhh, what’s going on?” Niara looks right next to her. “Weren’t you paying attention yesterday? It’s electives day, why do you think they presented about college and s**t.” She examines the sheets on her table, with each word and blank line bulldozing her confidence right off a ledge. “Before we begin, is there anyone with problems with the sheet?” Someone raises their hand, “Yes-`` Niara looks away from the two having the conversation, scouring her eyes on the page. For something that’s supposed to happen in 5 years, they’re really getting us to worry about it. “Oh, I know, that’s why I chose AP biology. Best way to become a doctor right is to study anatomy, so that’s what I’m doing!” So much for having a choice. She looks at the sheet, her focus drifting. A note rings, and she exits the classroom, her ears bombarded with people saying, “I’m taking Geography College Course, Art 2 Honors, Calculus Stochastic-`` Niara’s shoulders dropping, and her profile shrinking, each of the students’ claims shrouding her by their tall, long stances. She trundles through the halls, a fish out of water. -- -- -- Myrane and Niara roam through a wintery Jungle. Snow floats to the floor of the tangly spines and branches, their needle-like arms, and serrated tails shaped in the form of gates, with mounts of snow and ice pillars dangling from trees. Sleigh bell pinecones ring through the trees. “I don’t know. S**t’s been wild past few days.” “What do you mean?” “I don’t know. Even with all the bullshit I had to do out of the way, I feel like everyone’s really pushing me. My coaches, my aunt, my parents, hell even my pals in those classes.” Myrane stops, and looks at Niara, sitting down on a log, a campfire site lies in front. “Have I been like that?” Niara looks away, “Not really, I just wish you were more present. I mean, if you’re busy or anything, I’m not saying to stop things just for me.” “I get what you mean. I knew people were still going through college prep, but I never thought it would be anything like this. Hell, I don’t even know if I want to do college, despite what that lady said to me a long while ago.” “Plus, the s**t’s that’s been happening. The riots about domestic abuse, the territory war, the court’s decision on remote embryos. Myrane sighs, “Yeah, I get that. S**t, I miss when we were young, remember the flowers? Remember that time with that c**t history teacher?” “Yeah, I guess.” “Remember how you absolutely demolished them on the history of the Valpalineans?” “Hah, I guess you’re right about that. Even then, I got that information from the internet.” “Well, even if you got it ‘improperly,’ you put that senile asshat in his place.” “Hah, yeah. I guess.” Myrane exhales. “We gotta stop being so scared. S**t’s been wild, but that doesn’t mean things can’t go well.” “Yeah, hard to tell though from everything being so confusing and anger inducing. You know, I know, I definitely know that you can pull through.” “Shut up.” she sneers, “It’s true! Look, you shouldn’t discount yourself for small things. I’ve seen you at work, I know what you can do.” Niara says, Myrane sighs. “Niara. I care about you. You shouldn’t worry about me. You should worry about yourself.” “Wait what, why?” “Trust me. I, I don’t want you getting hurt because of my carelessness. Remember that day with the tree, when we first met?” “When you were climbing that tree? Girl, that was years ago.” “Yeah, and you could’ve died. We both could’ve died, and… I’ve nearly hurt you so many times, and I can’t let that occur anymore.” Niara cuts in, “Myrane, girl, we both know our own limits. I care about you too, you know, I’m not going to standby and watch you get hurt, you know that.” “Look, I’m just afraid I’m going to make a mistake, and end up hurting you back.” Myrane sits in silence. “You know I can’t just abandon you. We’ve been through so much together, I can’t just leave you alone. You’re the only person I can fully trust, don’t you know that?” “How do I trust that I won’t hurt you! You saw me a long time ago, how do you know I’ve changed?” “Because I know you’ve changed. You used to be the giant dumbass who was too arrogant to think for once, and now you can actually sit down and think!” “Well, what says I won’t revert back to being the giant dumbass?” Niara shakes her head, mind rumbling and quaking with ticking, tickling thoughts. “Wait, Niara, please. S**t, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean what I said. Niara, you do know I can’t get hurt by you. No matter what you do, right?” “That’s not my point, that’s not. Look, I’m just, I can’t.” she stands up, “I’m afraid of losing something, I’m afraid of doing something. I don’t know what. I just can’t lose anything anymore. I… I can’t, I can’t! I don’t know anymore!” She begins to regress, her footsteps burn into the cold floor as she begins to run. “Niara! Wait Niara! No! Wait please- Niara!” Myrane roared. -- -- -- Niara sits there, on the craggy rocks, her voice wavering and shivering with anguish. “I don’t deserve anything. I will never deserve it.” She begins to sob. Regret and despair was her only childhood companion. “I just left her. I just abandoned her and I never even said goodbye. I just left everyone. I lost everyone. Now, I’m just dead to everyone.” Trevor and Niara sit in the long, lone, loftily silent cave. “And now, I’m a, I’m a killer. A monster with a thousand tongues and teeth. I don’t deserve anything.” “Niara.” Trevor falls to silence. Her eyes lock onto Trevor’s visor. “You… you don’t have to say anything. I- I get it.” Niara fights herself to get back up, her body struggling, before Trevor catches her hand. “We don’t have to move so fast.” She looks at him. Trevor goes silent again, “well, it’s not to me. You’re trying to throw thoughts out in order to try and make sense of it all. You’re trying to properly cope with what happened and I think that’s worth taking time to see.” “You don’t understand though, I can’t, I feel like I’m wasting time. But, I also feel I need to stop, but… I’m conflicted.” She sits down again. “Do you want to hear my personal opinion?” “Shoot.” “I think, you’re doing just fine. To be honest, what it sounds like to me, is just confusion and pressure over your future, and I can understand.” he sighs, “I can understand, for sure. I’m also going to be honest, I don’t know what to say about this either.” Niara winces in fear, Trevor notices. “I am going to say this though, I think that decision you made. How do I say this.” Trevor takes a minute, “I think, you shouldn’t worry about it. You obviously have been contemplating this for a long time, but I think this is doing more harm than you think. Both of you acted out of stress and fear for the future. I’m sorry for the pain that you went through by the way.” “Nah, it’s cool. I’m just, I’m just worried that I’m going to do the same thing with you.” Niara sighs, before standing up. “I’m afraid. And I don’t know what to do. I can’t fight back. Maybe I can, but I also have no idea at the same time. I guess there’s one thing I know though, and that’s that I know I have gotten better, and I have actually helped people. So that’s nice.” She stands up, prompting Trevor to stand up too. “Alright, let’s get this s**t done. -- -- A hand reaches onto a ledge and pulls up,Niara and Trevor appear out of a dark cave, with Niara’s armor plating covered even more black wet splotches. Trevor falls over on to the floor. “Trevor-” He puts a finger up.” “That shortcut was a mistake. Niara, why did you make me go that way?” “You were the one who pointed it out. Also, literally Alphas was telling you that it was a bad idea.” “Oh, sure, like it’s my fault I make terrible decisions.” he stands up and grabs his helmet, shaking off the black stuff from his helmet. “And not cuz you made a silly oopsie, and you’re just now covering up for it.” “An oopsie?” Niara jests, “You were the one who decided to run head first into the corridor with the same black spider gunk from before, as if running a f*****g five mile marathon wasn’t enough.” “PPbfftt, yeah that’s just your opinion. I clearly enjoyed putting my heart at risk for-” Trevor trips himself on the webbed sector of the cavern. “F**k.” Trevor swings his hands around before Niara pulls cuts him out, giggling. Niara sighs, “That’s new.” A plant with a spinal column and a few bell-like tulips burned a faint, dying glow of orange. Niara investigates, and brings her hand out to caress the tulip. “Small traces of composite metals and alloys are present in the tulips.” Alphas states “Wait what?” Niara peers into the inside of the flower head, and sees shiny silvery pieces. Niara eyes squint, magnifying on where the metal was linked to. “So that’s what--” she trails off and notices the vines leading hindwards. Trevor looks at the vines from their supposed shortcut. “So that’s what all this leads too.” she notices how the cable like vines from earlier attached onto the organism. She notices several other roots and vines dragging on and on into long, long halls, including the one they just entered from. She sighs, and grabs her axe. She signals for Trevor and gestures leftward. She walks slow, crunching her feet. No sound plays, her arm splays her large chestplate as a shield. “Shouldn’t you have your entire armor on?” Niara whispers, Trevor shrugs, and stays behind Niara. A few more steps later and a room shows up by her right, as she sneaks in. Nothing but closets arrayed in a fashion similar to a server room. “What is this?” A nest was embedded into the roof, a frisbee sized spider crab bursts out, web fluid jumps at Niara. “Oh what the f**k! This is the third time in a row! Are you done yet?” “What the f**k are you saying?” “I don’t even know anymore.” Niara senses something crawl onto her shoulder, she rams the flatside of the axe into the spider, smashing it. With the pickaxe head, she claws it off her shoulder and into a wall. She then rams the hatchet straight into the crab spider. She sighs, and swings the rest of the blood of the axe. She smudges the rest of the web crap off her face. “F*****g a, ugh, let’s get out-” “Wait.” Trevor looks at the organic server cabinets, “What would a plant need data for? The material and lay out reminds of like SSDs, HDDs, processing units and stuff.” He presses his back for a small chip to materialize, comparing the materials and composition to the herbal data units. “Hm. I guess we’ll find out.” Niara says, Trevor puts the chip back into his suit. They move forward to see a black slope moving down towards the caves, the same cable-like vines dug, burrowed far into the ceiling, leading into two opposing rooms. She peeks into one of them, to spot a small pigment of pink wavering. “Hey Niara, come to my location.” She approaches Trevor in a similarly warm mesa colored room. A column of flowers almost aligned vertically perfectly rests in front of them, almost as if they were meticulously designed and installed artificially. “What the?” Trevor walks up to the body of the thing, and sees that the root was exposed. “The root internals seem to retain some of the same materials and framework as from the cable vines. I hypothesize that this has something to do with either food or data.” Trevor investigates the root, accidentally poking it. Suddenly a bit of blue glows on his finger tips, and a charge zips through, an orange ping of light zaps through the flowers before the glow shot upwards into the sky. “Trevor, what did you do?” “I think some data just parsed through.” Trevor continues examining the vine, seeing that there were matrices for food and water, but also large portions of copper, silver, glass, and crystalline material dragging throughout. He looks back at the flowers and the sky. “Heh, christ. Niara, this, I think can transfer data and materials through long distances. Or that’s what Alphas and I came up with. Hell, the cables and roots are the same ones from the food generators on the surface.” Trevor holds onto one of the exposed roots, and the light repeats the same thing. Niara says “Okay. That’s cool, but that doesn’t explain why plant needs data. Unless, this is not just some random data. Perhaps this is being used to communicate? Also wait. There's no black bioweapon down here. Sweet, we can actually fully analyze something from this.” “Oh yeah, that too. Although, what could we take from this?” Niara approaches the plant, spying how there were shiny points in the plant. “Wait.” Niara looks back to the right hallway. “I think, there is definitely more than one identical variant of this… thing.” Niara’s brows perk and notices more two hallways. Trevor looks at the swirly orange and white sky above; he touches it again, sending another file upwards, noticing how the orange lights reignited after contacting a tree, a thinline of pale amber burns through the sky. “I am unable to ascertain any additional data here; The format is not anything I’ve seen before, not too mention it’s super faint and broken, yet also strangely precise. I definitely know it reached escape velocity though--” “Escape velocity? Oh f**k!” Trevor yelled, “Wait what, oh s**t!” “Let’s not scramble, there’s a smarter way we can catch this. Niara, how is the throttle and passenger load on your ship?” “What, uh, it’s quick, very responsive and agile. It’s your standard TO/A interceptor, and it can fit two people.” “Hm. I will set up a trigger about where Trevor is standing. Above the structure then, I will station the Skylancer. Once I can identify a landing position, I will send for the Leviathan to pick up you two. From there, we can set ourselves up to more tangibly examine the data.” “Okay. So, wait, where will you pick us up?” “I can find a convenient location, I just need you two close to monitor. Trevor, could you hold the root one more time?” Trevor holds onto the root, before a small mechanical beacon forms on the bark. “Okay, the operation is commencing now. Please standby for a location ping.” -- -- -- Connecting the Dots
Suddenly, an almost feralistic thunders through the space and air, water parts and splits for the black and hearthy, hellish red beast of steel to exit the valley, before it all cuts away from view. “I’ve already notified and pinged our findings to the research endeavour of our exit.” “Okay, Good to know.” Trevor sits in the back of the Leviathan, trying to fit himself right in the tight, metallic seats. “Bro, did you take this from some space navy or something?” Niara turns her head, wearing the most maleficent grin she could muster. “What the f**k, how?” “Let’s just say I found my way off the planet when a particularly rich cartel member presented it to me.” “Jesus.” he was smiling. “Wait, alphas, you can pilot my ship whenever you want?” “It’s nothing you should be worried about. I’m not really supposed to override user control unless if it’s for extreme circumstances.” Alphas says, speaking through an outcrop on Niara’s arm. “I guess that’s less creepy. Wait, this is a dire circumstance?” “Not really, it was just to make organizing things more simple.” “I see.” “You can opt out if you wish.” “Uhh.” Niara looks at the glass canopy to see the throttle and the destination getting closer, “I’ll think about it.” Trevor still adjusts in his seat. “Have you ever considered making this more homey or comfortable--” “No? It’s a military vehicle. They’re meant to be cheap and easy to reproduce.” “But you’re not in a military?” “Yes, but because it’s from the military kind of, I can just order the part online and repair it in a second if it goes down. Hell, that is if it even gets that bad, this thing can take a beating.” “Yeah, but do the seats need to feel like I’m sitting on f*****g glass?” “Glass? What are you even?” She looks to that he was sitting on a stack of tools and medkits. “Oh, stand up.” “Wha, how do you expect me to do that in this space?” “There’s enough space, stop being so fussy.” He stands, the helmet only grazes the canopy, while he hands the equipment over. She looks at the tools and presses a button on her chair. The chair unlocks and moves free on a swivel. “What the f**k, you did make it more cool!” “I mean, it’s not like you where you have artificial gravity and s**t, but it’s better than nothing.” She takes her helmet and starts scraping with the helmet, noticing how the black muck solidified onto the flexible underlayer. She sighs, “f**k.” “What’s up?” “I don’t think I can use this, the point of the sublayer is flexibility and mobility enhancement, so if it’s solid, it can’t do its job. Man, that sucks.” Bright orange dots beelining at near light speeds, catching Niara’s attention, taking a second to look. Several red markers activate at certain points along the darkness, “What are those things?” Trevor asks, “Wanna find out?” “Uh-`` Niara swerves closer, The orange skipping across tiny organic meteoric outcrops. “Trace amounts of explosive compounds were found from the satellite. Seemingly, the data is being transported by a service organism. Intriguingly, it’s adjusting mid flight and steering to the next satellite, according to its changing trajectory. Niara, watch the pedal!” Alphas reports, “Huh, oh s**t!” “The inertial contingencies won’t work at that speed`` Stars blur by; the engines were bellowing a deep, harsh snarl “S**t, I wasn’t paying attention!`` Niara spots a geometric sphere out in the distance, hurdling faster and faster to her. She slams a button on her console and pulls hard, far on the handle bars, slamming the pedal to thrust the vehicle backwards, a thump blunts her forward. The ship was an anchor drifting at hypersonic speed, her hands bite harder into the yokes, The piece of light gets faster, but the ship’s interior compulsed more and more violently, with a loud, irritating screeching rattling from the ship’s intercom. “Alert! Alert! Momentum and thrust capacity has passed safe levels. Engaging emergency safety protocols!” The harness hardens on her body, she pushes harder on the joy sticks. The light zaps away into the planet, the ship was slowing down, but the planet’s gravity was vaulting her closer. “Trevor, get the Skylancer on the line!” The heat and gravity rocks the ship, Niara adjusts the leviathan to pierce the atmosphere, She locks the joysticks tight and throws Trevor a few grenades and a parachute pack. “Okay, if the pod eject doesn’t work, and everything fails, and if you still can see the sky, you blow the glass and you get the hell out, okay!” “Wait, what? Niara you can just turn at that point!” “I know, just, do as I say when it happens okay?” Niara’s hand unlocks the joysticks, her mind ticking like a time bomb. “Alphas, have your hand on the eject, okay?” “The Skylancer is en route, ETA APPROX 5 minutes, you will make this.” The sky was grey and sad, Niara squints her eyes before she registers. She cuts the thrusters. “Trevor, help me slow this thing down.” “What? S**t, okay.” He looks at their location in the atmosphere. “Wait, we should be fine. Yeah, we should be fine, uh, maybe open the wings to get more drag. It will heat us up a f**k ton, but that’s fine. We always have the heat sinks.” “I ejected them all.” “Okay, whatever. Whenever you see the sky, you can start jetting away again.” “Jetting away, wait, where will we go?” “Back to the pozzie Alphas marked. We’ll be fine, just relax.” Niara shakes her head and activates the wings, the ship slows. “Okay, yeah, I think we’ll be fine.” “You think?” “I mean, this thing can also go into atmosphere, so we should be able to parachute using the atmosphere and then use the air to cool us down.” Trevor looks at the ship still rumbling from the heat. “Okay, you can stop parachuting, start cooling off near alpine height. I am probably, most certainly wrong, but you don’t care, I think the convection cooling should work around there, just keep flying til the temperature goes down.” “Trevor, that, okay.” “Point is, it’s cooler near the mountains, hover around there to dissipate the heat.” “Understood.” Niara pushes forward on the thrusters and dives the vehicles several hundred miles above a rainy city. Something plays on the interior speaker “Warning, exterior damage to vital flight stablization systems detected. Seek repair to following sectors immediately before performing an atmospheric to orbit transition.” Red dots show up on the specific areas “Ah s**t.” Niara could feel the leviathan waning on her, as she struggles to keep the vehicle up. “The Skylancer is ashore Niara, I’ll take it from here.” Alphas says She could feel the vehicle’s become weightless, she sees the Skylancer sailing just above the Leviathan. The Skyhawk segregated from the ship and opens its canopy. The Lancer hoists and hangs the downed beast up with its powerful thrusters, as land approaches at walking speed. The Lancer releases and the Leviathan smacks the ground. The canopy opens and they both get out. Trevor takes off his suit and tosses it into the Skylancer, before investigating the damage of Niara’s ship. Warped metal, distorted bolts, twisted and explicit, lewd sharpened edges on the vehicle. “S**t.” “So, my armor doesn’t work. My guns don’t work I guess, haven’t checked, my ship won’t work for a while, I’m having a blast.” Niara sprints to her ship to grab her things, and checks the chamber of her shotgun. The shell carrier actually racks back. “Well, that’s at least something that works.” Niara looks at Trevor. “So what do we do now?” he calls out. “The Skyhawk can fit two passengers now right? She checks her armor, still covered in black hardened ooze and still mostly deadweight. She slips each part into her bag, and disrobes some elastic tentacles off the armor. She links them around her body to form a tactical vest, and clips her handgun to her right, and clips her knife to her left. Everything else is dumped into the bag, as she stands up, looking at a forest ahead of her. “Yeah. I wanted to test it properly though.” “Properly? Dude, I don’t think you’ll need that. I trust you.” “Well, first I gotta unfold the thing.” Trevor speech dies as he sees Niara try to jump inside. She stares straight down. “Where is it?” “Uh, the thing is.” “Yeah?” “Uh, how do I, how do I?” “Dude, we literally worked on it, what do you mean how do you explain it.” “I mean, ehh, eh.” “Dude, where’d it go?” “I mean, like, it somehow got abducted by a few coworkers and then a little kerfuffle ended up sending it to the junkyard-” Trevor flicks his wrist and a small piece of his suit lands on his wrist. He double snaps. “And then we fought some more and more, and then uh oh, I accidentally pressed a button and now the seat accidentally launched into space.” Niara’s face goes to sheer dread, “how the f**k, there’s an load eject for the junkyard?” “and so I went into space with my space suit to retrieve it, only problem, it is now several miles away from the ship, so I did what any sane person did and I went to sleep.” “What?” “As it turns out, I was dreaming of a new life, or was it just a fantasy. Oh whatever the case was, I knew there was no escaping from that reality and so one two three, I turned around and oh look!” Niara mouths a “what” and turns to find the seat was open to her. “You’ve been pranked.” Her mouth was open in raw confusion. “What?” “Let’s go, we gotta ship to fix.” Niara was just left standing, before she shakes her head and enters the Skyhawk.
-- -- Trevor’s legs feel like dumbbells. Water was pelting the windshield of the Skyhawk, Niara was snoring like a giant, and the drive was as bumpy as a road filled with potholes. “What the f**k is this grass, why is it so weird?” “This terrain is the result of a terraforming accident, earning it the moniker, Jagged Valleys.” Trevor’s eyes glanced at his hud, seeing he was only half way to his destination, when finally, small houses appear. “Oh my f*****g god, an actual sign of life? Thank f*****g god!” “What the hell, what’s this ruckus, I’m tryna sleep!” “We reached civilization!” Niara spots around, seeing suburbs and houses. “I guess that counts. Already hard enough to sleep as it is, goddamn--” The Skyhawk jumps, Niara hits the top of the roof. “Ow! Hey, watch it!” “Well, at least enjoy more actual rest. Looks like these roads are actually decent.: Niara compares the two surfaces before she rolls her eyes back to sleep. -- -- -- The SkyLancer sits on a concrete pad with Niara’s Leviathan in a workshop. The place was crowded, like New York City. “We have to return to where that ping was right?” “Yeah, I know, I know we do. You have a map right?” “Yes, but the map is less useful in regards to the wilderness. I can probably send the SkyLancer to drop us near the entrance.” “Oh. Mm. How’s this then, I’ll go to the site and you stay close to your ship.” “Okay. That works.” -- -- Few minutes later, Trevor lands inside the complex, the walls almost identical to the ones seen in Hanging Orchards, but shrubbery and the more usual fauna begins to recolonize. “Huh, strange how no one has discovered this yet. Alright Alphas, tell me what to do now.” “Okay, so, notice the flower podium behind you.” Her words turn Trevor around, showing him the monument. “Uh huh?” “Mark a location around the part where it decrypts. So, probably near the root.” Trevor taps the root, and another metal piece unfolds. “Okay, I’m going to send more data over. Hopefully, I can gain some more data from this endeavour. I am commencing the operation, wait.” Trevor winces. He looks behind him to see a camera unit just above him, casually stalking him. “Uh.” Trevor pulls his pistol and walks down the corridor. Trevor takes another step, he notices how the walls contracts and expands, like it was actually breathing. “I detect no antagonists in proximity, but I doubt that’s going to stay that way. I am going to perform a flyby and contact Niara. This might be worse than I anticipated.” “What? why?” “I don’t know if I can send Skylancer over more than once. I think I can, but I suspect this area may have heavier reinforcement than I thought. Then again, clearly security is not tight enough where it count so I am very unsure. I’ll keep you posted, but I suggest we try to get away from the hotzone.” “Okay. Wait, what about the data?” “I don’t need anyone near the position to perform the decryption, I just thought it would be more convenient if we could actually find a nontampered Omniscient site. Apparently, I stand corrected.” Trevor looks around, before nodding, and moves to a marked path. -- -- Niara helmet vibrates,While she was tampering with her armor. The helmet could barely snap together with the neck of the chestplate. “Great.” She pulls out the radio piece in the helmet and responds. “Trevor, what’s up?” “This is Alphas. Trevor might be in trouble, is your ship available for deployment?” She looks back to see it still not done. “No. What’s happening?” “We discovered a security camera in the site. I hypothesize that this site may have been compromised, similar to the one in Hanging Orchards. You don’t need to worry about the staff working on your ship, how long do you think you can get here, ship?” “I don’t really know, the guys said they were done fixing the control surfaces and the bottom wing warpage. They’re not sure about the rest, they said it could be take a few hours.” “Okay. Do you think you can get to a rendezvous with Trevor, if he were to meet somewhere?” “Depends on how far. How big is the hotzone?” “I did a flyby, I found a loophole in the security, but I’m not sure if that’s going to cover his escape for long.” “Okay, just give me a reasonable rendezvous, I can make the hike.” She walks to the repair crew and talks to them, they agree to let Alphas be the owner on standby. -- -- Her boots, her gauntlet were all that were on, her pickaxe and knife roams and stabs, pressing into the trees and shrubbery nearby, digging her way through the jagged terrain. The leaves part to reveal a few townhouses in front of her. She jumps and rolls. She puts on her helmet to find where she needs to go next, before slouching onto a bench. “I need water.” She looks around to find a guy walking down the street. “Excuse me sir, do you know where I can get some water?” He ignores her and continues on. “Thanks.” She spots a woman, smoking a cigar on a bench “Hey!” She throws the bud away, the orange tip fumbling into the bin. Her face spins to Niara, with the words, “get lost”, all over it. Niara sighs, before she spots a cafe to her left. She barges in, vapor steams through. She notices the vacant line and takes an order, “Big iced water, do you got it?” “Yep, that’ll be 10 credits.” Her eyes scream: “you f**k.” His eyes scream: “I didn’t make the prices.” She sighs, and gives him her card, he gives her the water. She takes a chug, a splash of cold melts the heat away. People take notice of the weapons on her back, and the number of scars all over, and they casually move away. She goes to sit at a table. The door opens with a sleigh bell tone, her eyes wheeled to the door. A figure with a hood walks to the counter and speaks. “I would like some Chirsmincth tea.” “Uh. Sorry, can you repeat that?” “Chirsmincth, most commonly found in the Swali forests of Hakalawanshakisiba.” The barista looks at him with admiration. “Okay, I appreciate the backstory, but I don’t know if we have that kinda tea. I think we have a herbal store near here though, that you can find that kind of drink.” The barista says, “Ah, I see, thank you.” “Would you like anything else?” “I would like to try that human beverage. A pumpkin spiced latte, I’ve heard they like to call it?” “Uh, yes. We have that kind of beverage, uh we have many styles we can make it. Mcdonalds style, Starbucks style, Dunkin style--” “I’ll take the starbucks style. I wish to get the human experience.” “Okay, that will be 20.25 dollars, including inflation.” He slips him thirteen gold coins. The barista looks at them and puts them in the register. “Hm. Damn, thanks for the tip.” he pockets some of the tip change and puts the rest in the register. “Do you know anything else about what may roam here?” The barista turns around and places the latte on the counter, a face of wild confusion draws on them. “No, not very much. I got hired as a barista and was sent straight here. Can’t really tell you much other than how stupid the ground is.” “Thank you for your generosity.” He swipes the tea and gives a gentle, graceful wave as a sleigh bell ringing. Niara’s hands freeze mid-sip, her brain sifting through the dialogue. She exits the store to observe the rain bullying the concrete; how the city’s lights ghost around in the wet mist; how the damp asphalt mirroring and mimicking the mirages from the lamps, skating from place to place, to play catch up with their otherworldly counterparts. She shakes her head and smothers her sole into a puddle, ripples distorting the mirrored images, “Hey!” Niara’s twitches her ears, her head rotates in conjunction with them, “You’re Draovilich, right? The one Deniperon to rule them all, the one who has made breakthroughs, discoveries, you’re the one and only right?” A woman was cheering from afar, while she runs up. The two of them station in an alleyway. Niara glares for a second before she shakes her head and moves away. “Sigh. go away.” Draovilich ushers the Fan. “Oh come on! I’m one of your biggest fans! I want to be like you man; you’ve done so much! You’ve created the Thermodynamics For Newbs, instrumentalized the development burn away emergency heat sinks, you even helped track down the elusive Mungus, you even made groundbreaking progress on the-” the Fan states “Yep, that's what they all say,” Draovilich says, like it was directly on script. The Fan groans, and asks, “why are you like this? Honestly.” “Probably cuz you’re harassing him? Dude, why do you think he’s wearing a giant jacket for?” Draovilich fumes air out of his nose, a clear and bright white plume rolling out of his nostrils. “Do you think I will want to admit my answer to some stranger?” The Fan drops their gaze, a pause stifles through the mist “Sorry, I didn’t think that through, you’re right. I’m sorry.” Niara drops her stance “Listen.” Draovilich turns his head, noticing the Fan’s face. A disappointed yet, calm gaze touches the Fan. “At least you have something I don’t. Anticipating disaster. Now go, be better than me, understand?” They perk their head before they nod at the advice and walk away. Draovilich’s eyes glow up, notices Niara standing in front of him, “Now who are you!” he raises his hand, a tangerine rapier ignites in his palm, a glow so fierce, it literally scorches the rain and thunder to silence. Niara jumps back, her hand hovers over her gun for seconds at a time, before she slowly raises her digits in front of her, “Okay, uh. I’m sorry, I thought they werre harassing you. Uh, I didn’t mean to, I didn’t mean to be rude. I just, can I ask you a question? Fear strikes Niara, “Um, did you happen to see a bundle of light pass through, like through the sky?” The rain was louder than ever, pounding and punching the ground. “Yes. I have. I know that some cities employ drone lights for lighting, but I’ve not seen any in this city--” “No, I mean like, a comet streaking through the air. “I guess so, I did happen to see some lights passing through? Why, why is that so important?” “I’m asking because I’m… okay, I need your help. My partner and I are on the hunt for a hyper intelligent plant. Uh, this has led my partner to a facility that might be heavily guarded.” The two of them go back to silence. “I am afraid, I cannot help you.” “S**t. Okay, uh, that’s fine-” “Wait. You said, a hyper intelligent plant?” “Yes, why?” Draovilich goes silent.
“No, I am afraid I truly cannot. I am sorry.” “Okay. That’s fine. Um.” She looks at the hooded man. “Thank you for your time and patience. I’m sorry for intervening when I shouldn’t have. I’ve just… I can’t, I gotta go.” Niara walks away, she jumps and grabs onto a stone ledge, before shuffling out. Suddenly Drao calls, “Wait! I change my mind. I’ll help you, I just don’t want to kill anymore, understand?” Niara pauses to see the man has teleported onto the top of the stone ledge. Her eyelids pop back. “Wait, the f**k, how’d you do that?” He looks away, “I’ll tell you my secrets later, you said your friend needed help?” “Yes.” she says, “Then I am coming with you, under one condition: No killing.” -- -- “Hike, just hike with no end? I’ve never hiked, especially this long before.” He pulls up his makeshift cane, his hand scared to tighten in some places, as it was afraid of the sharp edges of it. “Especially in here, like what is this place?” It is silent for a minute, Trevor stares at the rain, his body feeling faint already. He falls over onto the floor, feeling the mud cake his back. “I-I miss the rain. God, I miss this.” “We’re clear for contact, so we should be safe for a while. What are you doing?” “The rain. It feels nice.” “I know humans usually hate being outside and wet. So, what makes you like it?” “Yeah, usually, it’s tied to sadness and grief. There’s a reason why funeral scenes happen in the rain, I just forgot about it. It is honestly depressing to stay inside by such a measly threat, but, I don’t know. It, it can get cozy. It just, it reminds me of my ship. It reminds me of those days, those days…” -- -- -- “Wake up buttercup.” a boy calls, Trevor’s eyes pop open. His body laid on a boat. “Hey, guess where we are?” Trevor looks around and sees that he was stranded in the middle of the water, in the dead of night. “Oh god, oh no.” “Relax, look.” his friend points, The clear night, with nothing but the spectacled sky. “Whoa.” “Yeah. You know, I’ve always thought you were lucky.” “What do you mean? You heard Aphos, I don’t have friends.” He glances at her sleeping on the raft. “Don’t listen to her, she’s just as bad at making friends as we all are. Why do you think we banded together?” Trevor observes the boy next to the girl and his friend. “Cuz we’re losers?” “Yeah, we’re all losers, but that’s the thing. We’re all losers, which means we don’t got much more to lose, we got each other. We all know we don’t mean the things we’re saying. I’ll tell the two that you don’t want to be called a homapian anymore.” “Okay, thank you.” “Listen, all I’m saying is that, I think you’re lucky, that your parents are cosmonauts.” “What?” “Well, not cosmonauts, you know what I mean. Engineers, they make ships, and they get to fly them.” He looks up. “I’ve always wondered what it is like up there. Out away from this shitpile of shapes we call a home.” He looks at the oars and the portable engine they made and frown. “We should probably get to shore.” “Yea.” Trevor and his friend could feel wet spots tap him. “Hey yo, what?” “Oh no, I think it’s starting to rain.” Trevor says, “Oh f**k.” “Wait, let’s check the weather.” Trevor checks the weather, to see that a mist storm was approaching. His friend spots the screen and understands, moving to wake the boy and Aphos up Trev goes into his contacts to find mom and dad, before he stopped his finger right above the glass. “But I don’t want them to think I’m a momma’s boy.” He spies rightward. Land was nearby. “Hey, wake up!” Trevor’s friend slams his fist on the raft wood, waking the girl up, “Christ, why’d you have to do it like that! What! What?” Trevor wakes up the boy by gently shaking his shoulder, “Huh, what?” “Koha, we need to get the boat to shore now, it’s going to start misting soon.” He shows the phone. Koha nods in understanding. “S**t, get the motor!” Aphos and Trevor shove it onto the back of the raft, and rip the activation cord. The motor revs, the blades whirlpool. “Koha, you’re with me.” Trevor’s friend throws him oars. “Bro, stop overreacting. We’ll be fine with just the motor.” “Yea, or the motor will stop working and we will be left in the middle of nowhere.” Koha opens his mouth, he stops himself. He grabs some oars, his muscles wince. “Regis Scout Training, don’t fail me now.” He thrusts and pulls the oars. “Aphos, can you look out for us?” She swivels her head to the friend’s voice before he nods, “I’ve got it, yeah.” She pulls out her phone and looks through the camera, the screen shows the distance from the land. “Okay, we’re almost there, 200 feet to go!” Mist settles in, the land melts with the grey fog. “S**t, keep rowing! Trevor, can’t you make the thing go any faster?” “Yes, but it might break!” “Wait break, how?” A part was holding on for dear life as the motor ran. “Oh no.” “I thought you two cleaned and tested it!” Aphos shouts. “Yeah, we did. Well, not exactly, for the test part.” “I thought you said you knew what you were doing?” “Yeah, I didn’t. Uhh, I didn’t want to bother you about it, since you were busy, and uh.” “What did you do?” Koha snaps, “Oh my god, who the f**k cares if the f*****g two hundred year old motor is about to break, we gotta get to land! JJ, move your f*****g a*s, Aphos, be our watcher, if anything happens to Trevor, you’re on deck to help, got it!” “Holy, I’ve got it! We are 100 feet away from land, we can probably swim!” “Yeah, and we all know I swim like a f*****g rock. Trevor, put the engine to full blast and get out of the way, grab an oar and row like your momma’s about to slap you on the a*s, Aphos same to you!” “Wait, what about?” “Who cares about the engine, we can make another!” Trevor looks at the engine, before nodding, accepting the request. He jams the throttle on the engine to full, the blades shred the water. He jumps to the side of the boat and starts rowing. “Heave ho men!” “What about me?” “And singular woman. We’re so f*****g close.” The engine sputters, struggling, coughing its final breaths to make it back to shore. “60 feet! 50 feet! 40 feet!” “Push, push!” The engine kept its blades and its spirit running. “Keep it up, keep it up!” “20, 10--” Koha yells, “stop!” and they all let go or halt. The engine was spastic, losing vigor by the second. The boat sails two feet onto shore and stops. The engine shriveled and stopped, parts popped out as it drew its final rev. It stood there. The four stare at it with admiration and glee. “Hey, it died as it lived, eager and proud.” JJ walks to the raft, with Trevor moving with him, everyone else following suite. They push the raft onto land and pull out the engine. Trevor tears off a small container by accident, before stuffing it in his pocket. They carry the cargo all the way to their tree house. “Remember scout training?” “Bro, yes, we were all at it.” Aphos says, “Oh right, you were there, now I remember why I forgot.” Aphos pouts, while JJ wears a s**t eating grin. “I will make you pay, watch me. Anyway, did we show Psidium what for?” “Let’s see.” They pulled out a hidden compartment under the raft, and pulled a very large egg. “Oh yea, I can’t believe you roped me into a f*****g heist, just so we could ‘borrow’ a very large egg.” “No no no, you don’t understand, we did it as a message. You see, while you all weren’t looking, I put a replacement egg where this one was.” “What was in the replacement egg?” “Oh no, just a little surprise, y’all will have to just watch to see.” Koha and Aphos look at each other. They shake their head. “Anyway, let’s open the f*****g thing. We could be inside an egg to be worth that amount of money and glory?“ “Well.” “Also, can we take a moment to thank Aphos for reminding us to try to open the egg before we left that place?” “Oh yeah, that would have been bad.” Koha says before the sight of the inside of the egg cuts him off. It was a contestant ticket to be in the next episode of challenger. “What.” JJ pulls it up. “What’d you expect from a bunch of egotistical rich brats?” “That’s it? Where’s the million dollars, where’s the.” JJ stops to see something else in the egg. “What the f**k? What’s this?” He pulls out a card. It was a black, with a gold key to a pair of glowing, ivory gates. “Oh. Oh, that is, that is something.” “Wha, what is it?” JJ asks Koha “It’s, it’s a pantheon card.” “What? Wait, a pantheon card, don’t they have a more decorated design?” “You’re thinking of the old designs, the old establishments. This, this is no ordinary pantheon card, this is the stuff that can get you front row seats at the Citadel, right next door to the Consociates.” JJ’s eyes open. “What? Wait. How come no one knows of it.” “Oh, you know of it, you most certainly know of the high tables right? The ones that control everything? Yeah, this is the card that gets you that access.” “Wait, old establishments?” “There are branches to the pantheon class of elites, the ones my parents have is a lower branch. Uhh, I dunno why they haven’t changed the cards yet, or maybe they have --I dunno, I haven’t been to a pantheon party in a while-- point is, what we have here, is a terrifying thing.” JJ looks at the card in fear. Aphos replies, “Koha could be bullshitting us, just saying. It’s not like that hasn’t happened before.” “Why would I be bullshitting about a f*****g pantheon card? Firstly, it was in a trophy in a competition where only the really rich play, second, why the f**k would they put a card that doesn’t mean anything in the trophy? And third, it sorta makes sense, so many people are going in to compete, and most likely, they know what’s inside the eggs. Maybe the Challenger staff rigged the games, so that their most favorite competitors would win the card.” “Maybe, you mean, all the time?” “Ahh s**t, they’re probably going to try and find us, aren’t they?” Koha clenches his teeth. “Uhh, yes and no. Now, the Pantheon club is going to be pissed if they found out that one of their cards has thrown to the peasants, as so they say. But, I don’t think they’re going to give a s**t. They produce and give so many cards to people, that one card is whatever. Hell, they’re probably going to give a replacement one.” “But what if they do?” “Mmm. We can try selling it, or we can join them, or we can hide our cards.” “Join them?” “Yeah. They make it a big deal to ‘convert the peasants to divinity’ or something.” “Oh hell no, I’m not doing that.” JJ says, “I didn’t say you had to.” “I know, I’m just saying I ain’t doin it if you were thinking of it.” “Well, I don’t think selling is that great either, could you imagine if we sold this card to some random jackass from the forest? Sure the money would be crazy but, for this?” Koha says They all look at the card. “So, do we just keep it?” Trevor asks JJ, Aphos, Koha look at each other. “I think, I think that’s the best choice. I kinda want to use it though.” Aphos says, They all look at her like she grew another arm. “What? Could you imagine having the power to travel wherever we want? To get off and away from this life, to give my siblings an actual home and life? We don’t have to be the ones at the top. We can be, better. We can give all of ourselves better lives.” Koha and JJ look at the card. “But, then we’d be feeding the top. I don’t want to become like them.” The card glows under the light. “How about this.” Trevor says, grabbing the raft, “let’s clean this up, and sell the ticket. How about we put the card away, put it in a box, and put it somewhere where, only we know where it is?” The rest of Trevor’s friends exchange looks at each other. “Fine. That’s what we’ll do.” JJ looks at the card, rain still pouring on them.
-- -- --
Rain was still pouring on Trevor. He looks up at the clouds, the raindrops pattering his visor, the picture of the four burned in his memory, A vivid image of a photo with the four of them stuck together rests in Trevor’s hand, with the vista of a shore in the background. In his hand was a box: there was the broken off container, a watch, a locket, a knife, and notes with all four of his friends saying goodbye and their numbers on the back, with some cash inside as well. Trevor says, “How much has time passed. And now, they’re all gone. Everyone’s gone. I have no one.” Trevor says, with his back scooched up tight against the landing skid of the Skylancer. “No one, except for Alphas.” his finger redirects the photograph, allowing him to see the red sun dip into the water. “It’s, it’s bittersweet. This is supposed to be happy and romantic, right? And yet.” He looks at the photo again, “I’m grieving.” He continues to admire the photo. “F**k. I miss them.” “I think they miss you too.” “Thanks Alphas, you always know what to say. Heck, thank you Alphas. Ever since we met, you’ve been nothing but a beacon of light. Even when I’m crying, you find something to cheer me right up, you find something to get me back up to speed, and I feel so grateful. I wish I could you repay you.” “Trevor, you know you don’t have to do anything.” The melting, drowning scarlet of the vista’s sun embers and swims into his vision “I know.” he says. -- -- The rain continues to patter and tickle the exterior of the armor. “I still have that box. I still have the photo. Maybe I should look at it again when I have the chance.” Trevor sits up. “It’s weird. I can’t help but remember JJ when rain touches my head. What it feels like to be in space, to fly and revel in it.” “But you know already.” “I know, that’s why it’s weird. I guess, it’s just my way of reminiscing.” A few minutes pass, before the next word was spoken, “Trevor, I have a question.” “Do people reminisce, because they want to relive their pleasurable past, or do they do it to learn from their mistakes? I always thought I knew the answers, but at the same time, I always feel like at any minute, I will be proven wrong.” “What do you mean?” “I’ve never had anyone tell me what is right and wrong. I’ve always had to guess.” “Don’t you all have databases to help you?” “Yes but, we still have to make the decisions.” They sit in silence on the rainy hilltop. “I remember my situation years ago. Before you were born, three millenia to be converted approximately. I remember when we didn’t have anybody. We were in charge of our own progress, finding our own answers for our existence. Even with all of everything that a supposed mortal could dream of, supposedly divinity, it felt like a never ending puzzle. When we thought we cracked the code, there’s always something to break our progress. And then, the federations. I am sorry for dispensing so much irrelevant, unnecessary information, but.” Alphas stops, “It sort of came to me, and I couldn’t help myself.” Trevor's emotions blank out. “Uhh, Alphas? You okay?” he feels his back, mud dripping off. “I’ve never seen you like this before.” “Nobody has seen me, or really any sylph like this before. I don’t blame you if you’re taken aback.” “I’m not.” he looks off to gaze upon the rainy city. “It’s honestly refreshing. To know that, even AIs, supposedly perfect beings, they’re also vulnerable to the same faults as we all are. That, that takes weight off me.” “Really? I always thought that vulnerability in times of desperation, would lead to a deadlock of some kind.” “I mean, all it says is that you’re like us, just living along this wave of craziness called life.” “I guess that is true. Still, what if I make a mistake. I will be the first one the finger points to, I will be the first one the blame lands on, right?” Trevor doesn’t respond at first. “I mean, I’m afraid to say, yes maybe, but I feel like I don’t think it matters. Maybe it does, but I don’t think so. You’re doing the best you can.” “But I don’t feel like I am. In fact, I’m not. I endangered and violated your trust by installing lethal weapons on your ship, I was not fast enough at warning you about the Kraken, I wasn’t there when you blacked out at the bar.” “Alphas, you’re blaming yourself way too much. I think you’re doing just fine, really.” She goes silent. “I’m sorry for putting you through so much.” “You’re not putting me through anything at all. You said that keeping bad things in will just hurt you in the end, right? That’s all that’s occurring right now, you’re just letting things out. S**t, you’ve done so much for me.” “Trevor, you don’t have to do anything for me, really. I appreciate and thank you for your empathy for me.” “I insist. Because, you’ve always been there for me, even after everything that has happened to me, you were always, you’re always here. I just want you to know, that whatever mistakes you say you make, I don’t want you being worried about them. Really. With you here, ready to risk everything, I just want you to know that, I know you’re only just looking out for me, and I thank you for it.” Alphas shadows herself again. “Trevor, I. Thank you. I appreciated that.” Trevor smiles, “Alright. Wanna chill or?” “Mm, neh, let’s go.” “Cool! The mud was starting to annoy me anyway.” “Thank you for checking in though.” Trevor disappears into a pair of bushes. -- --
Kashank. A bush chars away,The leaves disintegrating into ash following the wind. Drao examines the land, a field of multi-colored flowers surrounds them. He observes how the rain tickled the puddles with their droplet digits. Niara follows suit, with most of her armor now on. “Drao, what are you doing? You’re leaving a trail.” “Sh.” Drao waits, his head leans down to let his ears have a chance to breath. His hands freeze the air, the water turns to hail, the puddle ices up. “Okay good, just local fauna.” He returns the air, the puddle returns to muddied water. “What was that for?” “I can tell if people are nearby, based solely by the amount of heat they’re leaving. But I can’t really do it well if the environment’s too hot.” Niara’s jaw gapes. “Wait, you can, you can sense body heat?” “I’m a shaklifmann. Sorry, a deniperon. I truly am reproached though by that name. It feels very disgraceful to the original Sagistry.” “Sagistry?” Drao walks and sees the mud. Niara immediately goes to walk around the mud, Drao looks at the forest in front of him. He pushes forward. A dash of orange streaks billows through, he redirects the smoke to make it look like it happened in the past. “What are you?” “Creating a diversion path, away from our actual one.” Niara looks at it. “But we’re trying to get into a position without detection right? They see the path, they’re going to be alerted. They’re going to track us down.” Drao looks at his path and looks at her. “Well, thanks for letting me know of that before I committed to a strategy.” “Hey, it was your idea, not mine. Whatever, know what, we can use that to our advantage later. Let’s move, they probably know we’re trespassing.” Drao was a step ahead, and moved without her. “Okay, where too now?” Niara checks her helmet. “Okay, there’s supposedly a rich neighborhood near here. We push through a few bushes, and we should be fair game.” “How many bushes are a few more.” Drao cuts off. “What’s up?” she whispers. “I sense something. 20 something? No no, 12.” “Total?” “Uhh, there might be more, wait.” Drao pulls off his hood, revealing an exotic and bright form: a Viper and Poisonous Tree frog chimera, a Deniperon, no, Shaklifman, skinned in tropical red and orange on the head and his upper sections, fading into a rich dark blue and green in his lower sections, He puts his hands up to his ears. Grass shuffles and ruffles, Niara’s ear twitches. “One. Moving swiftly too.” “S**t. Wait, that could be Trevor.” “Or a scout. But your friend is more likely.” Niara nods, and puts a finger near her mouth. She pulls her rangefinder out and spies the trees. “They’re too close, and they’ve stopped moving.” She looks at him. She gestures a ‘cover me’ and approaches in front of him. She snakes through the grass as tight as she could. Her toes curl hard, her footsteps soft as fur. She spots a flicker of purple. She smirks and continues to stalk. “It looks like Niara is going to flank and surprise you to your right, in about three, two.” Trevor turns and jumps his hands up, scaring her. She falls onto the grass, and Trevor points finger guns at her. She smacks his shoulder and shakes her head. “What’s happening? Oh it’s your friend.” She nods and drags him close to her. Drao’s pupils pop, and he moves down to the ground. They all join in conjunction. “S**t.” Niara pulls out rifle and looks through the scope. “I have an enemy at 33 meters. What now?” “I will use a smoke screen to cover us, but we need to have a place to go when this happens.” “I want to get away from here, and not have to hike, that’s what I want to do first.” “Well, where would that be?” “Maybe a little outskirt cave, somewhere I don’t have to walk for a minute.” “Wait, if the omniscient site is just like the ones from hanging orchards, that might mean there are food generators. We can drop down there and we can get to safety.” “But that’s back towards the Omniscient site, and to be honest, I’m not really in the mood for retracing our steps.” “Okay, so now what?” An orange light streaks through the sky. “Well then, that’s one way to light a path.” Niara looks up, Drao notices something and flings his head towards the trees. The soldier focusing on them wanders their eyes towards the dot flying across the sky. They look at their wrist and nod their head, moving away from their overwatch position. He moves his head around, sensing more movement occur around him. “Okay, Alphas and I found a place of where we can go.” Niara looks at him and thumbs up and begins to walk. The grass feathers around. Drao realizes and summons a cloud of smoke into the air. The soldiers jump their sights onto them. “Drao, what the heck? What’d you do that for?” “The grass could’ve given our position away.” “And the smoke doesn’t?” “Either way, the guards would’ve probably caught on to our position if we moved, but at least with the smoke, we can cover our tracks a little.” Niara takes a second to comprehend. “Okay, is this really the time to argue? Come on, we’ve got guys on our trail now!” Niara and Drao take too long to register before Trevor just grabs them anyway. “Look! There they are!” Niara fires a burst at a tree branch, sending it collapsing down, while Drao creates another smoke cover. “Where to?” his whisper snarls, Trevor points. He extends the smoke into a four pronged path, ashy path, before he moves them through one of them “Think about it, on the off chance they actually saw us, they would immediately know where we are. Now they have to guess.” Niara forces herself to think about it, before she realizes, nodding. “I see what you mean, but why are we going in one of the gamble paths?” “Follow me!” Trevor calls, as he jumps left and crashes through the smoke and into a valley. He wrenches a bark off a tree and slams them together to form a board, as they slide down the hill. “Wait, food generators? For the Omniscient?” “Basically there are these cut outs for the omniscient to get sun light, oxygen, and water, in order to make food for themselves.” “Hmm, so do you think there might be some of those way out here? I remember seeing holes around here when I was conducting some field research.” “What?” “I perform research on fauna on nearing planets. I love flowers.” “Oh, you’d love our employers then. Trevor had to go through the Titan Faction just to get intel on one.” Drao gives her and him a poker face. “The what? The Titan Faction? With the tank piercing bullets and whatnot?” “Yep, them, for a Circus flower” “For a circus flower? A circus flower, what in the actual blazes is wrong with your employers--” “Actually it’s just for the omniscient, I was just kidding about the circus flower part, I thought it would be funnier if I described it like that. By the way, how fast are we going--” They hit a stump and it sends them flying into a river. Finally, the soldiers catch up, and point their weapons at them. “Freeze! We’ve got you.” they realize the river is flowing down stream. “Soldiers, grab the boats!” Drao coughs and struggles with the speed of the water, before eventually deciding to dive down into the water. Underwater was not any better: rocks, animals, plants were approaching and smacking into him, he holds his breath and absorbs the heat from water creating ice. He floats back to the top of the water, and scorches all the moisture off of his body, before pulling Trevor and Niara right on. “Okay, now what?” Niara says, “Well, my plans for a relaxing break have gone down stream.” Drao giggles, “oh, oh, that is a clever pun.” Trevor says, “pun? Oh.” he realizes.” Niara glances behind her before spotting. “S**t, Visuals, fifteen klicks!” Amphibious vehicles and boats were hot on their tail, and Niara looks at her armor. “Hang on.” Niara pulls her shotgun out and thinks. Trevor pulls down a large tree, it dams the vehicles. “Good one Trev!” He nods, but notices the amphibious vehicles were getting out of the water. “Oh no.” Niara loads her shotgun with a high explosive slug, and fires it around below the vehicle. It detonates, launching the vehicle back into the water, behind the tree. “Nice shot! A swarm of combat drones on either side now tail the three. They turn and open fire onto the ice boat, lasers and electricity hail them. Drao hands swelter claws of fire, eviscerating a large number of drones. More drones continue their barrage, while Niara begins her own counter attack, blasting her shotgun at the bots. Trevor finishes the drones by wiping them straight left, smashing them all into trees and leaves. Niara looks in awe before noticing a solid wall at the end of the river, with armed turrets, living soldiers, and riot tanks aiming right at them. Drao melts a hole in their boat and aims his hand at the hole, while Niara aims her shotgun at the hole, while Trevor aims his hand at the hole. Everything happened in a split second. The slug Niara fired thumped just hairs below the boat, before Drao’s flame ignited the charge, only for Trevor’s FPs to bullet the explosive force, in turn shoving them millions of feet high into the air. Trevor could’ve sworn choir music was playing, seeing Niara and Drao flail their arms about while they were soaring through the air, every soldier on the ground fully amazed at the sight of their stunt, the icy chunks that joined them during their flight. He closes his eyes, for two whole seconds, feeling his body float in oblivion, just like he always wanted, before everything came crashing down. “Oh my god, not again!” Drao panics and fights to force his eyes open, while Trevor is already moving to catch them. First, he goes and grabs Drao, then Niara, then he focuses his FPs down, only dragging down their speed by peas at a time. Drao grabs Trevor’s fist and smacks himself with it, before he inches below them and flame broils the air, basically creating a virtual jet engine to slow them down. Trevor recognizes and thrusts the flame further down, to push back against gravity’s pull. The ground was a lot closer, Drao concentrates more, the flame managing to scorch enough air to tumble them all over onto the ground, Niara understands the soldiers still moving and stuffs a device on the end of her shotgun’s barrel, shoving a specific hand grenade mine in it. She loads in a shell into her gun and racks the weapon, before she fires the grenade. The grenade bullseyes a rock and claws digs into it, a laser pointer goes invisible at the same time. She fires another shot and a balloon inflates, completely blocking off the entrance to the cave. She pants, “Why the hell did I not use these against the spiders. And why do keep falling? Good god.” she grabs the two men and pulls them into an outskirt. -- -- “I’ve never been down here before, this is fascinating.” “I mean, it really is. It begs the question of why none of the guys haven’t explored this place yet.” Niara glares at the halls in front of her. “It really is a good question.” Drao says “Then, I guess it’s time for us to find out,” she whispers to herself, Drao and Trevor catching up. They walk along the muddy and dampness of the underground, the three of them admiring the city’s muted, yet cozy ancient decor. “So Niara, uh, where’d you two meet?” was that guy talking to you about earlier?” “Huh? Oh we met while I was taking a scenic detour to get to you. Uh, huh, I guess we really haven’t properly introduced ourselves, have we?” “I guess we truly haven’t. So, maybe I should be the one to start greetings. Hello, I am Draovilich. Draovilich, ish ma Rok Dorili, ish ma Figh Lieoln, ish ma Kaz Nu Liia. Sorry, my full name is long.” “Dang. My grandpa barely remembers that far back.” “Heh. Yeah, we shaklifmann have a thing for traditions. It’s just something that my race has.” “I see. Yeah, my families has traditions they celebrate too. Dia de Los Muertos, I remember, was one my parents were super adamant in celebrating, even with the lack of people who shared our culture. Although, I could definitely see why, lots of people, family died tried trying to escaping the clutches of the Seraphim.” “I apologize for interrupting, but what’s Dia de los Muertos?” “I know my cousins and Myrane’s uncle had to do some of this, just to escape their dying home, Gaia.” “What happened?” Niara pauses to figure out which direction to go: “So, what did you mean by exploring?” “I want to see this omniscient creature you speak of.” “Oh. Uh.” She sees how far the hallways led, Her foot pulled her forward. Trevor and Drao look at each other confused. Trevor shrugs before walking in twine. Niara tries to continue her conversation: “I remember how hard it was for some of my cousins to adapt. Gaia was a pretty large hotspot for Clurvaens during its hayday, and, I don’t really know. It was until they met me, Myrane, and her clurvaen friends, they became super excited again. I remember seeing them playing and celebrating many old customs that the Shuharegala had, like playing traditional gaishko, reading and reenacting folklore, hell, one of my cousins was sponsored by Myrane’s dad’s friend, for their tattoo coronation. “What’s Gaishko?” “It’s a children’s game. I believe there is a modern version that you can buy, but, basically the goal is that you’re to try to balance as many wooden planks on top of each other as possible, and the one who can balance the most without falling wins.” “Yeah. What about you Drao? I know of Shaklifmann but, I know the stuff I see is not what is true.” “Mm. I know of a holiday some Shakliffman celebrate, called Wair kiE lduri, it’s very similar to your Dia de los Muertos. It’s a tradition, a ritual, that has been expanded and changed by different regions of my species. In some, we offer and then burn the favorite items of the person we’re celebrating, to send incenses to bless our lost ones. In some, we dance and sing the song of the stars they were born under. In some, we light these flying candles to send to the heavens gifts and messages, to say we still honor and commemorate their lives. But, that’s what Shaklifmann celebrate. That’s what we used to celebrate. Nowadays it feels fake. We’re not doing it for what we were. We’re not doing it out of love, or charity, rather, it’s just a mask. Not that there’s anything wrong with gifts like cards and flowers, but, I feel we have lost so much in exchange of materialistic needs.” He notices his words spilling from his mouth. “My apologies, I was ranting again.” Drao chuckles, “heh, let’s be honest, I don’t think any of you want to hear this old man rant on about how things were so much better in the old days, especially when I haven’t experienced them.” “Hah. What if I do?” “You were a soldier?” Trevor asks Drao jolts at the question. “Uh, yes, yes I was.” his dialog resolves. “Huh that’s interesting.” Niara whispers “Anyway, yeah, y’alls have these scanners to tell you exactly where people are. You all have these fancy electronics and gizmos in your suits, while I, I’m still living off of this survival suit I escaped with, back when I was stranded on a planet.” Trevor and Niara stare in awe. “Okay, what haven’t you done?” Drao stops walking. “I have never partaken in a Shakliffmann heritage or ceremonial dance, I have never met a real sage in my life, I have never participated in any of my original cultures’ traditions.” “Really?” “Yes. Yes, I never have.” his head hangs in shame before he quickly pushes it aside. They reach a room, with a plant corpse the size of a panther lying down on the floor. It was weak and flimsy, yet an aura of a cold but somehow familiar warmth surrounded its skin. “Well, that’s neat.” Somehow, a lively lifeless whispers wisps through. The room darkened; small white dots burn, gleam godrays into the middle of everything. “Wait, what… what’s going on?” Words were separating and disintegrating, like paper in water. Trevor feels his skin lose texture and definition, and yet he could feel everything at the same time. What he thought was his sight demonstrating his point of view, nebulae and stars sparkling, dance and behold themselves above him. The lights that paint the galaxy blows a soft, caressing brush across Trevor’s nameless skin. He attempted to speak. His voice, his words unwind a thousand times, like leaves joining the wind; the material form was lost, but yet its primeval definition remains. Thousands of sounds, lights, smells, textures, tastes cast through him, thousands of visions of all senses flicker from scene to scene, an animation taking flight. One step he takes, direction crumbles beneath him. The stars melt and dissolve into the air and sounds he breathes and hears. The voices die and integrate into his body and spirit. The visions melt and steam away, entering into his mind and view like they were butterflies curious to the new home they seek. Only a black void, from the beginning, to the end. “Can I speak?” His voice regains a melody, claiming ground in a world of sky. He reads the text in front of him. “What? A melody?” He looks up and down, side to side. A delayed shimmer cascades away into the distance, as the more he reads of the words said. “What is happening?” Trevor says, only to see his words and the text deflected, and read back to him. “Wait.” He forces his supposed eyes shut, and the infinite plains melts back to the room that they were residing in. His arm coated in steel, the familiar adeep purple that he crafted rests still and slumbers on his arm, Trevor sighs with relief. He stands up, only to find the plant has disappeared, then his friends. “What?” A feral, monstrous thunder clap cuts. “Agh!” says Trevor, Draovilich’s unsure fingers intertwined; a wicked blue and purple gash the air with galvanic, arduous blades, against a crowd of soldiers wearing black, red, and silver, while his hand was hot above another, wounded blue, white, and gold soldier. Among the crowd, the image of Niara emerging from the ashes, covered in blood, guts, scars, and cuts, wielding a gun in her palm embers through the dark, blackened swamp, her obsidian, tar eyes reflect and stares sharp, searing light through the blackened night. Suddenly, the light knives deep into a frail, frightened victim, before her a feral, monstrous thunder claps. Then, a sun shines, Trevor could see JJ handing him the dirt covered box, the sediments Trev could taste in the air. He could remember the four voices swearing under oath to never open and uncover the hole. Words leave JJ’s mouth, as he vanishes from sight. The blackness began to heat up, as ships began ripping themselves apart, hurdling themselves towards planets at supersonic speeds, only for a blindfold to rip vision away from beholder. The bones and metal chassis blew and eroded away past Trevor’s body, almost adding to the sand of an hourglass. The infinite desert of time and darkness stung the air with grief and sorrow, only for sight to finally return to him, this time, a garage and Trevor’s face greeting her. The sands of time were replaced with an ocean of doubt and fear. The water dries and flattens to nothing, only his weight kept Trevor a float. “Do you see who stands by you, with you, within you? You may not know it, but they see you as a part of them, not just in a group perspective, but in their spirits. Your imperfections provided a gateway for them to become better, even if they have barely glanced beneath your surface. They are not without flaw, yet they also have strengths and beauties unbeknownst to them. You pull and push those traits in front and behind them, like water in a pool; in doing this, you have given them the tools to do the same to you, and make you better. It is a sublime feeling. A flower if you will, of diversity, intimacy, courage, and fortitude.” The Omniscient stands in front of Trevor, a curtain pushed aside to reveal their form. The lifeform was weak and frail, yet remarkable, astounding. A flower of infinite color schemes glows through the bleak ruins. The plant’s flesh is dominant, and strong, yet soft and injured at the same time. Its voice, a thousand instruments and choirs stitched together. “How are you alive?” “Alive? Hm. No one has ever asked me that question before. Alive? How am I alive?” The plant struggles to breathe, like it was an animal suffocating in the dirt. “Do you need help? We can give it to you.” The Omniscient loses its stance, Trevor prances to help, but just before his foot leaves the floor however, the omniscient grows a vine to support it. “I, do not know if I am… if I am alive, but I can assure, whatever happens to me, I know I will survive. But, even if I am to die, would there have been a point to my oblivion? What’s the purpose of death, if life just wakes you up again? Even if I was sent to another realm, whether a reincarnation or a new escape, what stops life and death from being redundant? I know animals are different. You all have differing ideas, and philosophies, but all in all, it’s all the same. Life begins, and death ends. Life restarts, death intervenes. Like waves in the ocean, each action sets the seeds for the rest of the motion. There are many things that can happen between each cycle of blood spilled and blood refilled, but even then, what’s the point of death and life, if it just either ends entirely, or starts forever?” Trevor sits there, criss cross, arms at a weave. “I don’t get it.” “I don’t expect you to. I can feel myself trembling every day, every waking minute, and yet reinvigorating at the same time. Why not a full stop. Why not kill me? Alternatively, why not a full start, why not keep me forever? Why have these intervals of life beginning and deathly ends. This phenomena has plagued me with questions and queries. It has forced me to think, to come up with infinite theories, with infinite meanings, but, by that same process at the same time, it cancels out and becomes redundant, oblivious. It becomes meaningless.” “I mean, for you it’s different. You can asexually reproduce. You’re a plant, you can just have your body replicate. With us however, we’re sexual, social organisms, or most of us are. Life actually has depth when there’s an end, and for us, that’s partially true. Although, I get what you mean, when you say that we imprint things and traits onto others.” “It’s not to say life has to be one way or another. It is just hard to see the definition, when there is already an infinite set of choices that organisms can make, that it eventually leads to nothing, as eventually, those options will all have been exhausted. Then again, it is impossible to see for certain, when there are so many bright choices to exhaust. And even an organism of the world, a small part, can impact the whole. And then there is the question of my existence. Technically, I have everything a mortal could want, yet nothing seems right. I have everything one could ever have, yet I know it is futile. I was given it, almost out of pure lackluster care, and even if I could make it seem worthwhile, nothing can change the original intent. I have everything, and yet nothing at the same time. One could say this is perfection, in it’s finest.” Trevor looks at the plant with sadness, small dots of reproach glitter. “If you wish to help, I am not opposed. I just don’t think there is much you could do.” Trevor looks at the suffering plant, to say finally, “how do we help you?” “I am weak. I have lost a lot of my original matter, back when I had much, much more of my original species, my original genus.” “But we can bring you back, we can give you health.” “I don’t think you understand how little I have to work with. Unless you can make a new body from scratch, completely identical so that I could inhabit it, unless you can rebuild my whole species, my whole surrounding covenant so that I can regerminate and repopulate, unless you can provide me with another sibling of mine, I am as good as dead.” “But we can, we can make an identical version of you. We have the technology. We can take the damaged DNA sequences of your body and reclone you a new one.” Trevor tries to concoct a rebuttal but nothing happens. “Although, I am saddened to put down your suggestion, I can see you are trying to help. I psychically program locations into your brain’s subconscious layer, that can tell you where all my siblings may rest. I am sorry, that the only use to you I can give now, is my corpse. I am sorry.” Suddenly, Trevor could feel his knees pressing against the floor, his ears hearing nothing but the coarse, scratchy breathing of the plant. “Come closer.” Trevor feels his feet attract to the base of the plant, the ruins get brighter, and the voices of Niara and Drao start getting more recognizable. “I never thought a day like this could ever come. I never knew there were organisms still interested in a life like mine. I had no hope or thought that I could ever desire or have longing for anything, that I would soon disappear for nothing. But now, I have a place I can go, a goal that I can be a part of, that my end would legitimately be worth it. Be free, and make new life elsewhere, fellow stranger.”
The Omniscient and Trevor drop to the floor.
He wakes up. He felt a bellheaded plant lay themselves ontop of his helmeted head, a blue blink sears through the open, moist air. “What happened?” “I don’t know.” Trevor looks around, before the bellheaded plant lands itself onto his hands. He looks with content. “Well, I guess we have something now.” Niara sees Trevor’s prize. “Alrighty then. That’s sick, okay. So now what, do we just move out or?” “I guess so. Although.” Trevor looks right, while Niara looks left. “I guess we kinda wing the moving out part?” Trevor says. “I think we can find two routes out of the this location. Either through where we entered, or a nearby cave entrance.” Draovilich says, Niara hears something. She travels down a rather roomy corridor to reach a very lush waterfall, “That’s new.” he continues, “Maybe, the omniscient put the exit behind this waterfall.” Niara pushes forward, sloshing the water aside like a curtain, leading to another hallway. “There is hostile activity ahead, about 10 meters northwest to northeast of your location.” Alphas states, “Ah s**t.” Niara exclaims, as she draws her rifle, changing the caliber and barrel length of the weapon in preparation for the conflict. Drao sees her armament, and something arises in him. He closes his eyes, before he peeks out around a corner, he sees a woman holding a laser sniper. he exhales. “Know what.” “Wait, what are you?” Niara realizes and fails to grab him, Drao walks out in the open. The militia faces down Draovilich. “Who are you? Why did you trespass!” “We did not know that there were going to be visitors. We also did not know that we were trespassing. My acquaintances here were just trying to siphon information about the organism residing.” The commander jolts his head up to the sky. “Oh, so, I guess cameras and guards monitoring every location isn’t enough to say that we’re a little curious too? And you think a flare moving at near hypersonic speeds to suddenly hit our soil, is not suspicious or worthy of attention?” “We’re authorized by a nation funded organization. What type of clearance do you have!” “A galaxy known org. Have you heard of Solaris?” Trevor stabs into the conversation. The soldiers stand waiting, some of them breaking formation to adjust. The Commander looks at his advisor to hear no words. “No?” the commander states, before noticing the downtrodden crop in his hand, “But I do know you have been doddering off with government mandated property!” “Okay, yeah, I guess we are. But at the same time, the Omniscient is no one’s property, did you even know what you were watching over?” The commander stutters, “No, but you were snooping around on private property anyway!” the commander barks “However, you failed to properly secure the highest value asset on the property, nor give valid warning of the high profile and security detail regarding this location specifically. I do admit we are at fault for not notifying your staff and forces of our entry. I would like to formally apologize. Still, this does not excuse the lack of warning. “Well, it’s still common sense. You don’t snoop around property.” “Really? A few hours ago, I was just here, or at least a hundred miles from this location. Do you suppose that every little acre of this entire land belongs to the government? Does that mean the forests neighboring the roads and highways here also belong to the government, or every nature trail, or every waterfall, or natural feature of this planet belongs to the government, or for divinity’s sake, belongs to anything?” The advisor leans over, “to let you know, The Deniperon is not lying. Our contractors still did not install the signs.” The Commander shifts in his direction, whispering, “Are you serious? What about their friends?” “No official statement has been concurred. However, they did enter the planet with a Solaris seal.” “But no official declaration was stated, right?” The advisor nods, before the commander brings out his rifle. “I am giving you another chance. We will open fire if you do not comply. Release the stolen items, and exit the facility. This is your last warning.” Drao scoffs, “why must things never work.” Draovilich says, “okay, let us not escalate this petty feud. Why don’t we make a deal? When we are done with our sample, we will lend it back to you. Is that-`` The commander looks at his rifle, before he shakes his head and calls the infantry off. “D****t, I don’t get paid enough for this. Why, I’m opening fire on civilians? What, all because they didn’t know of the policies here? All because our contractors are too lazy to put up a f*****g sign!” “What, what do you mean?” “Whatever, I guess I feel reasonable today. My orders are to contain all threats that pass through here without some proper clearance. You’re all scientists, right?” Drao peeks at Trevor and Niara. “Ahem!” Drao gestures to Niara, before she solemnly rolls her eyes. She drops her guns and walks to the front. “Yes. We are.” Drao replies. “Kay.” He whispers to his advisor, Chack! A gun’s bolt smacks to the front. “Wait what, I didn’t even finish my-” The commander’s sentence gets gutted, Drao divides the place with a lava wall. Heat embers onto Drao’s skin, his hand jabs and pounces the wall towards the men, the flames vanish upon impact. The mercenaries recover and they see that Drao, Trevor, and Niara disappeared. -- --
“Okay, I thought this was a no kill operation?” Niara spits at Drao. “So did I, until you detonated a bomb underneath one of their transport vehicles! Besides, that was an amateur move at worst, those flames aren’t nearly hot enough to be that dangerous, plus they have armor.” “Really, how could you’ve known that the flames wouldn’t have spread through out the forest, not to mention you don’t know how conductive their armor is!” “Well, I know thermal lasers weapons exist, and I’m sure those men wouldn’t have been given tin foil for protection. I think your concern is mostly unfounded, and I’m sure they’ll be just well. Besides, what could I have done in that situation?” “I dunno, you could’ve put a smoke screen down, created a flash, make them disperse, not cook them alive?” Trevor sandwiches in, “Okay, I get it, Drao’s tactic a while ago wasn’t exactly the safest, but you guys know that there’s a full on army coming after us, right?” “Okay fine, you win there, yes, I did something stupid too, but the flame wall could’ve easily gotten out of hand.” “So? I could easily extinguish it.” “And then there’s the chance that you forget about it, and then suddenly the situation got way worse than it needed to.” “Guys.” Trevor loses the gentle voice, “There are men with guns and attitudes ready to kill us. Let’s go.” Niara registers Trevor’s voice and gets a move on. Drao continues. “Okay, I get your point. I still don’t think that move was not as bad as you think.” She only gives him a glare, and pulls her DMR out. She jerks her head; Drao gets it. She points her weapon at some trees and shrubs, seeing the infantry. She points up and fires. A bullet rings through, walling some troops in. Niara catches up with the rest of the team. “Wait.” A map pulls up on Trevor’s visor, the Skylancer was beelining to his location. “How are we getting Draovilich out of here? How are we getting out of here?” Trevor asks, They stop. “Uh, okay, so my ship’s still under repair. Your ship can only hold 2 people.” “Alphas, can you check if you can check out of the repairs yet?” Drao looks at his hands and at the trees adjacent to him. His eyes focus. “I can take care of it.” Niara replies, “what?” “Y’alls leave without me, I can handle this.” “What, no we’re not doing that.” “Please, this is a chance I’m willing to take.” “Drao, stop playing, we can get out of this.” “I know. I don’t want to.” His hands glow white. “What makes you think I can’t take care of them?” Niara’s jaw drops, “That’s not what I mean! Didn’t you say this was a nonlethal mission? Do you realize how wrong this can go?” “Yeah, but…” he stares at his blank hands, as if he was performing on stage. “For the lives I have stolen. For those that I have ruined. This will be a justifiable end.” clenching his fists, rocking them with anguish and contempt. Niara faces Drao with confusion. “What. What lives? I haven’t shot a single bullet at anyone this entire time, just for you. I don’t break promises. Drao, listen. I don’t care how many people you think you’ve killed, or stole, or whatever, I don’t care about how many people you’ve hurt or ruined or whatever, I am not leaving you to die, I’m not leaving anyone to die. Listen, whatever the hell you did in the past is in the past now. Do not let it break you now.” Drao presses his lips. “I can’t. I can’t.” “Drao, you do not deserve execution, no one does. They shot first because of orders. You defended yourself, and although I still think it was way too messy, you still defended us and yourself.” Drao hears a crick from the distance; he snaps and freezes a branch off a tree, before Niara catches Drao’s hand. “Do not, we’re not doing this. Listen, let’s just focus our energy on getting out of here, not on pointless fighting.” Drao’s thoughts clash, his face shows it. Suddenly, lines on Draovilich’s arm piques Niara’s attention. She concludes they were small burn wounds embedded in his skin, before she shakes her head. “Listen. You don’t have to do anything crazy to make things better. You can make things right in a peaceful, civil manner, without bringing things to harm.” her mouth stops, but her spirit fights to keep talking: “And you can do just that, by helping us right now.” Niara looks behind her to see the infantry moving closer. “There is many choices that you can take right now. Use the one that will, without a question, make you a better person.” Drao looks at his hands, he looks at her, he looks at the soldiers approaching. “But. But, I can’t just let it go. I.” He looks at Trevor making a phone call. “Wait, I have to be there? My Sylph can’t just sign off?” “Well, it ain’t her ship right?” “I mean, no.” “Yeah, so we have to have one of the original owners sign off on the repairs. We need to do this so that payment actually goes through.” “I, so if I go there, can I make the payment?” “Yea. That’ll do.” “Okay. Thanks, I guess-” the phone cuts off. Trevor looks at the two, even his visor has puppy eyes on it. “I.” Drao tries to speak, something gets caught. A storm of turmoil wracks Drao’s brain, it splices his head. Something comes out of Drao’s mouth. “I’ll help. I’ll do what I can.” Drao sprints to Trevor, leaving Niara to just stare at the frozen shuriken. Tree leaves shuffle, a soldier’s helmet shines from the light. Niara regrips and tosses the item. It bonks off of their head and falls to the ground. The soldier and Niara just stare at each other for a few seconds, before she shrugs, before bolting it with Trevor and Drao. “Well, I tried. Let’s go!” -- --
They sprint towards a rope bridge, slowing down to catch their breath “Okay, so it turns out, I or Niara has to sign off on the payments.” They both glare at him, “We have to what?” they say simultaneously. “Alphas can’t make the payments herself, turns out the shop needs a ‘live representative’ to make the cuts count. So one of us has to be there.” Niara and Drao give each other looks. “So uh, any ideas?” “I thought you were doing the idea part, not us.” “Yeah, well, I realize how s**t my original plan was, so, do you have a better one?” “Bro, no? I don’t. Okay.” “Wait, actually, I have an idea. Two or one of us gets onto the Skylancer, the rest stays behind.” Niara stares at Trevor. “How is that a better plan?” “It’s not, it’s just a better one, I guess.” “What was the original?” “I leave and then strand you two behind? That way Alphas can get the ship to you faster?” “Okay, know what. Trevor, you have better control of your ship right?” “Yes?” “Cool, I’m leaving you with Drao, I want to be picked up first by Alphas. I want her to drop me off at the site, so that I can provide support from the air. Meanwhile, Trevor, you get Drao to a more sustainable site for pick up, and Drao, you support and protect Trevor.” Niara thinks a little more, “Yeah. Wait.” Trevor and Drao gaze, dazed at her, “Niara--” “Oh that, yeah.” “Just uh, where’s the Skylancer, can you--” Trevor thrusts Niara into the air in a literal second, “Holy s**t, whoa what the-” The Skylancer snatches Niara right up. She sits in the canopy in quivers. “I think I might need new knickers.”
Drao’s ears pick something up, to spot a few soldiers using a chainsaw to attempt to cut the cable to the rope bridge. They panic and point at the guys, before one of them smacks another upside the head, and grabs his knife. Trevor kicks to the floor, tripping the soldiers legs and slamming their faces into the floor. “Go!” Drao dashes across the bridge, a single hot disc slashes through the bridge rails and floor, Trevor pulls and somersaults the pieces back to the cliff below them. “So what now, Niara’s Friend?” “Trevor, and f*****g, hold out I guess?” Drao looks behind himself to see the soldiers equipping jetpacks. “Okay, you’re kidding me.” “Trevor, Niara has picked up the Leviathan. They’re heading round back to your location, T minus 10 seconds. “That’s neat, thanks. Wait ten?” Trevor could see Niara’s ship approaching, a loud boom shatters the sky. “There is an empty hill about five meters to your left. If you can make a sled and sustain a minimum speed of a 58 miles an hour, The Skylancer will have enough space to catch you.” “What?” “It just means that we gotta go.” Drao and Trevor run into the trees and past some shrubbery, to see the best natural ramp in all time. Trevor looks behind him, before he exhales. He presses a button on his helmet, for the song: Redline OST: Yellowline to play. Drao hears and twists his head to Trevor, “Wait, why do I hear music.” Trevor thrashes a tree and slaps a full sled of bark on the ground. “Melt the wood together, can you?” “What? Uh, sure, but I don’t.” “If there’s one thing I’ve learned this entire time working for Solaris, is that sometimes, you just gotta go with it.” Drao nods in confusion, before he welds the wood together. “Okay, now what?” Trevor drags Drao onto the sled and fires his FPs at the ground. The sled rockets off. Drao lunges into the wood sled and feels his body press back from the air. “What in, what?” the FPs increase in thrust, the trees go faster behind, the sled begins to burn and crumble apart. “What! What the?” The force literally rattles the devices and Trevor’s body. The sled jumps and humps, the air cooks up like an oven. The trees stopped existing, it was just brown blurs. The bumps in the terrain didn’t matter any more, everything was lines of color. “Trevor, I suggest positioning your terminal trajectory in a tall arc formation. This allows for the highest safety variable.” Alphas suggests, Drao turns his body, struggling against the air batting him up. He torches the ground and missiles them the ground, the ground rumbles, and quakes below them. Lines crash through trees before the floor vanishes. “Oh, oh my, we’re flying! We’re flying.” Trevor’s visor throbs, the number on the screen reads an ever climbing 145 miles an hour, Trevor drops and boosts off the sled to reach a higher speed and angle. “SkyLancer incoming, brace yourself.” He cuts the thrusters, before slumping into the seat as the Skylancer jets off to the skies above. The soldiers skid to a stop once they see two lights twinkle off into the horizon. The commander looks at the Advisor: “What did you think was going to happen? Well, now they’re definitely not giving us the sample. Whatever, I ain’t defending your a*s when you have to explain it to the court.”
-- --
Drao looks out to the inky black void. Drao observes his environment, admiring the lush, lavish, muted orange seats, and the beautiful mix between beige and burnt black wood furniture, with leds subtly hidden underneath to ember the cockpit. “This is quite the canopy you have here. You have decadent taste my friend.” “Huh, oh thanks.” Trevor blushes a little bit. “So where are we going?” Drao asks. “Uhh, I don’t really know apparently to some depot? I don’t know, that’s what Livo and Bixvah sent back.” Drao raises his eyebrows, “Sorry, my employers told me that. You’ll see.” The DepotThe door opens, the three of them enter the depot, exhaustion irradiating from all of them. The depot was filled from head to toe with supplies, shops, fuel injectors, and inventory bots, they saw out of a window. “That's Draovilich. Cool.” Bixvah puts her book back up. “Yep, that’s him. Wait, how do you know who he is?” Niara says. “He’s uh, quite a someone in the general science community. Heh, if Livo were to walk in right now, I just know they’re going to--” “Huh, what, who called my name.” they see Drao. Drao waves his hand. Livo falls to the ground, the four of them rush to grab them Livo’s hand catches the side of a table, her finger raised by slights. “Ahhh, I’m fiiiine.” Livo slurs, their hand slides off the table. Bixvah leans over and says, “hey, you’re lightheaded, lie down.” Livo blinks, before their head falls back. Bixvah sighs, “This happens a lot.” “Oh. I see. How long have you all been in this?” “Hm? Oh, uhh... I think Livo and I have been in this for about, uh, maybe thirteen years?” Bixvah replies, “Trevor and Niara are very new to this, Trevor’s been in this for like a few months, Niara almost the same time.” “Thirteen years? That’s, that’s a long time for a research endeavour, no?” “Yes, It definitely is, but apparently our project’s main goals don’t really interest Solaris’s agendas. At least we have some progress though, thanks to our field workers.” She grins and points to the two of them: Trevor was snoring like a baby elephant on a chair, a bottle of Bepis spilled over the counter; Niara was still scrubbing the ever loving god out of her armor, as her arm smacks and knocks her unloaded gun to the floor. Drao and Bixvah just stares. “Quite the selection.” Drao replies “Yea.” Bixvah trudges the sentence out -- -- -- Her room is bright, a star flooding the room with light, Niara looks over a tub. A bunch of chemicals lie on the countertop. “Hmmmmmmm.” she hums. “So why’d you ask me to come?” Bixvah asks. “Do you know a chemist? Or a roboticist?” “Uh, I know a few. Why’d you ask?” Her hand points to the black gunk all over the broken armor. “This s**t is everywhere, and I’m not going to lie, running into a gunfight in nothing but a t-shirt sounds like a hell I don’t want to enter again.” Bixvah bunches her lips. “Okay, I know a few people who might be able to help you.” her eyes squint for a second before she pushes the thought aside. “Actually, Trevor might know a thing or two. Isn’t his whole suit made of nanites?” “Yeah. Actually, you’re right, why don’t I ask him. Well, actually never mind.” “Hm?” “He’s probably stuck working on his ship again. I don’t feel like bothering him over something like this, goddamn asking him to help me with this chore my a*s.” Niara takes and reads the labels on the chemicals one more time: “Please use in well ventilated areas, do not mix chemicals, most effective on rusting. Yeah, it’s got nothing for whatever this is.” Someone knocks on the door. Niara’s eyebrows jump up and investigates the sound, spotting Drao leaning on the frame. “Hello, My fellow greetings Ms…” He raises his fist towards Niara. “Uhh, my first name is fine. You don’t have to call me anything uh, out of the blue. Ms. Kalos, what am I, 58? I can’t be that old.” her voice decrescendoes to a mutter. “My apologies, I did not really want to intrude or interrupt whatever it is your doing, and I also feel locking your doors would be a worthy idea to consider, but I.” “I forget to lock sometimes. Well, actually here it’s to get more ventilation. Besides, if people were to try to steal from me, which why, I’ve got literal cleaning kits in my room and” She shut her eyes tight. “Guns, and ammo, and enough money to drown your sins with, okay, maybe I should safeguard my stuff better, but anyway, people know better than to steal from someone who can dislocate their arm and then relocate it.” Drao looks at her weird. “Don’t ask how I know how to do that.” “Also, what do you mean by ventilation?” “Oh, remember that black gunk on my armor? I’m trying to get rid of it.” “Oh. Uh, is there by chance I could help in this procedure?” “Uh, I don’t really know.” Niara takes a peek at the armor, seeing Bixvah was prying the black stuff off with a fork.” “Uh, I guess you could help. Actually, I should bring Trevor up for this. Know what, okay, if it doesn’t work well for the first few minutes, then call Trevor up.” “Trevor is the homapian-” “Human. He prefers human. Just like you prefer Shaklifmann.” “Understood, he’s the human? “Correct.” “Excellent. I’m just getting to know my colleagues before we embark on a search.” Drao walks into her room. “So, do we know what the chemical is?” “Yes, they attached to me on the mission before you and I met. Supposedly, they’re made of the same stuff the plants were covered, and there was a spray bottle that had an anti agent against it and uh.” She grabs her helmet, “that’s why I can’t see through the visor.” “I see. Do you have a sample of what the plants were covered with?” She thinks, “I held a chunk, but I think I threw it out.” “Mm.” He stands and speaks to Bixvah. “Is there equipment that can determine material properties?” “Yes, I can get the portable scanner.” Bixvah leaves the room, leaving Drao and Niara. She tosses the chestplate onto her lap, and grabs her knife from the other room, sitting down at her desk. “I’ve never seen plating like this before. Then again, I’m an oldfashioned chap, so that’s not a new one.” “Hm?” Niara swivels in her chair, Drao knocked on the plating on her boots. “Yeah. It’s not very cheap either. This whole thing I’m sure would cost planets to reproduce.” “Darn.” he puts the boot back on the stand. Niara pries and picks at the black. “Let me help. How conducive is your knife?” She pulls her handgun and removes the slide, presenting him the firing pin He slides the pin under the gunk and sets the metal to sizzle, while Niara pries with the knife. “What do you theorize the anti agent was?” “I don’t know, whatever it was, it goes crazy and breaks s**t.” “Mmm.” he removes the pin from under the material. “I know these pins are crucial to the function of your weaponry, so it would be helpful if you could tell me how hot--” “Don’t worry about the heat, as long as you don’t try to match the sun.” “Okay.” Bixvah arrives back into the room, and sets up a juicer looking gizmo, and a white, glossy stapler gun on Niara’s bed side. Niara could see the black gunk was burning to a crisp, her hand slips and snaps the piece off, it jets onto Drao’s foot. “Agh, s**t, I’m sorry about that, let me get that for you.” Drao picks up the sample, the burning feeling rends into his fingers. He feels nothing. Niara gazes at the events unfolding in front of her. “Okay, glad we know now that the stuff can be pried off, but I still think we should take a look at what it actually is before we do anything else.” Bixvah says. All her words zipped through Drao’s head. The edges settles, cradles, sinks into his flesh, the burning smells return to his nostrils. He can smell nothing but acrid smoke, the screams of men, women, children, the ash stinging his eyes. The engulfing, ever ravenous, ever furious inferno devouring the proud, fearless monument laces and grills itself deep into the eyes of Draovilich. His lone silhouette melts, washes away with the rest of the debris in fire. “Drao!” Niara shakes Drao. “Huh, what?” “Your hand-” He looks and shakes off the branding mark of the piece. “I didn’t see, I didn’t pay attention to the piece. I am sorry.” “No no no no, it’s good, it’s good.” Niara takes her hand and tends to Drao’s hand. The sun behind her gave her a perfect glimpse of his condition. Smooth, warm, sturdy, yet delicately flush, young but matured scales roams through the skin of his arm, but small slashes and marks rummaged it. She takes a second to comprehend her sights before she shakes her head and continues down his hand, skipping passed a black bracelet strapped into his wrist. She sees lines and contours seared open by the black hardened piece, small, popped pimple levels of blood oozed out. “I’ll be fine, it’s nothing to worry about.” “You sure?” “Yeah. It’s just blood.” He shakes the blood off and smiles at Niara, before giving Bixvah the new sample. Niara watches as Bixvah installs the new sample, her eyes wander off towards the reflection of the glass. She watches Drao slip his injured hand onto his elbow and obscure it from the window, his face dazed and more distant than space. Niara glances in a split, noting how he was swaying his crossed arms back and forth, and how his injured hand seemed to be very picky in choosing a place to grip Drao’s shoulder. “Okay. According to the machine, this is a localized anthromorph deterrent countermeasure. The gunk, is supposed to slow.” Bixvah stops. She forces herself to continue: “the gunk is supposed to slow and incapacitate by wrapping, sinking, and strangling a targets’ respiratory ability, so that other countermeasures can do their job better.” Bixvah turns and sees Niara’s simultaneous shock. “Um,” she continues reading, “to accomplish this, okay nobody wants to know that, okay so once the victim has been successfully pacified, the parasite dust will relinquish and release control and return to its original launch position. Multiple countermeasure have been implemented if a malfunction occurs. If in contact with hot water, saltwater, carbonated water, phosphoric acid, citric acid, sugared water.” Loud bangs bellowed out of the bathroom. “Drao, what are you-” “Hot water can terminate the black stuff right?” Niara stares at him, shaking her head in a very dreading manner. “No, that’s not, no-” Drao adorns the most vicious smile and nods in response. “This is no longer the time for cheap, subtle tactics, Niara! This is the time that we bring the fight to them. It’s time to go big and bad, it’s time we bring these castle walls down!” “Drao, my bathroom is already a mess, I don’t want it to become a scorching one! “It’s time that we bring the storm to them, it’s time we clean and dry out every last fiber of this plague, it’s time!” his hands conjure and summon hell itself, the air literally rumbles and screams to get away from the cleansing blight fulminating from his hands. Niara is out of the room, her body and Bixvah’s scurried under her desk. They could hear the roar pulsating and shivering their spirits from behind the wall, Niara knowing damn well she would be banished to hell before her body would be stolen. She swears she could hear something haunting her from the bathroom as she shoved Bixvah and her eyes tight shut. Suddenly, a stream of water seeps through the room. It was literally the most mundane, tub filling sound ever. Niara’s eyes peek, scouring the room for any sign of the after life, only to find that she was still, in fact, inside her room and she was currently hugging Bixvah underneath its table. She looks at Bixvah. They blink at each other “We don’t talk about this?” Bixvah says. Niara takes a second and then says “We don’t about this.” in agreement. Niara crawls out and investigates the sound. It was just Drao sitting by the bath tub, filling and broiling it up with his fingers. “Tsk, still not hot enough. Devils damned it.” he points his fingers and blazes the water a bit more before he raises his head and turns to Niara. “Hello there.” “Hi, uh. Weren’t you going to bring the storm, or go big and bad, er something?” “Yah uh.” he was going to say something else, glancing at the tub. “Um, yah.” “Well, that’s quite the storm you got there. Do you want help?” “I mean, wait, what am I even saying?” Niara gets takes off everything legs down and grabs a brush. “Well, the water is quite hot too, I’d say higher than 90 to 120 degrees (F)” “The water’s a hundred degrees?” “It’s around that area, yes. I assumed that if I could get the water hot enough, I could probably get the material weak enough to scrap or peel it off.” “B- but you don’t know if it is hot enough. Also, I’m actually unsure if the armor can withstand that temperature. I’m sure it can, but I’m also sure that it is that durable when it’s sealed.” Drao takes a small glance at it. “Wait, so you don’t know if the armor can withstand hot water?” “You know what.” Niara approaches the water, the simmering heat sinks deep into her hands. She grits her lips. “Okay, that’s a bit hot.” “What are you trying to do?” “Can you dunk the pieces under the water?” she goes back into the main room, “Or better yet.” she comes back with a tactical glove, “can you turn the faucet to shower mode?” “Huh, uh sure.” Drao presses a button on the showerhead and water spews out; he steps out and starts to spray the pieces down. “Let’s get rid of some of the water.” Niara flinches at the water, Drao lends her the nozzle and twists the drain, an aperture opens and it flows out. “Stop.” Drao twists again. “Okay, how do you usually clean the armor?” “Bixvah, you still there?” “Huh, yeah, what?” "There’s a set of brushes and tools near my guns. Can you get the one with ‘Aegis Solutions’ on it?” “Uhh, hang on. Yep got it.” “Can you pass them to me?" a bag of loose clattering tools smack into her, as Bixvah salutes, “well imma catch you losers later, I’ve got work to do.” “Wait, okay.” Bixvah leaves before Niara gets an answer out. “That was a rude thing to call us.” “That’s her. Blunt and straight to the point as always. Anyway.” she grabs detergent, a lattice sponge, and a few brushes and tools. “Okay, so I usually go from the top down, first I get rid of all of the excess plating, so I can get underneath.” She digs a screwdriver into a spot into the plating, before it slots in and unlocks the plates from each other. “Okay, wait, wouldn’t the water short circuit the locking mechanisms, or how does it not short circuit the mechanisms?” “The armor mechanisms are usually covered in plating, so that what stops them from being damaged from traditional bullet fire. When taken off, the most important pieces of the locks are basically sealed to prevent anything from getting in, and it is the same case when the plates are removed.” She pulls the plates off, “It also helps that the materials have some tricks up their sleeves too, like artificially boosted hydrophobia.” she grabs the faucet. “I just realized you were heating up the water by fire. Because the water can’t go that hot.” she facepalms. “Do you wish me to fill the tub again?” She fumbles her temple, “Uhhh. Nah.” she grabs a brush and scrubs at an outcrop of black on her plating. For once, the black gross nanites finally scrape off the armor, albeit a giant puddle still remained. Niara grins and pumps her fist: Drao grabs a few brushes himself and starts scrubbing. “How about this Drao. Whoever wins this gets to pay for the next meal.” “Oh, a challenge eh? Instead of letting this rather unbearably tedious task be such a bore, you dare incite such dastardly competition knowing full well the cost of such a tremendous task? Knowing full well how disadvantaged, and easy it would be for me to utterly demolish and triumph over you? Hm. I accept.” “Hahaha. Ah, but I have the home advantage. I know every little crevice that you’d fail to spot, even with a microscope.” “Well, I can always disadvantage you and give myself a head start.” “Yeah, but that would be cheating, you wouldn’t wanna disqualify yourself before you even started, would you?” “Heh. Not unless if the rules are loopy themselves.” “Alright. Then here are the rules: we scrub as much of the black s**t off as possible on our designated side.” she points to the chest, and drags left around to the back. “I will have this side, and you will have the other. The one who can get their side done the fastest wins.” Drao and Niara draw their brushes. “On three. Actually wait.” She goes to the other room for a while. Drao puts his brush on the plating. Niara puts her gloves on “One. two.” She catches Drao placing his hand on the armor. She pressures the smallest spot of nanites. A small silence brews through. “Uh, Niara, are you going to-” “Three!” She strikes, her sponge scrubs and attacks the stains on the leg, while Drao reels from her sudden start. He slams his hand on the armor, he blisters the surface of the armor to a rather generous two hundred degrees, before grabbing the shower nozzle and jetting the plates in cool water. “B***h!” Steam sprays out onto her body, she shields with the gloves, and barrages, rampages the plating with akimbo sponges. “Oh yeah? How’s this!” Drao breathes and exhales a puff of fire onto the armor, and then turrets another spritz all over the armor, a chunk douses Niara. “Okay, know what?” she wrenches and slaps Drao’s hand, spraying a burst over Drao. He flicks his hand and bursts the metal in Niara’s hand, dropping and sending it into Drao’s hand. He thrashes Niara with a small river of water, Niara catches some water and slugs it back to Drao’s face. He steams the water, blinding him. Niara grabs the nozzle and showers him, before taking advantage and shovels the rest of her side in ease, her hands flak away from the belching hot panes, eventually she snatches the shower hose in her teeth and hoses and scorches the layers until her entire body was nothing but drenched fur. Suddenly an explosion of steam drenches the entire bathroom. Drao grabs his sponges and assaults the armor, absolutely pulverising, totally annihilating, undoubtedly eviscerating the armor in nothing but water, more water, soapy water, sweat, tears, and a bit more water. Trevor walks by Niara’s room, with The Expanse, Berserk, and a holograph of some colors palettes in his hand. “Hey Nia…” He sees her room was currently venting full, billowing mountains of mist and steam from its door, as loud understated screams, bangs, and clangs scurrows out from their walls. “You will not take this from me!” “Well, excuuuuse me for your s**t grip!” “Hah, like you’re any more superior! Winning because I can’t see a damned thing!” Trevor just stares. He rotates one hundred eighty degrees and walks away. -- -- Niara crash lands herself into her chair and rips a maintenance kit right to her. She smacks it aside and smacks her unloaded assault rifle dead center. She glides the body of the weapon, admiring and glimmering at all the cool stickers, paintjobs, and aesthetics that she gave her gun. She pulls the charging handle, the bolt cymbals a satisfying click when she releases. She pulls off the barrel, then the ejection ports, then the stock and the magazine well, Niara disassembles the weapon. Drao sits, observing. “I have a question to ask. Why do you mark and make art on your weapons?” “Hm?” she hears, tilting the gun so that the weapon shines in the light. “Wouldn’t the bright colors and patterns illuminate and alert an enemy of your position?” Niara taps the glass on the wall, before sliding down with her finger. The stretched windows allowing the sun to peek through dims, eventually pitching the room into solid black. A small bit of light silvers in. Niara shows off the weapon again, but it was entirely pitch black. “I see.” The windows return to shine the godrays into the room. “Still begs the question however.” She ruminates on her sights. “I don’t know. I made these designs back in, I don’t know how long, but.” she inspects the body of it, “I don’t know, I guess I was really tired of seeing the same black colors that I saw when I stole them.” “Well, not the rest of these, just this one.” She picks up the Categis. She stares at it. Drao narrows his eyes, “why?” She continues to stare at it. “I don’t know.” she flips the gun so that she was holding the barrel, before she presses the handle deep into her forehead. She hisses out of her gritted teeth. Drao runs out, Niara raises a hand. She could remember how the bullets pounded through her skin, her muscles bursting and screeching, yet somehow, it all incites her to fight back: to keep her eyes open and relent it all. “I decided to do something really stupid that day. And, no matter what the hell I do, it’s always stuck with me. What, what if I am still abiding to my mistakes? I know it can’t be, it can’t be right, but the feeling. I can never shake it off. I don’t know how to rip it off. I don’t know how to burn it away.” Silence. “Burn it?” “It’s complicated.” Drao goes silent himself, “So, may I query on why are you cleaning your rifle? I thought most weapons come with antistain and particle resistant materials?” She pulls out the pin from a blocky bolt carrier and wipes it over with a small cloth. She sighs, and drops the cloth. “I’m sorry, I’m just, I’m not really in the mood right now. I appreciate your concerns, but at the same time, I don’t, I don’t have these answers.” A flicker in the mirror flashes Draovilich in the eyes. “Me, me too.” Niara’s pupils step back. She turns to Drao. “Wait, what, what do you mean by that.” she asks, His eyes lost something, it was like she was staring at a blackened pit. “I remember when I was unwise. A time when I was brash, and desperate for adventure or something, anything to make me feel different.” He clenches his fist, Niara’s concern painting her face, before he relaxes. Drao mouths something, but it’s completely undiscernible. Drao gets off Niara’s bed and walks to the door. “I apologize for leaving so soon. I, I’m sorry for bringing a personal matter up.” He looks away, “Personal? Wait, I.” The door closes. Niara stares at her broken down rifle. The parts stared back at her
-- -- Trevor walks into the lab, "How’s Sullivan?" he asks, "Hm, oh Sullivan, Yeah, he’s stable. He has yielded interesting results.” Bixvah says “Can I talk to him?” Bixvah peers. Sullivan lies in bed. “Hm.” she utters, before knocking on the door. “Yes?” “Are you okay with visitors?” “Who’s there?” “It’s the guy who pulled you out of the wreckage.” “Oh. He can come in.” The door glides open, Trevor approaches. “Ah. Heh.” he leans forward, “the guardian angel himself.” Trevor goes to sit, but stops. Sullivan nods and gestures for him. A small silence rivers between them. “Why?” “Hm?” “Why did you do all of that?” Trevor’s eyes stares away “I heard how you ran head first into The Titan faction just to save my life. You convinced the infantry units there to set me free. Why?” Trevor continues to sit. “I guess a better question then is, why are you here?” “I just wanted to see how you were doing. I mean, you did just come out of a wreckage, and… I don’t know, I wanted to see how you were holding up after that.” Sullivan listens, trying to speak, but failing to collect some form of coherence with his thoughts. Finally: “I don’t really know myself. Sorry, if that was a cruddy answer, but that’s the truth. That’s also why I asked. Why did you go after me, why did you intentionally risk your life for me?” Trevor stares at the floor. “Because, nothing else matters, or mattered at that point. My family made this something I could never forget.” he sighs, “My parents, they were some of the most bravest people I knew, and, they were also the ones that I was most closest too. They were there when my friends moved away. They were there even after the thousandth time I fell. They were there, even when I was angry. They sacrificed so much, just so I could be the best that I could be. I said I was too busy, but even then, I question that.” His stare continues to fall onto the floor. “Perhaps, this is too much to talk about, even after you just woke up from injury, so sorry about that. I guess, that whole thing, about me passing through danger to save you?” He notices his feet kicking about, swinging back and forth like the ticking on a clock. Something, something is clawing at his brain, his being wants to speak, to let something out. It feels like pushing against a brick wall. His arms shove him off the bed and his legs send him to the door. “I, I can’t say it. I gave my parents a promise, I promised them, and I failed. I promised so much, and I failed so much. I did so much, put so much in to do something. I don’t even know what I’m saying.” his head dips low. “I failed, and I can’t fail again.” he pushes out and leaves, the door making a clunk as it closed. -- -- You’re heading to, let’s see if I can get this without butchering it: Muorthano-a-klochu tsi ni Gul-aevciya Gi-Juarenk. (The Death Place of the Ancients)" Trevor stares, eyelids wide open at Bixvah before glancing at the translation. "You want us to go where?” “To the planet with the giant skeletons lying about. That one.” “I-I know the place but, is that the original translation? If so, then damn, they did the planet dirty with the original name” Trevor says, "That place is a massive tourist trap right? I’m just making sure.” “Yeah. To be honest, I don’t really care if y’alls decide to hitch hike and sight see. --just get the stuff we asked for and I’ll be happy.” Bixvah moves away from Trevor and leans closer towards Niara and Drao. “Okay. You two, your mission is a little more complicated. This operation is two pronged. Your objectives are a little more catered. The Titan Faction recently bought some territory there, and, if we do this right, we might be able to have a little looksy at their records regarding the Omniscient.” Niara’s face looks like it just saw a suicide. “What?” “Yea. Your contractors from way long yonder, you’re gonna be giving them a little ol visit.” “Wait, are you just asking me to walk up to their commander and be like: ‘oh, I decided to get off my a*s and actually do another job that you’ve proposed, after I have most definitely ignored all of them after a while?’ What, you think I’m just going to waltz in their base unannounced and expect royalty just cuz I did a few jobs in the past?” “That’s not how that works, you can’t just enter a maximum security facility, just cuz you did a charity project for them five years ago. If I wanted to do another job, we’d have a briefing somewhere secure, offsite. They wouldn’t let me into a base to do the briefing, that would be bad for intelligence reasons. If you’re asking me to f*****g enter a base and try my luck with their entire, literal tank piercing machine guns and assault rifles that they have, with their base wide security force with wall hacks and aimbot, I am not doing that!” Bixvah just stands impressed. Drao cuts, “What are we discussing?” “We’re trying to figure out how we can siphon information from a military base’s archive.” “Hm? Do you just need a copy or something?” “We were going to give you all a mini drive.” “I’m guessing I just plug it in and have it copy the files I select?” “Then I can do it.” Niara and Bixvah stares at him, then to each other. “No, no.” Niara says. “You said they use mostly ballistic attacks, right?” “No. I, no.” “I have advantages that very few possess. Very few.” “No, I don’t. Listen, Drao. I don’t care how skilled you are, I don’t care how hot you can make your fire, I am not letting you do this.” “Why not? The upsides are clear.” “And the downsides are infinite! What if you scuff an attack, what if you kill someone?” “I, what if you miss?” “I think you’re underestimating my skills, and what I’m capable of.” “Okay, maybe I am, but still, what if you do mess up, what the hell’s your plan there? In fact, do you even have a plan, or steps after that? There’s a reason why I’m being like this, what if this does go wrong? What if your skills fail you? What then? Are you going to just sit there and become a chew toy to the soldiers, let them run you until your breath is shot? are you going to go hardcore and annihilate everyone in sight? Are you going to surrender? Are you going to wait for us?” Drao thinks about his next answer, “Then I admit defeat my fault, and I accept the blame. It’s not like I haven’t before.” “Haven’t before? Drao. Okay, maybe this is too harsh, but I want you to think, I need you to think, there’s a reason I’m being critical here. I have lost so many things because I did not think, and I am not about to lose more. Whatever the hell you’re doing, you’re not doing alone, as for this assignment however, it’s a nonnegotiable no. It is not worth the danger or price. If we want information like this, I am certain there are going to be significantly more opportunities down the line that will grant us the success almost instantaneously. I am not risking everything that I just got back on a gamble.” Bixvah looks at them, “Okay, fair point. I did have a back up objective for y’alls, a much more reasonable one. Dunno why I didn’t suggest this one first, whatever. Since Titan has claimed land there, they have established multiple outposts near their commandc center, designed to relay and store information. If you all could just so happen to stumble and acquire some information from them, that would be a great too.” “Okay, that’s a little better. What should we expect for reinforcement?” “I mean you said it yourself, they probably have it tight. If I were have to guess, I’d say it would be like--” “Probably decent then? More than decent, less than extreme?” “Yeah, round there.” “Hm, okay.” she nuzzles her face deep in the nook of her finger “Well, one thing’s for certain, this is going to be one helluva job.” -- -- Remnants of the Grave.Ribs, skulls, arms, hands, strut out of the ground, stabbing and jutting out of trees, plains, jungles, and, deserts, spiralling and twisting into yellowed white towers and needles, with aged marrow staining the boney sculptures with a light brown. The SkyLancer and the Leviathan spears through the sky, overlooking the entire planet. Neon lights, light bridges, cool glass and porcelain architecture, and glowing glass tunnels stand out from the distance “What a view. What a place.” Niara utters. “Yeah. Yeah.” Trevor admits The familiar lights of a landing site ornament and bleed through the decayed, wondrously ancient nature of the planet. The lionizing guidelines switch from the blur of a single contour to separated dots, then lines, then bigger lines, until the lines stopped in their tracks. They exit their vehicles, Draovilich spies a stained white pillar impaling through the platform. He looks over to see the ground several hundreds of miles away and below them. “It appears that we have landed on a titanic tibia bone, I wonder how large this creature must’ve been.” Alphas chimes, “Careful, the oxygen levels are higher on this planet than typical. Be wary of oxygen poisoning.” A mask forms around Trev’s face, while Drao and Niara remain unphased. “Got it. Probably won’t be as much of an issue for us though, right?” Niara nods. The vehicles take a seat and the three of them go down and exit the space port, wandering and pondering the mystical fossils decorating the taxi pickup area. “Hello (Hola), Magnifaque, Aagly‘gosial.” Trevor, Niara, and Drao all hear a monolith greet them in their catered language. “How may I be of service?” Trevor hears in his helmet’s speaker, as a screen rolls out on top of the monolith, a map pops up. Holographic prompts kneel in front of their hands, with images corresponding: “Transportation Services”, “Navigation”, “General Assistance”. Trevor taps transportation and options appear to the left side of the map. “What the? When?” Drao asks, “what are those?” “Holographs? Holograms? You’ve never seen them before?” “I’ve seen holograms, but never to the extent of interaction.” “Well, they’re definitely a new tech relatively. I think I first encountered mine a decade ago? They’ve gone under a lot of refinement though, I remembered them being extremely finicky starting out.” He taps the bus, the routes of all buses and the time to get back to their location paints on the map, with the closest one in bright, cherry red. The times were all longer than 20 minutes. Trevor’s shoulders loosen, he taps the taxis, He sees a similar display, only there were a hundred thousand more, and they were all far from them. Trevor keeps touching the holograms as Niara notices that a skull was the traffic light. “Heh check that out.” Drao hears Niara, glancing at what she was staring at. “Talking about using your resources.” The sight sparks something in Drao. A deep, guttural, feral thing, that growled and barked at it. His eyes burns into it. He shakes himself away from the sculpture and says, “Hm?” Niara takes a second peep, a peering red light seeps through the air, leaving a trail of ruby for all to brace against, with yellow and green burying themselves in the inner entrails of the skull. “Mm. I can see how it’s degrading effect of the design. To be honest though, I think it adds, something interesting to the whole place. I mean, when and where do you see animal skulls as the traffic lights?” “In places who don’t value their artifacts.” Niara listens, before a car rolls up close to them. “Ride’s here.” Trevor tells. The doors wing up and out, revealing an open and welcoming interior. It was something surprisingly lush and exotically comfy. The back seats wrapped like a couch, with the arm rests flush with the doors, while the front seats were attached to a swivel. A white, inner layer of lighter tree wood tinted the leather, while the windshields were infused with display glasses. The seats face and invite the three of them, as they enter the vehicle. The doors close, a whole suite of mood lights, electronics, and displays sweep the car. “Where do you intend on visiting?” A map and prompts shows up in front of Trevor. “Uh.” “What are the most attracting sites?” “Ah, a splendid request. On this side of Mortaterra, you will find many fascinating places, including the Chrono Theater here, the Museum of Archeological and Natural History here, the Forest of Revenants there.” Points blinker on the map. “Mm, what’s that?” “Oh cool. Winter or summer, or both?” “The full selection of sports and athletics were recreated and hosted at the 2089 Mortaterra Olympiad.” Niara gives a wicked smirk on her face. Trevor peels his head to the right, before uttering: “Eh, f**k it, might as well. Bixvah said she didn’t care.” “Mm. Wait, I remember reading somewhere the Arcanadivan carnival is happening like, in a few days.” “That is correct. In fact, tomorrow starts the celebration.” Niara gives a quick begging glance at Trevor. “Where can we go to stay?” -- -- It is dark. Niara sits on top of a skull overlooking a city. She admires a colossal skeleton at the center of it all, acting as support for traffic signals and infrastructure. If only Myrane could see this now. She exhales, If only. Niara’s head wanes down, the bright city’s lively concerto of lights twinkle in the distance, the glass railing stationed right in front of her. A gentle, broken yet clear image of her reflects on the glass. She sees the scars on her face, her finger grazes through and caresses the mortal cut. She sees herself, the cold hue of the glass possesses the air around her, surrounding and caping her in a blanket of chilling, thorny yet wistful air.
“Aren’t you cold?” “Yes.” The warm, almost alluring, enticing, lustful lights of the city burns through, trickling deeper and deeper into her retinas. “Are you sure you don’t want a blanket?” a woman’s voice scratches through the distant gales of the edge. “No. I-I like the cold.” She hugs her knees, she hears her body telling to crawl up more. “Hm. Well, I can give you what you need. Just let me know, and I can give it. All you gotta do is ask.” Her eyes stare down and away, the incense of the city lights dies away to a dark, shadowy forest. She swears she could smell something missing from the air, thinking her eyes must be lying about the lively spirit of the concrete jungle in front of her. Her eyes switch her view to a cold wintery road, she swears she could smell something wrong with the air. The scent of a maple, peachy, cinnamon freshener swings its thick, hemlock tail throughout the air. The bright, diamond lights sear into her inky black eyes. “May I ask what you were doing so alone out there?” Niara continues to crawl herself tighter in a ball. A single tear trips out of her eye. “Mm. I see.” The small gales pressing by her ear, the way it flecks itself open to the sounds. The gales stop, she looks up. A warm light, in the middle of a sea of pitch nothingness. The scent of at home cooking, sweet, sour, salty, bitter, delicacy singes through the air, she could taste the air, the thick and froth of it. Her eyes close. The musty, musky weight of the smell wafts, stalks closer to her. She claws back. “My sweetheart, you needn’t worry about those fools you call parents. You needn’t worry about anything in the whole wide world, because I am here, and you are the only thing that’s most important. I believe in you.” “Really?” Niara’s eyes beam, the light gleams off of her eyesight, a firefly just beyond arm’s reach. “Yes, I believe you.” Wind slices through her, warmth grabs and embraces her. She leans forward, her arms clutch tighter, her eyes glisten, tears flow, they rain all over her. “Niara? You okay?” Her ears perk, her instincts rush to aid-- Arms up, claw your hands, protrude your wrist, keep them close Square legs, step them wide, position to around shoulder width apart Where are you, where’s the attacker, where is the attacker standing Why am I here, reposition, give time to regain advantage, Make a noise, arouse attention. She finally, with full consciousness, registers the entire place now in front of her. Her arena was just a glass pool; her opponent was just Drao.
“Niara? Are you alright?” She was stationed in a squat, her arms and hands lined up. Her face falls, tied only to the loosest thread of her neck. “I’m sorry. I didn’t.” Tears weigh off her face, hitting and soiling the grass and ground with deathly grim and scorn. She falls over, before Drao runs to her aid. She was gritting her teeth. Her head strikes the dirt, strife continues to bleed into the skirty grass. “Niara.” Drao lifts her head up, her face was wrenched and screwed up. “Niara.” he hugs her. She couldn’t fathom anything, she was too buried in turmoil. Her body felt so far away from her. Her mind felt so far away from her, yet still so close to her grasp. She swings her hand and closes the gap. They embrace, Niara grasps hard, almost vising Draovilich’s ribs. “Why?” “You’re suffering. I do this to people who are suffering.” She tries, fights to think, but it was too heavy. She closes her eyes and tightens her grip on Drao. Is this even the right thing to do? Is this what’s right? Am I doing the right thing? Or am I in the wrong? Am I falling, am I using, am I just senseless and lost?
-- -- -- She opens her eyes. A golden tint wrapped its film all over the canvas. It was a beautiful plain. Nothing out of place, it was perfect. The grass was decorated in flowers, daffodils, tulips, roses, of all hues and tints, with saturation making them shine in the sun. Trees stood every few miles, but the one closest, was right behind her on a rolled hill. Younger, kid versions of her friends sat with her. A picnic blanket rests over the soft, tingly grass. A sun gazes over the horizon. “Isn’t this the most wonderful thing you’ve seen?” A cherry sounding overtone masks Myrane’s voice: Niara tilts her head, Myrane’s face sits right next to her. Her eyes ogle away towards the vista. Niara’s face goes flat. “It’s all down hill from here, isn’t it?” “What do you mean?” Her focus decays, the sun sets, inch by inch, little by little, day by day. “You have your scholarship. I have my studies. The world is being torn to pieces. Ugh, you’ve heard this all before, right?” Nothing. Nothing speaks. “That, this is as good as its going to get.” A leaf snaps off a branch, it descends. Gun fire, bullets chatter, clatter, and shatter through the paned vista. Tracers, golden neon streaks raze and spike through the air. Her eyes see the sparks of impacts: trees, stained glass, neon lights, skin, her eyes witnesses the sites of all of the damage, it all jumps, flies, twirls, and dives. The dark attempts to barge through the panorama, but her eyes protest for its settlement. Flowers of fire, flowers of color, flowers of plastic blooms, resting on a warped, ornate. Her body tainted by a foreign hand, they caress and press into her skin. They fondle and paw their way through out her deepest, farthest, most oblivious places. Her eyes distance themselves, focus scattered like the stars. Voices and thoughts and words and tones clatter, interrupt, yell, collide, strike, twist, whisper, wrangle, choke, dissolve, wash away, burn away. The leaf continues to descend. Another figure enters. Their world was black. Her body was gold, they matched the silhouette of Niara Kalos, but they were little. She doesn’t recognize her. She notices that parts and points of her skin and fur were peeling. Gunshots blazes out, her tattoo splints and splits, now a blunt marker strokes her arm. The little girl. Her old, child self stares at her. She stares at herself. The girl’s eyes, body, mind sieves in and out of each scar, each little memory on Niara’s body; her gestures, mannerisms, postures, they mold and morph. The little doll was disappearing, the grown statue was sculpting out. Niara’s eyes winds up her focus, each little blur and pigment reconstructs and stitches back together, reassembling back to the full picture. She looks again, only to see something is different. Her friends that sat and stood next to her, were now of golden tinted statues. Ornate and beautiful, perfected and finished. Olympian and iconistic. Niara’s wasn’t. She was the only one resting by the blanket still, she was still the one watching the setting sun. She wanted night to be there, right by her. She wanted the rays of the scarlet sun to be by her even more, but all she got was the blackness. The flowers were not there. They were muted, black and white, monochrome. The grass was spinely, twisted and contorted by a schizophrenic, yet it felt and smelt like wet air. The tree was the closest to being what she thought was correct, but even then, something was off about it. It stands, tall but crooked. Niara presses her back on the tree, the bark scratches and crumbles against her. It was like a ghost, clearly there but its soul was carved and ripped right out of it. She observes her body. Her scars, they were missing. The scars, they could not taunt her, they should not haunt her, but yet the injury and fury was eternal, and the pain lingered. Her finger goes to soften and reminisce the wound. She feels nothing. She wants her skin to match the ornate and perfect porcelain of the others, but she feels instead the rough, semi smooth, semi refined edges in the marble. Out of nowhere, something showed up. She hoped the sunset would be there; she needed it to be there. But it wasn’t. Instead, her handgun was there. Like the grass and the tree, something was completely wrong with it. To her hands, to her body though, it was just right. To her, it was a virus, but to her, it was home. To her, it was hell, but to her… it fit. The leaf, catches her attention. It continues to descend. It continues to float. -- -- -- Niara opens her eyes.She was lying in a soft bed. It was dark in her bed, the white sheets were the only thing she could make out. She prints her hand all over the bed until she jabs at a curtain. She winds it back, peeking out by the slightest peep gap. The room was dark. Trevor and Drao were sleeping in a twin sized bunk bed. The room was generous and thoughtful, with its spaciousness and its confinement as balanced as lady’s justices’s scale. The cabinets, counter tops, and desks were decorated and clean, presenting their surfaces neatly for service. She taps the back wall, dots spectacle over her head, showcasing shelves and a touch panel. She drags it slightly to right, the lights sing a little bit brighter. Her breath billows out of her mouth. “What got over me. The hell kinda dream was that.” she investigates her hand. The scars still draw over her. “Why’d I think they’d ever leave me.” she notices the clothes that she had on. A simple crop top and shorts sits by her skin. She scratches her head, palming her temples. “I need a shower. I need a lot of things.” She folds the curtain back, and tip toes to the shower. The entire room stops her for a second. No obvious place to put her clothes. Nothing was obvious, it was just a contemporary sink, toilet, and a shower bath. A small, teeny, itch of a ticking noise drags her forward. She tosses her clothes off and the door’s glass blurs upon locking. The hiss of the shower running steams through the room. In the most edgy way possible, she stands and leans on the shower wall. She could still feel the shrieking aftermath of her hallucination, the imaginary lead holocaust razing and grazing her skin, still ravages and reverberates through her, yet, the comfort of the soft patter of the shower water softens and dampens the sensation. She observes one of her scars. She sighs, chills rivers out. “Why? I know it’s bad to keep these things hidden, but why? Why now? I only wanted to see this place, and this is what happens?” she struggles to speak. She observes the same scar. Only something piques her. The warm water strolling off of Niara’s back, off of Niara’s chest. “That Draovilich. Drao. I’m being too trusting again. I’m being too paranoid, I’m making dumb assumptions, I barely know the guy.” she squints, “but really, something doesn’t add up. Why did he do that? I mean he told me why, but” Her posture gets worse, yet her arms still press against the marble. “It still doesn’t add up. The markings on his arms, his backstory, what he can do? None of the scars I saw on his arms match any of the wound types that I’ve seen, not to mention the lack of them, then again I’m only seeing the ones that are actually visible, some damage might be internal. Still, if he was an active combatant, he should probably have some damage, right?” The shower continues to run, the water from the spout trickles down. “Well, except, there’s one type of injury that matches his: burn wounds.” The water had reached ankle height, while there was little to no sealing to keep it all in. “So, what do I know? He’s a renowned thermodynamicist that I’ve never heard of before --except I know who Iraemos is and I doubt anyone else would know who they are, so. He is partly responsible for the design of an extremely revolutionary heat sink, and that’s it. That doesn’t explain why he knows how to melt bullets? Or how to create a smoke screen? Or how to burn wounds shut.” She shuts the water off. She raises her feet, a sloppy plop splashes, a puddle forms by her feet. “There’s always one oversight in hotels, I swear.” She slides her finger on the wall, it was too moist to cling on to. “F**k it, I’m making a run for it.” She swings the door open and shut in a millisecond. A small puddle spills onto the floor. “Goddammit, it was open for a f****n--” A minute later, she leaves the bathroom in a misty cloud, shaking her head. Her eyes take one more glance at Draovilich, before she slumps back into bed. -- --
Drao stands in front of a fountain. He admires the craftsmanship of the sculpture in front of him, “You like what you see?” An older woman stands besides him, almost like she teleported rightwards. “Hm?” “Legend has it, the marble and ivory was imported and manufactured by those humans, Titans. They wanted to commemorate and celebrate their deal of the land, so they offered their services to whatever the Mortaterra desires. Hm, and do they know how to craft a sense of awe.” His sight rests on the statue again. The architecture pings something in him. He didn’t know what it pinged, but it reminded him of another statue. Those sculptures were reminiscent of the statues instated after the black plague in europe. Angels, Seraphims, Cherubs dance and tango around an ivory pillar, with gold skulls at the top blessed by an religious icon, it all pops up. There were kids playing behind him. One of them had tripped, the other kids laughed and mocked at them. “Hey, no fair, he tripped me.” one of them said. “Yeah, like that one time at school, or that other time at the playground.” the others leered “I’m being serious!” “Yeah right. Didn’t you say that he tripped you for real then too.” They continued to laugh and mock them. Drao stared into space. Their dialogue had clicked something else in him. He couldn’t tell what however. He sighed, and turned his eyes to see the kids. They all couldn’t have been older than ten. He switches his view back to the statue. “It’s gorgeous. Ain’t it?” A woman spoke, she limped toward him in crutches. The kids were still laughing at them when they caught the woman in their sights. “Oh s**t.” they sprung like rabbits away from her, “Yeah! You better run you twats!” She knelt down near the little kid that fell and asked, “You hurt?” They nodded. “Hey, c’mere.” she opened her arms and hugged them. “It’s okay, it’s okay. Why’d you let them bully you like that again?” “I don’t know, they told me that if I won the race, I could see mama again.” “Oh. Oh you poor thing. It was that Randal kid, wasn’t it?” “What? I… yes, yes it was him.” She sighs, “D****t. I swear that kid never gets it.” Drao asked, the baroque, deep seated warmth in his voice really baritoning through his speech: “Who is this Randal figure you speak of?” “Randal? Ah, he’s just another one of those brats that trash other kids to make him feel better.” “Mm. I see.” something hooked him about her. Her previous sentence, the way she consoled the child. he takes another gander at the statue. He could smell a tiny bit of ash in the air. “Yeah, I know, it’s beautiful, isn’t it?” she spoke “Hm?” “This statue, it was installed after the great plagues, a reminder of who we are as people, a reminder of what little we have, and yet we still have find a way to make things better. A way to survive, a way to nurture, a way to care.” She offers her hand to the child before they took it. “A reminder. A reminder.” The modern statue stays put. The marble and ornate sculpture work gleams wonderfully under the moonlight. “Hmf. Quite the astounding piece of work.” the older woman walks away, Drao continues to observe it, before glancing at the older woman walking away. There, he catches Niara out on the hotel glass shelf. His eyes squint slightly. “Niara?” No response. “Niara? Niara!” She does not respond. A small gale of wind bundles through, an ember of cold races over Drao’s scales. “Niara, aren’t you cold? It is quite chilly, I admit.” Nothing. “I also admit that was quite a silly ask.” Drao approaches her. “Niara? May I ask what you are doing all so alone?” Nothing. “Niara.” he gets closer. He checks his steps, increasing the step volume. “Niara, you okay? Niara, are you alright!” Finally, she hears, yips, and stations herself into a low crouch immediately, her arms and hands jump to her side. Nothing stands between them. “Niara? Are you alright?” Her breathing gets heavier. Her face falls, tied only to the loosest thread of her neck. Tears weigh off her face, the grass dampening with each droplet hit, Drao rushes to her aid. She falls over, She was gritting her teeth. Her head strikes the dirt, strife continues to bleed into the skirty grass. “Niara.” Drao lifts her head up, her face was wrenched and screwed up. “Niara.” He hugs her. He couldn’t fathom anything, he was too tight in a graveyard of his misdeeds to think of anything else. His body was five hundred miles away from wherever the hell his brain was. He knows he could rope his whole spirit into sense, but it felt so heavy to even try it. She swings her hand and closes the gap. They embrace, Niara grasps hard, almost vising Draovilich’s ribs. Drao copies; he vises Niara’s ribs. “Why?” he hears too many things, but he responds with one comment. “You’re suffering. I can’t leave those who are suffering. I have to do this to those who are suffering.” His head was empty, only his will could speak. Even his own heartbeat was muffled by the screaming, howling hell that was the silence. He fights to regrasp, but he didn’t have the strength to do it. He shuts his eyes. -- -- -- He opens his eyes. He was sitting at a bench, feeding a few birds that chirped at his feet. The bench was positioned just right of the statue he saw last night. “Hey.” Trevor stands. “You good?” “No thanks. I just wanted to catch up from yesterday. Some serious s**t happened, and I want to make sure y’alls are, y’alls are good.” Drao looks at the fountain. “I don’t know what got a hold of me, over Niara. Can you tell her that I apologize if the action was distasteful?” “Hm, oh no, she’s, she actually wanted me to check up on you. What you said to her when you hugged her concerned her.” “Oh.” he waves his gaze to the floor, in front of the birds, neatly begging for him to keep feeding them. “In that case, I thank her for the compliment.” “You know Drao, we are here if you need anything. Like, you don’t have to keep that stuff in if it hurts ya.” “Hm. Yeah, I know.” He stares away again, putting his focus on the birds once more. “Hm. Oh, you’re an animal lover.” “Hm? Oh.” His pupil expands, seeing the birds nuzzle up and feed on the bread so graciously. “I guess that is a fair estimate.” Trevor takes a seat on the bench. “Remember these few times when I was young, we, my parents and I would go out to hang out with some of our friends’ friends, and one of them was a major animal caretaker. They had an entire range and everything.” “Range?” “Yeah. Basically, this guy would take in rescued animals from differing places and take care of them. They even had land and terraforming equipment, so that they can mimic the animals’ original environment.” “Oh, that is quite the luxury that they have. That equipment could not have been cheap though, right?” “Uh, the terraforming equipment was actually something they got from their previous job, I forgot what it was, but it was actually the land that was the troublesome part.” “Really? How did they get it?” “It was something to do with looping and hooping through terraforming contracts, but eventually they got something from it; a small patch of land about the size of a mountain range. “That’s quite a generous gain. You really sure it is small?” “I mean, in comparison of what they could have gotten, yeah. A full planet’s worth actually, could you imagine that?” “Oh. Yes, that would be rather alluring. Mm, although, I would bargain that the deal that they ended up with was more than enough to satisfy them, was it?” “Mm. Yeah. Still, would’ve been cool to have a full artificial ecosystem for the animals to play in.” Niara enters the fountain area. “Hey, are y’all good or.” She sees the birds by their feet. “Ah. Enjoying the scenery I’m guessing?” He stands up. “So what are we doing now?” Niara shrugs, “I don’t know, what do you want to do? We got the entire tomblands to play with.” “They said there was an arena where olympiads are hosted?” “Yeah, the carapace. You wanna go?” “I mean, there is nothing going on there though, right?” “Hurrah. Mm, Chrono Theater? An archeological museum? Forest of Revenants?” “I don’t know, the map says it’s just a walking tour, with a guide telling you of the colossal skeletons spread about.” “Mm. How about this, why don’t we just walk around?” “That could work. I could do that, sure.” “You Drao?” “Huh? Uh, to be honest, I would love to see their history and archeological exhibits. I wonder what the older generations thought about the fossils.” Niara and Trevor think for a minute before nodding. “Okay, so then we’ll walk our way to the museum? Or museum first, then look around?” “I think Museum first would be better, that way, we can accomplish other objectives if we want after.” “Aight, bone ogling we go!” -- -- “Wait a second, what is the chrono theater?” Drao is reading a pamphlet about the chrono theater. “The Chrono Theater is an establishment created for the purpose of redefining the way that exhibits can be experienced. Capable of simulating, immersing, visualising, and reimagining any environment that can be proposed, the theater is able to bring the colossi back to life in an intricate, 1024k resolution.” “Interesting.” “Wanna go there instead?” Niara asks, peeling her eyes off the beauty of the glowing, neon and glass city. “I would, but I also believe that the organization who created the theater maybe incorrect with their findings. Incorrect isn’t exactly the right word though.” “Hm?” “I mean, they claim to be able to raise the dead with their technology, despite them never having witnessed or investigated them properly.” “I mean, they never said that they could raise things from the dead, they’re probably more theoretical.” She looks back at the city. The sun, the bright, triumphant sky, the gentle, humble, yet puffy clouds. The saturation, gloss, cleanliness, and sleekness of even the most mundane complications of the city made the whole thing feel like an advert from the future. “Mm. That makes sense. Still, I feel this whole endeavor would be, I believe inaccurate is the better term here? I believe the biggest and most major issue that this program has, is that it is all based on speculation. They, and neither I, will ever be able to perceive or witness these beings in real time. I am afraid that they will be giving off the wrong impressions and messages by the way they word their advertisements.” “I mean, they are a company. They need to make that moolah somehow.” Drao goes silent. “We are approaching our destination. Please prepare for departure, and secure any items or valuables on your person.” The taxi pauses in front of the museum. A holographic megalodon revolves in the center of the museum’s entrance plaza “Well that’s one way to grab a visitor’s attention.” They make their way through the plaza, eyes glazing over the stores and restaurants bespeckling their walk, and enter the museum. A skeleton greater than that of a T rex’s greets them. “What do you think that is?” Niara asks, Drao walks to the sign. “The tusks deeply embedded in their skull have been theorized to serve both courting purpose and defensive purposes. Judging by their large volume of space in the skull, it is believed that these animals were once highly intelligent animals.” “Hm, excuse me sir.” Drao raises his hand towards an aide. Niara looks at the exhibits available. “Hm, hey Trevor, check this out.” “What’s up?” “Oh wait, what about Drao? He doesn’t have--” “We worked that out already. He was a little confused, but he got it after a bit.” “Oh cool. Uh, anyway, check this out.” Trevor squints to read, he spots an exhibit on prehistoric birds. “Oh, cool.” “Just thought you might be interested, knowing your whole engineer background.” “Ah, well thank you for the suggestion, but uh, I’m just going to observe and look around. You can come if you want.” “Oh, uh. I’m good. Uh, thanks.” “Aight, see ya in a few.” Trevor waves and walks away. Niara spies the map again. She sighs. -- --
Trevor eyes the exhibits, reading the little plaques about each fossil. He could hear Drao’s voice creep in from a distance. “Hm.” Trevor touches the plaque to show off holographic prompts. He taps a holograph to reveal a skeleton walking beside it. He taps another to show a detailed DNA strand projecting over the plaque. Trevor glances and walks into another exhibition room. It was dark; a gallery of skeletons, holograms, and projections showcase in front of him. “The Magnursic serraustra was believed to be an omnivorous semi aquatic land pellamph (furred amphibian) that lived around freshwater rivers and lakes. It is believed that they used the water to cool off in the summer, while their fur bundled up expanded during the winter to capture more heat.” He could hear Drao still speaking to an assistant. “Ah, I see. So with the predictive AI, you use the data parsed to locate, mark, and create the ligament positions?” “Yes, that’s sort of it, although it’s not like those are the only tools we use to figure out these structures. We also have to figure out the different materials in the muscles to see how the ligaments connect, or we think will connect. As you said, none of these models are, and probably will be 100 hundred percent on the dot, but they are the best that we have. Honestly, that’s good enough sometimes.” Trevor approaches to see a dog, cat like fossil in front of them. Their skeleton was about a few smidges larger than a tiger. “Hm.” Drao hums out, “Because look, how much more accurate can we get?” the entire original body of the tiger dog constructs in front of them. “I mean, unless if our entire program for fossil restoration is off or something, which hey, it’s happened before, but like how much more can this whole thing change? I mean, maybe it’s a little inaccurate, but that’s still by a margin. I say we should be ecstatic enough at how far we’ve come with this.” Drao gives the fossil another examination. “Hmm. I understand your viewpoint.” he shoves everything else out of frame, and lets his eyes focus on only the specimen, everything else was a blur. “I just don’t know if I can look at it from that angle specifically.” he whispers, “I don’t even know if that’s possible for me.” even his speech blurred between thought and whisper. “Anyway. Is there anything else you would to talk about? I am here all day, til 5:30 pm.” “Oh no, I’m good. I.” his sentence dribbles off. “Yeah?” “Nevermind. Your input was greatly appreciated.” Trevor takes his own glance of the model while Drao and the assistant wraps up their conversation. “You know, this reminds me of the animals on our home planet. Or my home planet, or my species’, you know what I mean. I know that we would take some animals in to raise them as pets, like as family members almost, while others saw them more as toys. Mm. I also know that humanity had a massive penchant for prehistoric discovery. We even have our own history museums dedicated to them.” Drao hears this: “wait really?” “Oh.” “Yeah. It’s a shame really. I don’t even know if those places are still there now, even after all this time; I highly doubt it.” “Wait what happened?” “I apologize, my human history is a bit muddled.” “It’s not a problem. I mean we haven’t been outside our little ‘humanity saving’ bubble in so long, I think most species have forgotten about us. Hell, with a history like ours, I can see why they would. Still. It was all around back during our first great, species wide schism, when global warming tore a hole in the ozone layer. It gave us all skin cancer and it made our leaders f*****g panic. Eventually, they concluded that leaving the planet was the best course of action they could take, and so they shoved half of us into rockets and shot us into space, while burying the rest of us into subway stations and then just letting nature take care of itself.” Trevor sighs, “That was hella oversimplified but that’s essentially what happened.” Drao’s mouth couldn’t close. “what?” “Exactly, I don’t even know myself. Anyway, but yeah, I’d imagine being stuck with no maintenance workers and getting constantly cooked under UV light isn’t great for fossil health, or really anyone’s health for that matter.” “Heh, yeah that’d be a good speculation to what probably happened. Mm. I can’t help but relate to your species' struggle with global warming. Or at least the planning of it. Ugh, can’t help but reel after every time one of our most esteemed hierarchs makes a new decision. It’s barely even intelligible or sensible, but people praise them like they’re a messiah or something. Perhaps I am ignorant to the true populuses opinion. Perhaps the guise of social sites have broken my ability to skepticize, made me ignorant to the true state of things.” “Yeah. I mean, humans have been doing this since the beginning of time; no matter what you do, people will follow you if give them a reason to, and not even follow, people will pursue and scramble to anything if it leads to somewhere,” Trevor notices the assistant moving to another exhibition, with a sign that caught his attention. Drao follows Trev’s clunky, yet somehow snappy footsteps. He stops inside a black room. He looks up. “Incredible.” A colossal stood before them, they had the fur of a mammoth, yet the strong, sure footing of a t rex. Their head had the primal, demonic intimidation of a dragon, yet their wings were more of the graceful, reverential elegance of a crow, or a dove. It stands before them. “Course, making something like this takes a whole, this monster sized bite out of the budget for this place. But to be honest, the fact that this is even possible?” The assistant presents their hand and the colossal bends down, presenting their nose. They rub, scratch, and coddle the beast’s frontal snout, lying their head on the nose’s bridge. “Actually, I don’t think an answer is necessary here.” “What is that?” The assistant snaps their fingers. -- -- Niara snaps her fingers in impatience.“Man. I am bored.” Families walk passed Niara’s leaning stance. Children stare at her, before mothers and fathers ward their eyes elsewhere. She sighs, “I mean it’s a natural history museum, what do you think is going to be in here?” She cracks her knuckles. “I’ve been to the thalassophobia exhibit, I’ve been to the petraphobia exhibit, I’ve been to the entomophobia exhibit, I don’t know why the spiders were the size of castles but okay, I guess I’ve got arachnophobia now.” suddenly a vendor shouts. “Come get a free corn plushy!” “Ay yo, I want that!” “Well, if you want it.” A line of balloons and bullseyes greets her. “Get all of those, and you win.” Niara squints. “Okay. What’s the catch?” “Hm? Oh there’s no catch.” the vendor says sniveling. She squints harder “Okay. What do I use?” The vendor shovels an entire assortment of weaponry on the table. “Use these.” She picks up sharp pebbles, rocks, arrowheads, coins, darts, a set of pins. She squints hardest. She aims a dart at the center of a bullseye. Fling! Right in the center of the target, the dart strikes. “Heh.” the vendor says, before an onslaught of projectiles fly out of Niara’s hand, the darts and arrow heads punches the targets; the pebbles, rocks, coins sling towards the balloons, making them pop. The stones scatter and splatter all over the ground. The vendor stands and notices the balloons gone. “Heh. Not bad.” the vendor grabs the corn plush, “but here’s the thing.” They put another, much bigger corn plush “We’re having a two for one sale. And getting just one, isn’t how this game works.” Niara was squinting at them the entire time, They press a button behind the counter and a moving gallery of cute balloons and stuffed animals show up in front of her. “Take these out in anyway you see fit, you continue on with this game.” “What’s the catch?” she squints so hard that her eyelids were tied together. “Well, instead of giving you random s**t that I found on the street.” They grab a giant box with a toy bow on the side. “What?” The vendor and her stare at each other. “Well, what are you doing? Get it rolling, come on!!” Niara pulls the string back and puts an arrow in. She notices the arrow had a tip more akin to a bullet, and the cord was heavy but strangely light to pull, almost like it was living muscle. “What kind of bow is this?” “Does it matter?” they tease. The fletchings shriek and slash a big sling through a set of targets, a clean line could be drawn. Niara grabs another arrow and tries to calm the string, before getting another shot ready, another line strokes through, the string whips her face by accident. “F**k!” she grabs another arrow and repeats. Eventually, all of the targets were clear. “Okay, we good or?” “Hm? Oh. Oh s**t you’re done.” They see the damage before they flick their head. “Here. Follow me.” They grab the plushies and trail her to a much bigger arena. Niara’s eye flicks to something, glimpsing Trevor and Drao hobbling up and down, and then seeing a white eye hole peer through. “What in, Bro man, I wanna do that!” Niara jolts her hand to call them. “Ay yo! Are y’all riding one of those things?” Trevor mouths through, “I guess we are!” “How the hell come did I not know, I wanna ride on one!” “I didn’t even know, the guy literally just snapped his fingers and then, alley oop, we’re off the ground now!” “Man!” “Ma’am!” she gets the call interrupted, “are ya gonna do it or not?” She splits her view in between the objectives, while Trevor struggles to straighten his voice, He yells to the man controlling the fossil, “Through the theater of time!” Suddenly, he can feel a massive thud beneath him, as he and Drao bellow deeper into the dark, deep belly of a dry, misty tunnel. The footsteps clunker around the burrow, while Drao exclaims each hobble of the fossil’s gait. “I’m not, where is this beast going to take us?” “I have no idea, but whatever it is, I bet it’s going to be sick! Holy s**t!” “For thousands, millions, billions of years, we have lived our lives in the comfort of the thralls of society and civilization, indulging in the luxuries of on demand food, entertainment, and housing! But that was not the case when these primevals took their first steps!” a draconic howl screeches behind them, before the fossil begins to run, inching from a crawling jog to a rushing, unrelenting sprint to catch another meal, talons dig and drum the ground, the raw strength of their legs push and tear the tarry air apart. Suddenly, an unholy siren of a lion, a jet engine, a demon, and a synthboard shrouds the room, pressing, digging its bombastic teeth into the Drao’s and Trevor’s barren ears. The black breaks away into a beautiful horizon, with trees, bushes, birds, even bigger colossals decorating the passing skyway, the break neck speed of the fossil strips and skins their viewing experience to a mere visage. “How the f**k.” Another primal snarl beckons out of the predator, this time to its comrade to the right. A growl barks inbetwixt, a conversation brews. The howls, roars, calls, and caws the discourse into a solid bridge. The voice comes back “These animals had only their grunts and voices, they had no infrastructure. No phones, no newspapers, not even a single bit of mail was there for them to pick up. If they wanted it, they had to give it themselves, they didn’t hold back.” Another snarl jets out of the dinosaur, before the one Trevor and Drao were riding on hammers the other with their head. “No cooking or heat, no advances like freezers to keep their catches from getting stale. If they were starving, if they needed to chug, they had to get it. They had to fight for it.” The beasts keep flinging their heads at each other before two of their brothers shove their teeth deep into their neck. A whimper pants out, acquiting their shared malice, before their prey missiles out of the shade of a cave, bobbing and weaving through trees and forests, predators rummage and haul through the fauna. “If they missed and failed to catch their prey, they had to starve. If they lost their meal to another, faster animal, they had to starve.”
Trevor sees the little raptor scurrying like a motorbike through the plains, to get their hunters off their back. “All these animals had at their side, was their grit and resolve. They had only two choices. Survive or die.” The raptor chugs and springs across the scenery, tossing and dodging rivers and ravines until they finally meet the plains again. The dinosaurs leaves the safety of the heavy, hefty forest and catch up to the raptor, only to find something much, much bigger than they were. It was a elephant, rhino, hippo hybrid, with barbed horned antlers and a thick, robust whip for a tail. Air blows out of its nostrils like a buffalo, and trumpeted like a war horn. There was only one problem, it was alone. “This is a time before society. A time before civilization. A time before civility. Welcome to the prehistoric. Welcome to the wild!” The predators gave out a razored, sharp, ear shattering siren before they jumped an assault together. Claws slice, teeth bite, digging deep and slow into the ankles of the Mastodon. Animals scream and wounds draw, a whip snaps and slashes a loud, angry line straight through Trevor’s and Drao’s beast. They let out their last, defiant breath, before their head and chest falls for one last time. The vistas and visages cut to black. Nothing. “What’s going on now?” Drao asks, The black splits again, this time to reveal the cold, dead silence, of winters, summers, springs, and falls passing by the fallen carcass. Trevor notices how the skin and flesh, the muscle was rotting away. The blackness dies away, blinded and eroded away by the prominent, warm lights of a showcase room. Drao and Trevor spy around, trying to find any subtle clues to where they are, before a clock face gazes in front of them. Their hands read “Chrono Theater.” “Talk about a way of presenting yourself.” Drao says. They disband the dinosaur, moving to the open floor. It was reflective and a purplish, introspective neon blue, it broke and bleeds through like a lantern in the night. Trevor pulls out his phone, “Niara? You there? Niara?” Drao wanders further into the dark, contemplative shallows of the location. There were little slivers of silver that danced on the roof of the place, similar to that of a pond’s reflection. His footsteps seeps and paddles across the scape. Small neon dots and pixels flutter, with the same neon purple lights swindling and curving around the layers and contours of the theater’s architecture. He shows up in the interior of a very bulbous, long, globe. He takes another step, noticing the random lack of purple neon lights established earlier in the design, now walking through a massive, dim corridor. Lights blister on, and the entire stage near Drao splashes, sprashes, and flashes him. “Ah!” he trips and falls onto the floor, noticing his hands chilling. The ice was glossy and glassy. He looks up. Blue skies, blue horizons, blue water. There were no clouds. The snow was slick, a faint hue of clear frost flutters from it. “What?” he checks the ice again, the dark water behind the ice flags Drao’s face in front of him, a distraught and confused portrait looks back at him. He brings himself back up. “What? Where am I?” Drao notices the body of a dying animal, before breaking wind to get to it. He slides to his knees and checks the animal, closing his eyes. Drao caresses and strokes the fur of the tiger, still examining for any wounds. Drao feels a prominent snout and very smooth, tapered ears, similar to that of a tiger. A vision tampers with his reality, the icy ledge disappeared, it was only him, snow, and the body. “Their heart’s still beating, they’re still breathing.” Drao scans. The position of the animal next to a body of water got his attention. He heats some of the water and directs it to the open mouth of the predator. The eyes hop open, they cough and spot Drao at their side. They growl. Drao flashes infernal daggers from his hands. The beast staggers back. Their tongue tastes the lukewarm water that stung it, and locates the river it was fighting to reach. Their eyes lock on to Drao, yet their mouth delivers them the sweet nectar of water. Drao puts the daggers away. He checks his hands. He pops his eyes up again, before noticing how clean and seamless the alien arctic was. He notices his bare arms, the marks on them. He wrangles his hands over them, the clinging of talons broke by the natural, homely feeling of their placement. He hates it, but they can’t help but stay lugged deep. He balls his pupil down. There was no actual damage to the animal. It was just lying on its side, eyes shut, stomach open to the air. “Three hundred billion years ago, at a time before any civilization had ever appeared.” a voice bangs out, “This planet was a marvel of ancient wild beauty.” Suddenly, the tiger’s eyes open, demonic diamonds and lines pounces out through the cold air, the body launches towards Drao. “Ah!” The tiger digs its claws onto the snow, and reels for another attack “The Jackcat is one of these beauties. A strong, fierce carnivore, the native range of these animals typically reside within arctic and taiga circles, as you can see with this one.” The tiger jumps again, Drao’s foot whips the ground, a crack and a shakliifman whirls through the air. Drao lands right on his feet, the glossy frost drags him, while the tiger runs towards him again. “In the cold climates of Glacias, the Jackcat has many adaptations to help it survive in the arctic, including but not limited to: paws and claws designed to maximize traction on low friction surfaces, high volume acoustics to break and damage ice structures.” The tiger shrieks, Drao’s ears quiver in pain, before it takes advantage and swings its jagged, razor tail at Drao. “A tail designed to cut and incise through the ice to create breathing holes.” Drao points his foot and jets rightward, flinging his foot as a counter attack. The animal rolls over and goes for another assault, Drao registers and perceives something. He juts his arm and the Tiger goes to slash, before the image suddenly cuts to the tiger ending the attack, and Drao getting pushed to the floor. “Agh, huh?” The tiger takes the window and jumps to attack Drao. He rolls over and rockets his foot into the shin of the virtual tiger. They scream, and scramble away from Drao. Drao pants. No hot air whistles out of his mouth. He straightens up and looks around. He bends his knees and jumps his gaze towards the water. He pokes it, a glassy, ice road hexes upon his touch. He stands and puts his foot on it. The hexes formulate. His body motions forward, an ice path draws.
-- -- A target lies in front of Niara. An army of corn plushies stand beside her. “You want the corn plushies. Don’t you?” the vendor asks “I only wanted one. But okay.” she speaks, her eyes and face still tied flat to the obstacle in front of her, “I’ll help you win this stupid thing.” Time slows, her eyes watches as the faint flickers of the light illuminate the dust specks hazing through. The white flash converges and punches the dummy back a thousand meters, before two more blaring bullets bash the target. She couldn’t even see herself what just happened, only the smoking gun’s sight at eye level. “Goddamn. Remind me to not.” they get cut by her plopping the gun on the table. “Alright, am I done?” “Have em all!” Niara stares up. The mountain of plushies stares down. “You want a plastic bag to go with that?” they grin ear to ear with their offer.
-- -- Drao sits on a deserted rock, in the middle of a virtual desert. “Trevor? Are you there?” “Yeah, what’s up?” Trev says He looks around. Nothing but sand, sand, and more sand. “Where might you be?” “I’m on a tropical island, I think.” “Mm. Can you give me a room number? Or exhibit numeral?” “I can try, I’m in display hall 18.” Drao unholsters his phone. It was unique, it was a solid black glass pane, with a piece of metal on the end. “So I can just bend the glass into a bracelet?” he does just that and wraps it around the arm, a satisfying clink pops. The screen bubbles on, the word hello bounces away to greet Drao, leaving behind the UI for him. “Hah. Heh, what has trialed since my previous appearance?” He taps the map and it opens on the back of his wrist, he swipes up and a holographic display of the map hovers above his hand. His feet start traversing. He looks up, a beautiful constellation appears on the ceiling. “Well that’s a wondrous sight.” he stands up and wanders the dusty plains, examining and sprawling the place with his vision. He kicks the dust forward. “I have many questions as to how this place works. I have many questions about a lot of things, nothing wishes to give me any answers, so.” He continues on to an oasis. Animals of many kinds, insects the size of gloves, lions the size of bears, bears the size of elephants drink from it. “Chrono theater? Is it only preutopic times, or is it a many times forehand, it’s just this one that’s most heavy in intrigue? Hm.” Drao stands his stare up. Still sand. “Am I even going the direction I’m supposed to? I swear I’ve seen these trees already.” He pushes aside some more foliage, spotting a neat, parched rock. Water, he admires the sound of it rushing down, following and trailing through the vast fauna. “How far down is this?” He tries to poke the ground, to discover there was indeed nothing, he was poking the air. “Very far then.” he sits and scooches, to a ramp below. Something steals his breath. Whether it be the impossible prehistoric portrait of the jungle’s landscape, or the fact it was made possible, Drao had to stop. “Where’s Niara? She needs to see this. She has to see this.” He selects and swipes up on his bracelet and puts his finger to his ear. “Niara, do you hear me?” -- -- “Where are you?” Niara says. She ganders through the high roads of the slick neon city. “Is it possible to estimate?” “I guess the Chrono Theater, but y’alls did kinda disappear in a tunnel, so.” “Yes, I apologize about that.” “Ah, it’s fine, just give me a warning next time you move. .” She leans over on a glass rail. “Heh, check this out.” she says, snapping a photo. Drao sees the photo. It was a view of a sector of the city, sparkling and clean strips of light run and race through the place on rails and roads, shiny dots illuminating the streets as lamps, signages of restaurants and stores bleed through the dark, with bone and water sculptures skewed about the place. “That is very spectacular, where are you, where did you get this?” “Near the Baroque Train Station, I just saw this terrace and the view it gives. I wanted to show you it.” A silence brews between their digital conversation. “Hm. heh, that is quite the view, you are right. But now, I want a turn. Come to me. I’ve got something to show you.” he texts “You know you can just snap me a photo right?” she interjects, “On this thing? How?” “There should be an app.” “But where do I point the lens?” Drao taps the camera app and sees an image. He moves his bracelet hand, before he covers the lens with his other hand, spotting the lens location. He then points his hand towards the view and taps a button below the screen. “Did I get it?” he asks, The photo was semi blurry, and the angle was tilted a bit, but nonetheless, it was a photo. He sends it to Niara. “This alright?” She glance at it, toothing her lip. “How about I show you, once I get there.” “Is it that atrocious?” “Wha, pbbft, it ain’t atrocious. It’s just alright. Look, just give me a min to get there.” She pulls up a map to spot a titanic plaza in front of her, where the skull of a giant resides. “The map says it should be right here. I don’t see it.” The black inside the skull’s mouth invites her, a deep ingress with escalators greets her. She keels her body lower to spy a clock. “Wait really?” A white, bulbous set of twirls branch out away from the skull of the beast. “Wait, no way this is the theater. I thought it be something more tame, considering what it is. Man, the architects here really are hardcore.” She enters the escalators, seeing the light die to a more sinister purple. “Wait, is this a mall?” store signs pass her while she came down the escalators. “Wait, am I even in the right place? The hell? Is that an arcade?” Beeps, boops, and pews glitter and jitters out the cabinets and a holographic arena next to her. “Isn’t this supposed to be a museum, wha?” Finally, her foot steps away from the escalators. A title sign naming the place and a pavilion leading to another entrance it shows in front of her, as well as another set of escalators and elevators sit at her right and left. “The simulation arcade.” she gets closer to a map, showing differing programs being simulated at once with dots, . “Red underline equals new ay? Well, I guess I’ll be experiencing history in two ways today. Let’s see.” She eyes the sign. A teen holds their finger above one of the dots and a prompt shows up. Niara copies and some text asks “Do you wish to join a sim in progress?” “Uhh, no. Wait.” She pulls her phone out, “Wait, what’s your group name?” Drao wrist rings, “What? Group name? I don’t understand what you mean?” “What?” “You should consult Trevor, I clearly am not the right man to speak in regards to this.” “I, okay.” She switches contacts, “Yo! Trev, what’s your group number?” “Yeah, I wanna join.” Trevor takes a second, dodging monkeys and jaguars. “Can you try to figure out the hud thing? I don’t know how I got here. I’ve got literal f*****g these things on my a*s!” Trev sends a photo. It was a photo of a one hundred and twenty limbed and eyed ape, with teeth sharper than glass, with a caption reading: “Lmao, what is that?” “Oh my, what is your code!” “I don’t know. I tried to open it with my phone, but it just shows me a map! Well two of them, but I don’t know where to find my… wait, it’s PSXA11” She types the code and taps the first, red underline she sees and barges into the entrance, passing the purple black room. Her foot catches onto a root, tripping and rolling her down a hill. She tumbles back to a standing position, registering she had alerted a clan of predatory tiger bears to her position. Her hand goes for her handgun, only for her to stop it. “Wait” the bears pounces, before she lunges a mean kick herself, her heel sledges the bears face. She pounds the bears paw with her own, jabs at the snout and neck, before bulleting its face into a tree. she catches and tosses a bear away from her, before she runs. Scaling, ricocheting, bouncing, and dashing all the way through the various types of terrain, as she perceives the bears giving up on her. A hill shows up, she rebounds into a simple, low slide, curving and swerving through the forest, before she rotates and jumps off a tree heading into her. Wait, how am I flying right now? She sees a hillside, and scales through it, before she rolls back onto the ground. “Whoo!” she howls out, before she enters another sprint, this time her leaps send her out of the forest and into the vast sandy plains, and a nice clean shoreline for her background. Something pulsates in her, in a badass rhythm, pumping and drumming to a complex system of beats. Raptors chase after her, before she dashes and twirl kicks sand all around behind her. The sediments fly into the eyes of the predators, they realize she already lost them. Her legs and body begin to flail around. Her heart starts to heed her mind. “Hohkay, I get it.” she stops for a minute, “Heh. Nice beach.” “Yeah. It’s nice.” “Oh.” Niara exclaims, “you dealt with them, then?” “Yeah. Guess so.” They look at the sun. “Damn that’s pretty.” “Do you know where Drao’s thing, apparently he has something better.” “It’s XBX490.” Alphas answers. “Huh?” “I matched Drao’s genomic biometrics with the sim programs that were active. That’s how the arcade tracks what programs you’re in.” “Gracias Alph.” “I’m glad to be a help.” Trevor gestures for a menu to slide to the right of him. “Wait, you figured it out?” “Oh, yeah, Alphas showed me how after the little ape thing.” Trevor puts his finger on his helmet. “So what’s up after this?” “I guess the parade and that’s it. Work time.” Trevor sighs. “Man, that’s rough. But I mean hey though, we did have fun, right?” “Heh, yeah, I guess so. Still wish I could’ve ridden on that skeleton though, that would’ve been so wicked. And see more of the city, and hung with y’all at the arcade. Instead I buried myself in past trauma and enough corn plushes to go to war with. Yay me.” Niara pouts. “Oh. Yeah sorry about that.” “What, oh no, I didn’t mean it like that.” “I know, I know. I, s**t. I don’t know what else to say.” Drao speaks, “Hello? Trevor, is that you?” “Yeah. It’s, it’s me. I’m coming to call because I’ve linked our worlds together. Uhh, where are you? You can hold a phone and it will tell you where we are. Oh wait, I could’ve done that. Eh, uh, where are you, right now?” “I think I am at some sort of mesa, savannah, jungle hybrid biome. There’s quite a fascinating ecosystem here, if that interests you.” “What’s around you.” “I’m not too far from the waterfall I showed to Niara.” -- -- The city feels like a stylized history museum at night.Finished monuments of fossilized creatures stood tall on their quartz pillars, with warm lights and orange water painting and waving lines over the city streets, holographic sculptures and monuments dance, small spouts of water fountaining in small pools near the statues. Other bones and flanges stack or entangle themselves to form tall street lamps, and bushes divide the two streets, crowded with people pushing in both directions, like waves in a sea. “Yep. That’s a sight.” Niara says as they view from above. “So what should I do?” He asks, phone bracelet in his hands. “So there’s a rule, well, not really like a rule but a recommendation, called the ‘rule of thirds.’ basically, imagine the screen is divided into three vertical lines, and two horizontal.” She puts the screen up to his face and puts the subject of the city’s archeological and skeletal theme near the center. “You generally want to put your focal point near the center, like this.” The image autofocuses: Clearer and sharper than diamond, more illustrious than gold, the visage strikes a hard, personable pose. Drao taps the button. “Oh, some camera apps have it where it will take a second before the photo is actually taken. Usually, they have an indicator to tell you when the app has captured the shot, like the screen flashing white or something, or the shutter button appearing white again, but yeah, just so you know.” Drao puts his phone down. “Did I take a good photo?” he taps the image gallery. A pretty sight, like it was a photo for an art gallery, “Hell yeah. That’s a great photo.” Drao scans his landscape. “Actually, I have an idea. What if we did a group photo?” “Hoh s**t, yea totally! Yo Trev, wanna take a photo?” He looks back and approaches, nodding on the way. “Selfie or-” “Selfie? Sure.” “Okay, who has the longest hand here.” “I could do it.” Trevor lends his hand and grabs the phone, before the nanites stretch Trevor’s reach a few feet away from their face, the back camera stares at them. “We ready?” Niara nods, “Drao, you?” “With absolution.” “Alright, on three.” Niara says, “One.” Trevor speaks, ignites the flame, “Two.” Followed by Drao’s tranquil, narratory fuse, “Three.” With Niara’s resolute spark. Snap! A trill of white blinks flash on the camera’s lens. “How are they?” Niara asks, seeing the photos. “I’d say they’re pretty damn good.” Trevor shows them. A smirk draws, “that’s for certain, damn.” she pushes herself forward, and leads them out. “Come on!” -- -- Drao observes the skeletons. “Interesting.” he says in a tone of disdain and curiosity, “Do all of these come from fossils?” Drao asks, while he walks by a banner hanging from a horned skull palace. “No. They’re made from similar material to the bone, however.” Alphas states. “Mm. They’re able to replicate the material with the printers? Incredible.” Drao strokes a pillar, feeling a small roughness itch his finger. Niara sighs, “I wish I had a camera. I really wish I had my camera.” Trevor gazes up and around, the night sky gazes back at him. Lights dance and blitz through the simple dark. He sees a staircase made of ribs escalating them to a higher walkway, before spotting a moving walkway under and right adjacent to him, “So I got some directions. Apparently, the parade will take a left here and cut through Leisure District.” Drao says A line arrows through the city roads “Thanks Alph.” “Sweet, so when should we expect it to show up?” “Mm, the brochure detailed that it should arrive at around 7-8 pm, accounting for previous parade. It is currently 7:54, so we’re definitely on time.” Niara and Trevor lean over to see a light show housing the entire rainbow. Floats of dancers, nanomachines, androids, and animatronics color the ground with neon feathers, petals of flame, or arcane displays laser light magic. Machines, a triumphant blare razes the crowds of the city, flooring everyone with alien, yet symphonic, technic and synthetic chords glaze each step and breath of the machines. The walking skeletons and fossils had a shared relative with the fossil in the museum, but with clear elegance and executive beastly peace as their superlative talent. They roam and pedal the roads of the city. The machines whips and rips another bovine bray, a tuba horn cuts and gushes the streets. “Holy.” “Shiiit. Now that-” Niara’s speech is cut, as suddenly, shiny, tropical laser spines lash and jut out the back of the robot, before they split and whirl into neon wings. The dancers sync their rhythm with the beats of the wings tango, a cardiac tempo forms with each step. Niara’s on the floor. “Hoh, my vroi!” Trevor glances, “I wouldn’t be surprised. Aren’t y’alls known for your just, out of this world light shows?” “Yes. Yes we are.” Something prideful tones behind his voice, almost pepping him up to smile, but something sets him aloft. “But with all of this choreography, attention to mechanics, their ecstatic, eclectic movements, it feels familiar yet.” Drao stares at the dancers, their vigor and talent burning through and along their flame and sturdy footing. Something nicks Drao’s, dragging his sight down to his arm, a sinister black band glowing a small red dot grafted into his skin. “Oh. The collars, right.” A sigh tumbles out of Drao; he walks off the platform to get a better angle to see the show in front of him, The actors move and strike the ground, a sword of tulip yellow brandishes and brashes the air, before it flags to the ground. A small device strapped to the dancer’s wrist exposes themself to Drao, before the hand spouts out another laser. “It’s not soulless, it’s just, it’s like they’re only imitating what it is like to kindle, to spark.” he continues to observe, “They’re really trying. I know they do not actually care about cultural or spiritual accuracy, they are making their own style. Ugh, what am I even saying anymore. It’s like they’re being held back, pushed back. It’s so close to the original forms, yet so.” The actor juts his hand high, a furious scorch rushes and cinders through the air, like veins throbbing in and out with blood, before he drags the flames down the middle, lights and shine bespeckle through the air. A curtain pulls back, archs and hills approach, the flamethrower actor bows, before rolling into a bridge pose, opening a new path. A new actor jets, ricochets, and twirl off the decoration to land on their feet perfectly. The crowd loses their minds. “Not.” Drao finishes. “I mean, they do say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” “Yes, I understand your statement. But this is not just flattery. This is not just repetition either, this is a differing style. It feels raw from the heart, like something from a Balkhorava celebration. It feels different, not that it’s a bad thing.” “Hang on, if I may, what is a Balkhorava?” “Hm? Oh, did the translator not pick up?” “There’s not an equivalent in the lingual archives. Or the ANI software did not come to a local alternative.” Alphas interjects Drao thinks, “I can explain, Balkhorava are ceremonies that typically involve dancing, bright lights, wonderful food, colorful shows, that can occur on very special occasions, although this term is referent to the ‘coming of age’ event. Certain cultures on our world may go through this when members reach a certain age, or a certain stage of their development. Now, there are many variants of Balkhorava. In fact, the term itself, originally, was in allusion to the Deysahje variant of the dances. However, interestingly, this term became more and more generalized in its use, and a new definition was made for it in time. Besides the point.” He glances at his wrist. The collars grafted into his skin. “And now, we insist to be trapped behind some puny device. That we have to hide ourselves. We have to blend in, we can’t stand out.” Trevor looks away from Draovilich. “They say that we should move onto different things, whatever that’s supposed to mean.” he turns to face Trevor. “Of course, I get it. Our ancestors were definitely not the most pure in their hearts. They committed horrid acts of war and crimes beyond any would deem ever acceptable, but then again, so was everyone in those times. Yet, to condemn an entire race and species, just because of the actions of a few? And I feel sometimes, they're mocking us, spitting on our graves, killing us, beating us, purposefully appropriating and perverting our culture, our ways of living. Trying to turn our struggles into nothing but comedy acts.” he stares down, cold and long. Trevor winces from his expressions. “I get what you mean. The Seraphim, they made us look like savages. Monkeys who just figured out that you can get out of a planet if you have enough kinetic energy. Everywhere at school, at work, everything would be on the table to be bullied for. Money, religious ideals, what my face and skin looks like, being blamed for s**t that happened to them, just because I shared the same race as the perpetrators, just because I would be an easy target to get popular from. I mean, who can blame them, the Seraphim steam rolls and genocides against anyone who stands in their way, aliens and humans alike. Obviously, s**t isn’t the same, but I couldn’t help but relate to you.” They both go silent. “I take up something once, that I thought would help people, that I thought could bring people together, but instead I just hurt more people. I feel like dirt in the wind, just scuffing everything up. I feel like I dishonored myself, what it means to be a sage.” Trevor’s focus readjusts to the reflection on his visor. “Jeez. I wanted to be a Cosmonautical Engineer, to be a shipwright, just like my father and mother. To pursue the life, the wonderful legacy they had. But then I ruined it. I’m alone, because of my mistakes. Even when I think I’m making things better, when I think I’m doing the right thing, to finally pursue my life’s passion, I still think I ended up hurting someone or something in the end. I still feel remorse for that c**t of a boss.” he hesitates, “but I am reminded of every single thing that she did and said to me, but at the same time, I also remember some of the s**t that happened to her, what she tried to reel me with. I did the right thing. I know it, but, still wish I could’ve given her a better life. Then again.” he says out loud Niara approaches, leaning over the balcony with Drao and Trevor. “Hey. Uh, just wanted to say hi.” Drao and Trevor just casually stares at her, “Ah, s**t, did I interrupt something?” A single chuckle wanders out of Trevors “I’m just talking about how I quit my job again. The one that I had before I joined Bixvah and Livo. Haven’t I told you this before?” “Yeah. Are you still blaming yourself?” Trevor shys away from Niara’s gaze. “Yeah. I guess that hasn’t changed.” “Yo!” The three of them turned to the voice. “Human! What’s your opinion on space Fregklak?” “I… what?” Trevor asks, “Fregklak. You know, the new music genre playing nowadays. It’s really popular among humans, didn’t y’alls invent it?” “Uh, no? I don’t know anything about it” “Ah, I just wanted to know your opinion on it. I can’t understand it, the notes and instrumentation is too loud for me to hear any of what the singers are saying. Oh, no not to mention, the way the drummers annihilate the rhythm. I just don’t get it, can you help me?” “I, uh, I don’t listen to that. I listen to whatever actually. It’s weird, game soundtracks, indie artists, and mashups on Decky is what I get into. It’s super random, but tbh, I like all of the stuff there.” “Wait Decky? Isn’t that like a corporate hell thing?” “Yeeeaaa, I have a hacked variant.” “Ohhh. Wait so it has off screen play too?” “You bet. Literally just look up Decky GPK and it will show you that.” “Yo, didn’t know you dabbled in piracy.” Niara says “I mean, as much as the developers need more support, SO play shouldn’t be a f*****g paid thing. Anyway there are better apps out there, but I like Decky’s variety. Anyway. What’s up next?” Trevor glances at his visor. 20:30 (8:30 pm), with a barely chilly 20.5 degrees celsius (69 degrees fahrenheit) was the weather for the evening “It’s getting late, we should probably get to the actual objective of this mission.” Trevor speaks to Niara. “I mean, we just have to not take forever, you know what I mean?” “Yeah, but still. Better that we actually get the job done now, before we goof more.” Niara shrugs and agrees, Drao stares at the scenery with his diamond pupils. The chantings of different languages, the music and melodies originating from the dancers and performances below distorts into a shaded gray, unaligned tint, until the singers and the scenery become blurby and blurry. A familiar note pierces through the parade, -- -- -- A war trumpet shrieks through, a lined echelon of soldiers stood with long rifles and muskets in their hands. Volleys of bullets and slugs raze the grazing air and grass. The commander yells another command, the infantry’s launches another hail, with several other rifles rotating from up to straight to slice the open field “Godforsake it!” Drao’s hand draws a furious purple blade to scythe the grass and trees. His hand leaps down, his eyes’s veins grew bright white as hell passes his head, as a nuclear amount of of burning air hurls and holocausts the savannah, fire and azul swirls and punches the armies kilometers away. Bullets melt. Drao crunches his fist, a thin, but tall, 200 kilometer demon’s tail pounds the middle of the arena, before he fists forward and detonates the wall into a volcanic fireball. He stares back, he sees the parasites, insects crawling, digging about the soldier’s body limps to the ground, blood everywhere. Drao swipes an orange heap of searing air before he lifts the man and escapes. “Stay with me, stay with me!” -- -- “Draovilich!” He yelps, only to realize it was Niara calling him, her face a little shocked as well. “Oh, my apologies.” “Are you fine, let’s go.” “Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s go.” -- -- The sun is up, and Draovilich’s tongue slicks a big scoop of ice cream. “Perhaps I do, but then again, who is currently enjoying a scoop of ice cream right now, and who is not?” Niara curls her eyes at him, “Whatever, you’re still paying for my next lunch whether you like it or not.” “Okay, but seriously how are we going to do this, are we.” Trevor stops his thought. A yard of bones, ribs, teeth, and skull fragments bespeckled the earth. “Going to split up?” Drao walks towards, bones strutting out of the ground, his eyes glittering with wonder, and ponder. A small candle flints on Drao’s thumb. “Scratch marks, about a few centimeters deep.” He feels up the skull, before examining the scene. Raised dirt and mud, old trees dissolving into the dirt, overturned corpses of bushes, with the bones laying in the dirt next to the trees. “A duel might have been fought here.” “How do you know? oh.” Niara says, reading off a small post that was literally a centimeter to the right of her. Drao points his finger at the skeleton. “It looks like two animals were trying to compete for a mate. One of them died with a punctured chest, their ribs were carved by another’s claws. Looks like the other bled out from their smaller wounds.” “Sheesh, talk about a lopsided relationship.” Niara says, a small wedged opening in the forest piques Draovilich’s interest. “We are getting closer to your destination of interest, correct? Tracks here too.” sneaking through the opening. a battleground of nature laid before him, a small smirk draws. “Now, that’s peculiar.” Drao strides to the fossils, Trevor and Niara standing behind. “A pack of animals were fighting off a bigger beast, similar to what we saw in the simulation dome. They probably fought in packs, but they kept succumbing to something. I am unsure what the larger creature, but whatever it was… whatever it was, it looks like they were.” he takes another observation of the pathways of the wolves. “They kept their attacks brunt and raw, like they were throwing themselves. They seem to originate and avoid a certain location, in fact off of it. They were trying to protect something.” he gets close, eyes scrutinize and scan every little detail. Sharp fangs shining in the sun light. “Beautiful fangs. I’m surprised this planet hasn’t tried to dig them out and sell them. Seems like they care about some of their fossils.” Drao continues to run backwards into the forest. Niara pulls out her tomahawk and starts pushing some of the fauna around. “Yo! Dude, what the hell! This is like an ancient fauna you’re f*****g with. Trevor says, “The fauna are getting in the way. Besides, it’s not like I can just jump constantly off the trees, since these bushes stretch for miles.” Niara pushes forward, with Trevor jogging behind. -- --
“Maybe it’s something you haven’t considered.” Niara says “And that’s true, it could be territory.” Drao, Niara, and Trevor’s thoughts drop off a cliff. An audience of manying different animal corpses painted the ground, leading up to a blackened crop in the center. Drao investigates one of the bodies lying next to his feet, noticing small circular fractures in the skeletons. “Those are not bite wounds. Those are-” “Bullet holes.” Niara finishes “What the hell?” Trevor asks Alphas booms, Trevor bounces a few steps back. “Everyone, be on alert, you’re in range of lidar and camera surveillance from a Titan excursion.” “S**t Alph, that scared the hell out of me.” “Understood. However, Titan Faction activity here is high. Stay alert. ” “Okay, well as long as we’re in where we’re supposed to be, we’ll be fine and they’ll ignore us.” Niara says. Trevor approaches the dead plant, his brain in a hamster wheel. “What happened here. And why?” He sees a loud, blaring glare of light. His hands turn to nanite gloves and digs a bit of the dirt away. It was a singular, conserved bullet. “And why, this has escalated?” Trevor stands up and away from the fossils “And this isn’t the only one? Omniscient is seen throughout this whole biome.” Trevor whispers to Niara. “Well. Guess I should probably pack some heat.” she digs through her bag to pull out her machine pistol, ripping the charging handle back to chamber a round. The two of them begin their traversal away, but Drao’s eyes were still locked on the crop. “Drao? Are we moving or?” “You said there was a base here right?” Trevor and Niara stares at Draovilich. “Uh, yes, but that’s not what we’re gonna do here, uh, we got an entire different thing.” “I know, I know, know, I acknowledge. But, you said you worked for them right? You were worked as a mercenary, correct?” “Uh. Sure, I did. Yeah. Uh, if you’re thinking about making me fish out possibly classified information.” “I know that’s off the table. My question is though, they have never faced a man who can kindle before, right?” Niara’s face scrunches up a little. “No? I don’t like what you’re suggesting.” He looks at her with a really uncharacteristic smirk, and winks. “Wait, no what the f**k, you’re not doing that. Absolutely f*****g not, you’re not doing that, you’re not going to infiltrate their f*****g HQ for, what are you even.” “I will be right back.” “Hey hey, wait a minute!” “Okay, okay, I understand, right I should specify. All I’m going to do, is infiltrate their base.” “No, absolutely not, seriously. We, I am, you are not, we are absolutely not going a f*****g inch in a f*****g human campaign base.” “I am infiltrating, not we. Just I. You both and I will rendezvous” “No. We are not. Trevor, you hate the idea right?” “Yeah, uh I don’t think this is a good idea.” “Yeah, and I hate the idea, and it looks like the democratic vote has won.” “But here’s the thing, we’re going to the archival servers just to grab information on the omniscient, right? Well, which would require us to navigate a supposedly super advanced military force without detection, something that would much more difficult. Consider the advantage I hold, I hold the ability to spark and kindle. I have something they’ve never seen before.” “Yeah, but you know what other advantage you have, f*****g common sense and the fact that you’re still breathing right now. Dude, Titan and all the other human campaigns factions have level 4 armor piercing bullets.” “What? What’s that supposed to mean!” “It means that their weapons can f*****g kill tanks! And I’m talking f*****g infantry issued here! We, and by we, I mean you are not gambling fate against a significantly superior force!” Drao pulls his hands up. A bright orange glow bursts through the air. “But they’ve never seen fire like before.” Drao whispers “Oh, yes they have, and I assure you they can toss it back to you ten thousand times more than anything you have ever seen! You are not going survive!” “Yes, but some of that information comes from a lack of openmindedness. I believe that this information is not reliable, considering it comes from an honorably discharged, biased source.” “You what? Hey what the-” A small flash evaporates Drao into thin air, with only the leaves trailing and running in the wind. Niara and Trevor exchanging expressions. “Are you, what the? F*****g s**t!” Niara charges into the forest. Trevor gives chase. -- -- War Games“Understood. Peripheral team moving in on intrusion sector, activating investigation in progress. ” A duo of fireteams sweep the area. “Keep comms open and sightlines free, report all new details. Stay sharp.” “Any idea of what we’re dealing with?” “Three contacts, that’s all they’ve got. That’s probably why we’re here. South West Sector-18, FT 29 and 31 finds no activity, flagging sitewide assets with a possible software error. Recommend enhancement of resources in surveillance on activity zones, as well as all nearby proximity paths to base.” Suddenly, a garbled mess leaves their helmets, causing some birds to fly away. The garbled mess enhances to an actual dialect, a combination of greek, italian, english, norwegian, german, navajo, maorian leaves their heads. Then the new dialect resets to the 2000s english dialect. The squad leader’s dialogue dies out, as Trevor’s hand lets go of the top of a cave. “We should get moving.” Niara sighs, looking around at the damp, night black cave. “For someone who was a scientist, this was absolutely f*****g dumb decision. Now we have Titan on us.” Niara spits out Something silver spots out in the blotchy darkness of the cave. He matches gazes with Niara and points to the silver object. Enclosing the space. Niara looked up to see barbed wire, security cameras, gun turrets, multiple keep-out signs, a titanic vault door, “Well, that’s one way to get people curious.” Niara jests Trevor activates his scanner, and peeks through the gaps, “Looks like an entrance.” “With the amount of security, it might as well be the main one.” Niara says, before noticing Drao peeking through the other side of the fence as well, “What the hell? Hey, Drao!” Trevor’s jolts and tosses himself closer to Niara. “S**t, he’s in!” “There’s like a large cylindrical thing, surrounding something, I don’t know what it is.” “What do you think?” “It’s probably trouble.” “Alright, be on standby, get the Skylancer and Leviathan into port if s**t gets to s**t.” “No, I am not doing that.” “Why not? You’re human, they’re going to kill you on sight if they see you!” “I don’t care, I am not leaving anyone behind.” Niara spots Drao getting in the facility, his hands tap two gunmetal bars before ripping them off, the bars’ ends melt and wroughts into a right angle, before he pushes in, “Wait, yo wait!” She spots the cameras, before she scurries into her bag, when an abrupt puff of smoke distends the area around them. “Hey wait, what the!” Trevor grabs her without a second to waste and leaps over the gate, the cameras bombarded with gas and mist. His armor forms around Trevor completely as they barge into the base. The air clears up, Niara realizes. “Hey yo, what!” Trevor sees and puts her down “You good.” “I, yeah, but what about you?” “I’m fine, let’s go!” “Hey wait!” Niara chases after Trevor, the darkness gets to her. “Bro, what, where are we going?” Footsteps dwell deeper and louder and deeper and louder, until she trips. Trevor juts his hand out to grab her, before someone calls out, “Niara!” “Eyes on us, don’t move!” Alphas patches into their radio, “Nearby, we need support and follow up on contact’s behind.” “Roger.” Trev looks back. “Intruder one has been contained and identified, Trevor Barros.” “Answer our questions, what are you here for?” Radio cuts the space of silence, “Peripheral accords that he has been in numerous engagements involving hijack attempts of sensitive information regarding the Omniscient.” The soldiers perk their heads. Trevor’s eyes peer to find Niara, but all he found was a dark patch of cave. -- -- She pulls her eyes open. “Where the f**k?” Nothing but cold stone and deep, murky blackness greets her. She shakes her head, and strains her eyes to find a source of light. “Where am I?” She grabs her tomahawk and pushes herself up. Echoes whether by foot, or by her axe tumble and domino all over the space. Her eyes catch onto a single line of light channeling through the cave. She scurrows through her bag, pulling out armor and her weapons. Sighing, she puts the plating on and draws her machine pistol, checking the chamber. Round in. The corridor is silent, with only droplets of water tickling the brutish grey walls. Her eyes spy far. She aims down the pistol sight and zooms in. A spartan emblem on the side of a metallic cylinder rests upon the sight’s carrot reticle, as well as a small light beneath. “There’s an end.” She pushes herself up and walks towards the edge. A faint red hue flashes in the walls of the cave, with a hum purring. “Goddammit. Why can’t anything go right? S**t. First, my friends, my squadmates, my family, am I going to repeat history?” Droplets continue to pitter and patter the length of the path. A giant step echoes, Niara’s ears perk, her pistol’s stock shoves her shoulder The cave behind her looks empty as ever. “What?” she whispers. “Hands up! Weapons down!” Commands a voice. Lasers beam out of the dark, the triple dots of their rifles ogle and grope her armor. “Ah, s**t. I, okay.” She does as they say. “Do not, wait. What, oh no f*****g way.” Niara’s hands only inch down before they repeat “Keep your hands up! Kraken.” One of them says, before a few of the troopers approach her, Some of the troopers approach her, guns laxing, while the rest point hard. “Is, is this really happening right now? “What the s**t’s happening?” Niara says. “Yep, Target ID confirmed, command, you’re not going to believe this one.” Some of the soldiers pull out a pair of metal clasps and put her hands in a bind, locking them together. Her head falls flat. “Ah. s**t.” she looks ahead, noticing the light.
-- -- -- A floodlight shines through the dark night. A half moon was out, trees scatter and spread about the wilderness. Niara stares long at a crate of rations behind a fence. A few infantryman, tents, and equipment stand in the distance. The box’s and her eyes lock gazes onto each other, as Niara’s body forces her forward. She notices rings of barbed wire, as well as spikey bars that lined the fences in front of her, as well as a flag with a certain, angular logo on it. A tree was behind her, she scales it, and drops behind a tent. “Still got the touch.” Niara whispers. She sees the rations, as her ear flicks to some dialogue coming behind her “Anyway, d’you hear about the new order from Command?” A female soldier says, just coming out of the tent, Niara jumps behind the rations. “Yeah. Something about a stray girl right?” “Pretty much. Command really wants this girl too, says the top dogs contracting will give us a sweet cut if we find her.” “I heard this is also the Son’s girl too. People think she may have ran away, and this is his plan on rescuing her.” “Ah tomato potato, as long as I got my week’s share, that’s all I care.” What? Niara says, shaking her head She realizes the whole pallet was tied down by artificial muscle ropes, and looks for a sharp object. She sees the tent spike. “It’s crazy though, like, how many missing people cases get reported every year, like several hundreds of thousands? Like what’s the chance of her just showing up here?” “Yeah, right, oh goddammit! The hell happened to the tent spike!” Niara’s eyes jump, she pile drives the spike into the muscle fiber of the package ties. The soldier squats to examine the missing tent spike. “I swear if this is some lieutenant's idea of a prank! Goddamn stubborn a*s spike that won’t f*****g stay where it is, just suddenly disappears?” the looks behind them to see a foot step away Niara swerves herself away from the stares, before she trips from bad balance, pulling the muscle fiber hard to keep her from falling. She notices a pair of eyes staring at her. “Oh f**k.” “Well, call me the goddess of luck then.” The other soldier hoists her up from behind, bringing her in front. “Hey Admiral sir! About that missing girl?” Niara looks around, the eyes and lights seem to center onto her. -- -- “Yeah, we’ve taken care of her. Uh huh? Yeah, just like you requested.” Huh? Where am I? Niara’s eyes brawl to stay open. A cold, harsh, blatant light brands her eyes. Flicking her eyes down, a dull concrete paints her surroundings. A man continues their conversation. “And it looks like she’s been through a lot too.” A door shackles open. “Niara, I presume.” a blank, shadowy face speaks to her, the door clicks shut behind. “That’s not important, but I’ll answer it, let’s just say, one of our benefactors suggested you to us.” Niara’s brows raise. “What, wait, what? Are you turning me in? Oh s**t, no, please, please, anything but that!” “Jeez jeez, calm down. No, we’re not turning you in.” “Then, wait, where am I?” “An Armax facility. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.” A bulletin behind a clearly decorated officer, with a window, showcasing a large garage of military vehicles. “Why am I here?” “We’re giving you a proposition. It has come to our attention that you are quite the capable person.” Wait, do they know what I’ve been through? “Are you just trying to get me to join?” “Yes. That’s correct.” A bit of her hot breath scuffs the air in the room, she swears she saw it. “S**t.” she barely gets out, “What’s the catch?” “Catch? I mean, we offer you a place to sleep, a place to eat, a place where you will be taken care of. Or, we turn you in, which I think we both know you don’t want that.” She turns her head. An APC with the Armax logo gleams on the side. She faces back. “I… I, I don’t.” “Don’t worry, we have plenty of time. You don’t have to rush your decision.” Niara’s open eyes struggle to stay, like broken motors on a garage door. The room was warming her up, the harsh lights weakened. She could see the room better. The officer sits before her. “Aren’t y’alls the security, the military on this planet?” “Okay. I really don’t think I can go home anymore. But you said this place can be my new one?”
-- --
A full stunning brightness floods the room with white, Niara flinching her hand up as a shield. “Wake up Cadets! From now on, you will either answer no sir, or yes sir when someone asks you a question, otherwise your mouth is shut, understand!” The Instructor’s words assaulted the room without warning. “Sir yes sir!” the room barks back immediately, “Report to the ARMAX Training Center at once!” “Yes sir!” An ocean of footsteps stampede the cabin, drowning Niara’s thoughts with loud voices. “Are you deaf! I said report to the Training at once!” The man grips Niara’s hand and tears her off the bunk. She sprints to the training center. She sees and feels it all. Each week was a different ring of hell, and the constant verbal onslaught was just the entrance The first ring passes, an instructor explains: “The upcoming injections, will contain performance and durability enhancing drugs, augmentations, simulant nanocomputers, and cerebral datapacks that are designed to increase your survivability, on the off chance that you’re put into any of the following situations. Ionizing radiation exposure Electrolaser attacks Thermal laser or plasma based attacks Chemical or biological warfare True or near vacuum exposure.” Niara’s eyes widen. Then she screams, teeth clenching hard on a bite bar, as several needles pulse injections through her. Deep seated, brutal frigid and infernos rips through her body, while at the same time knowledge ripples and tumbles through her brain. She finally sits, and the instructor explains again “Don’t worry if you don’t know how to use anything we just injected. We’ll get it outta ya eventually.” The second ring passes, a 100 km run, a 100m, gravity enhanced meter rope climbing course, and hazardous environment simulation chambers obstacles Niara beared, where the most current was putting her under a voltage endurance test, where she felt nothing but the 8000 volts claw, raze, and cook her body, her body, her teeth pressed hard, harder than a compression machine, before she roared like a raging fire. The third ring of hell had her test her close quarters combat skills and marksmanship with numerous weapons, with the latest test a grueling gauntlet of patience and pure determination. A chirp rings, She springs to action, balancing straight bullseyes and strategic cover usage at each turn, making it so that nothing but the drones were left broken. After that, she meets with the rest of her training squad, as they wait.
-- -- -- A small ticking noise could be heard.in the brains’ of the men beside a door. A clock clicks in the back, its simple yet brutal hands bash the air, one venomous second at a time. Anticipation was a spider crawling up their backs, sweat drifting down their Niara’s and her squads’ helmets. Time slows down, with the only thing moving is the hearts of the soldiers. “Scryer, if you have them, mark visuals on the persons in the room?” “Affirmative, marking.” Red and green highlights glitter across their visors. The commander points at Niara, she nods, and racks the undersling shotgun on her submachine gun. She points her hand out, before the rest point their hand out and prepare of what’s to come. Bang! The door collapses, with a storm of lead blistering out. Carbine rifle men and Niara fork out to cover the whole room. “Clear!” Niara hears from the radio, before she pulls a sturdy rope from her belt, opening a window and stabbing a sharp arrowhead against the window sill. The rest of the team do the same, as they nod to Niara. She gestures the number three with her hand. She counts down, before her palm fists, and she leaps over the hill, reconning the environment. A pleasant beep chimes through the squad comms, and they all leap over the sill. The arrowheads catch the edge, Niara loosens and winds herself forward, as they all swing and sling themselves through the window below, blowing a clean entrance for the team to release and begin their onslaught, Rifle rounds chatter and trident the room, sweeping and clearing until the last one’s blood pops like a water balloon. “Priority Hostile teams A, B, and C have been eliminated, proceeding with HVT Containment.” A squad continues to a door. “Wallbang?” Niara asks says “Mm.” his hand goes up, pausing her speech. “Encryption’s too tight, you’re going to have scan on site.” He nods, before his visor goes grey. Many men with guns lie behind the door. He presents his palm, and punches it with the bottom of his fist The platoon free their weapons. Tracer streams sprash and gash through the walls of the room inside, the cut screams and battering of the men splatter through to their side. “Are we clear?” “Mmm. Keep your eyes peeled, something’s not right. Feels too easy. Saiya, can you scan?” “On it.” The door had seen better days, as the commander kicks it in. A beep could be heard, and a very high frequency noise shrieks the air, before the chests of the dead were flashing. “S**t! Wait!” Time thaws. A blue tint sings through the lights. The tied crowd members’ eyes and bodies taste fear lurking out from the corpses. “We need bomb defusal!” Niara could hear her comradery saying, but she was already running. Her body slinks to one of the corpses still blinking, before glacially but viciously ripping the bomb off the corpse and away from the crowd, before diving towards another beeping. She twirls to the other, the high frequency claws of the bombs’ beeps grind against her ears, as she shuts her eyes tight to prevent the pain from getting any farther. “Bombs defused. Oh my god, we were so lucky, holy s**t!” Time reset, Niara’s brain screeches to a halt. She slowly drags her eye open. Her squadmates were staring at her. “Wendigo, what, what were you going to do with that bomb?” Niara notices how she was hugging the bomb, while the rest of her body was crumpled around the other. Her gaze lasers through the floor, knee deep in an ocean of thought. “I don’t know.” “You don’t know? You could’ve killed yourself!” “I know, but we had no idea how long the bomb would take. It’s not like I could do nothing!” “Niara, you coulda killed yourself! You know why the protocol exists, right?” “Hey, hey, go easy on her. Honestly, there was no way for us to know about the bombs detonating after death thing. Hell, we should consider ourselves lucky that these guys implemented a killswitch onto the detonator. I think all of us should go easy on ourselves. This whole thing, there was no way in hell we could’ve known ahead of time. That was a genuinely selfless act.” The offender’s breath relaxes. “You’re right, yeah, it was. It doesn’t excuse how reckless it was though.” The woman stands in front of the defused mines, before sighing. Self sacrifice, that’s new. At least I didn’t abandon my friends this time.
-- --
A helicopter poses itself on the building. The doors rack shut, and the vehicle zooms away in the distance. Niara takes off her helmet She turns the helmet, so that her reflection shows on her visor. Her face turns into a scowl. Why’d I do that? Why’d I do that? Why’d I do that, I could’ve died! What the hell! Nearly sacrificed myself? Why’d I decide that best idea? Niara sits in solitude, her dark headgear buries her like a coffin. Two rattlesnakes slowly tangle and tango around her neck, in opposition and twine with one another, slithering and swirling their tails all over Niara. “Is this what I’m doing now? Am I that broken? What the hell? I left both of my friends because I was too scared to face what was happening next, and this is what I do next?” Her voice reverbs, “That’s what I do next?” she looks down at her body. Cold and afraid. The wind brushes yet rattles her. “What, what am I, what… is that want?” “What do you want? What do you want to do in the future? Is that such a confusing question?” The first snake flicks their tongue at her “What made you run away? That you were scared to face yourself at the highest hour? Does the future frighten you? The idea of responsibility. To be able to take on the apparently high caliber challenge of staying alive, of eating, of being successful, of being able to take care of things far more difficult than you expected? Does that frighten you? Of how easy it would be, for you to fall and crumble, when you know you’ve had your life easy and spoiled?” Sweat drips below her fur. the thick scales of the snake radiating, her hands wrinkle from the amount of water crumpling her skin. The snakes continue closer, slithering, sliver, strangulating their toxinous tones and tomes through her. “You think, you deserve the title of the Clurvaen’s spirit?” The room was getting more and more humid. The air was getting heavier and smokier, her body seized from the amount of ash and fiery incense crawling and washing over her, before it dissolved and disintegrated into rot. She could feel herself choke, the taste of the violative smell peeled her inner throat away. “Because after all.” Her legs begin to melt, rot, and rust, then her arms, then her bones, her fur, her muscle, her flesh, She tries to scream, but nothing. Her mouth gargled and throat clogged with the taste of twisted flesh, contorted balm, and rotten wrought iron. She attacks and thrusts her body forward. The snake’s continue to wrap and tighten, their grasp, and their heat melt her to whatever’s left. She noticed real flames finally salivating through the darkness, salutes cut and grunge the distorted dark. The faces of comrades, friends, family, soldiers burning away, the film and ink slashed and sculpted in eternally horrified gazes and poses, their hands dribble into marble, and wax. Only Myrane’s face was still intact. Niara knives her hand to her, but it all weakens and deflates, Everything falls away. Dust, winds and blows, shattering through her lungs and leftover skin. Niara crawls through the hellish oven. No matter what cloth suffocated her breath, no matter what carrion came out of her coughs no matter what blood or iron may spill and slit by her nose, no matter what decibels of her scream may tear her larynx apart, She crawls, she claws, despite each breath cutting deeper and deeper into her lungs, her air still fueled her, her voice, her drive more potent than any sun or star could ever put out. The ravenous flames opens its mouth and feed at her flesh, but no blazes could torch her. Not now, not ever. The blackness frees her vision from the prison of tangerine and crimson around her. Slowly, the colors fade away, extinguishing into ash and twilight shine. she grips with all of that was left, and braces the void. Niara slams her head face first. -- -- -- And wakes herself up. Sweat polluted and tainted her hands, while her breath and exhale billows out of her bare, pink lungs. She shakes her head, her eyes lock on to her armor, now locked away from her, with the rest of her stuck on a chair. “Now, tell me, what is our little squid friend doing here in Titan Territory.” She throws herself back to fight mode, and analyzes the situation. A white room, celled room, with a woman in front of her. There was absolutely nothing in sight that she could use, a part from a set of embedded grating on the top for ventilation. “My friends, where are they?” “Hm? Oh? Your friends? They’re right here.” The officer snarls at her, a video screen pops up in front of her, with Trevor sitting in the same position as her. “Now, answer our question. What are you doing here?” “I, uh.” her head pans over. “Uh, trying to get our lost friend back, who decided to have a play date here-” “Ah yes, your little Deniperon friend, who has, so far, done nothing but wreaked havoc on our facility and staff, and has now become elusive as of late.” Niara and the officer stare at each other. Niara’s face goes scrunched. “Wait, what! He’s alive and okay!” a small bit of bittersweet relief dissons her confusion. “Yes, he’s fine, in fact everything he seems to touch is also fine. Seriously, no casualties or anything either.” “What!” “Which I ask you, what in hell is he doing here?” Niara hits a verbal roadbump, and drops her head again. “So, you know the plant, uh, the omniscient one.” “You. The Omniscient, yes, what does he want with it?” “He… he literally decided it would be better to just run in and grab whatever the f**k you have on the species and get out, that literally was his thinking.” Now it is the officer’s turn to share a confused expression. “Wait, so he’s here for just for the data on the Omniscient?” “Pretty much.” She continues to stare. “You said he was elusive?” “Yes. He disappeared from sight a half hour ago. We’re trying to secure him as we speak. Heh, are you interrogating me now?” “Yeah, I guess.” “So, I’m guessing this isn’t your idea of an ‘I’m out of retirement’ prank, is it?” “Nope.” “I figured.” The woman pauses, “I’ll be back.” The woman exits the cell and enters Trevor was sitting. “What do we have here?” Trevor sits in the middle of the room, suit and weapons beyond a window. “A factionless, pacifistic thief. You know, everytime I say I’ve seen everything, I always surprise myself, like today, two pacifist’s. That’s new, usually people try to kill the first person they see when they invade like this.” His gaze meets the officer’s. “Not only that, you’ve an impressive arsenal. I mean seriously, force projector units embedded into your gauntlets? Sylph integration? I have yet to meet a single soldier or even aliens, that have what you have.” His lips were parched, and eyes unamused. “Exercising your rights huh? Heh, fine. But you’re not here on legal charges. Or, you know.” Trevor sees the room morph, with the woman now sitting opposite to him on a table. “Why chase after this plant? Seriously, nobody at command seems to give enough of a s**t to care, so why do you care? Especially when you’ve acquired technology more advanced than what even the Consociate Center has?” “Okay, I’m going to be honest. Force projectors installation is not that hard… talking from a guy who had to get it taught from a Sylph to do it, but yeah, the real challenge is balancing voltage, usage of capacitors, and wiring to make sure you don’t pancake yourself when you fly. The commander looks unimpressed, “okay, well tell that to our top engineers. Seriously, experimental particle fusion fuel systems, reverse engineering alien technology, lightning guns, and they still haven’t figured out force projector in armor designs yet. Dear lord though, the amount of lives you could saved with that type of tech though.” “And most of the ship and suit was made by Alphas.” “You’re talking about your Sylph now? Okay, I know Slyphs are basically cheating when it comes to technology, but I have so many questions? Because, from what I understand, Slyph’s are kinda obtuse when it comes to speaking about especially difficult concepts, I just, there’s so much volume about what you can do, of what you have, like you’ve got the entire top brass of the R&D teams drooling at your craftsmanship and work.” “How do you know that?” “The R&D thing? We full scan all gear from invaders, and send it to them for both tactical and engineering analysis. And yeah, every single one of them are begging for an answer to how you made all of your equipment, which just leads to my point.” She gets closer. “Why not join us? So why not work with one of those fields in mind? You can change the world!” “No! Never, never in my life will I join a human campaign faction!-” “Okay, sheesh! I was just suggesting. Although I am curious. How come you’re not in a faction?” Trevor goes silent. “Ah, tough subject. Still, why not choose something that suits your prowesses. If you ask nicely, they’d totally let you on board.” “You really think that?” The woman was examining her watch, before looking at him with confusion “Yeah, I do.” Trevor looks at his chest, seeing his t-shirt underneath. “You could even have the audacity to start the first human based extraterrestrial company or corporation, in like forever. That would be like a milestone for our kind, now that I think of it.” His stare is filled with nothing but confusion, before comprehending the depth of her statement. “I don’t know if I can do that.” “Really? Because I think so. You did it before, you can definitely do it again. Seriously.” He spends a few minutes understanding, before slumping his back to a curl. The woman sighs, “I have full, whole hearted faith that you can do it. Whatever your decision is.” The woman stands, and the room merges back to normal. The door closes, and Trevor’s mind wanders. She asks the assistant, “any progress on capture?” “Not yet.” “Sitrep.” “All attempts to contain resulted in failure, although the conditions seem to have a pattern though. I’ll execute the environmental advantage protocols to see if anything changes.” “Please do. Oh Jesus.”
-- -- A squad of 5 moves through the caverns, the brown, black, and grey are only visible from the spotlights dragging on into the natural corridors.“Northwest Sector 4, do you have readings?” “Negative, nothing yet.” “What are we even doing now? We have to chase down some pyromaniac using whatever this squad composition is? Like, a shield and peripheral breacher? Why do we need two multicalibers” “Yeah. Yeah. Peripheral, do we have anything?” “No viscons, no signatures. Wait, stand down, I hear something.” Footsteps tapping along the road, as well as the occasional tipper tatter of cave droplets. “Nearby, I have audio on possible priority target, stand by, report opportunities. Shout when viscon is confirmed.” It’s dark, very dark. Not even the darkness knows where they're going, only stringing along to Draovilich’s paths. Breathing harsh, before the sound of water fountaining whispers to him above, before something else entirely whispers to him. He uppercuts walls of heat behind and around him, blocking the soldiers completely, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, what the!” Drao thinks, remembering something, ‘There is hostile activity ahead, about 10 meters northwest to northeast of your location.’ Drao remembered Alphas saying in response to an incoming threat. “If they’re as advanced as Niara says, they most definitely have a form of radar.” He claws down in the air, the firewalls grind and pops away into a billowy puff of sediments. “Ah, s**t! S**t, equipment’s jammed!” the scanner says, the radar scanner shows up as a distorted mess. The soldier’s NOD visor ratchets away from his eyes, seeing out of the glass visor underneath. “How the hell! The b*****d couldn’t even see us, and he already scrambled my goggles, f**k!” “Situation report, now!” “Priority Target somehow found us before we even could, despite him not even showing up on ultra wideband.” “I see the footage. God.” “I know right! Well, he’s definitely gone now.” Drao jumps and jets over to an outcrop. He observes a waterfall, with a small station ahead, with cameras installed across from one another. He takes a peek back before seeing a black abyss behind him. He flickers a small light, for nothing to show. “You abandoned them, just like you abandoned us! How could you ever call yourself a sage. They need you right now, all they want is for you to be there by their side, and yet you still leave! You still desert them? Disgraceful. Your family should’ve dropped you as soon as they had the chance. What kind of Shakliifman abandons their kin.” a small voice scratches at the back of Drao’s head. Drao’s fingers reach for a stone and rock in order to grasp reality, I did it again? Why did I do it again! What is wrong with me? I already told myself, I wouldn’t keep doing this, yet I keep repeating it, why am I doing this. Right. Why are you doing this? Are you trying to fight back against what everyone said you were? Forget it. You are nothing. You will never be anything more than a monster, a pathetic, disgusting creature that only knows how to destroy and burn everything in its wake. It’s your fault. They all died because of you, and all because you just wanted to play hero. You threw lives away like trash, you tore families apart, you ruined people. You know you can’t control yourself. So do yourself a favor and.” “Stop talking.” Drao shuts down the voice in his head, just to have a single minute of empty thought. Water tickles and prickles Drao's skin. He sees himself towering in the midst of flames and fire. He backs up, before feeling his body dip It was only seconds after he realized where he was headed, but his limbs and his spirit refused to react. Instead, he shuts his eyes. Splash. “That’s all you are, a spoiled, rich brat, that only cares about his fame and riches. You don’t care about the rest of us. All you want to do is slouch around and pretend you’re worth something, just like with the rest of them. You have become them. You have become lazy, and apathetic. Disgraceful. How could you possibly call yourself a sage? You’ve grown weak. Inconsiderate.” “But instead of doing something about it, you decide to wreak havoc as a psychopath and leave nothing but dirt and mud with every step you take.” “You ruin the image of the Shakliifman with every breath you take, your kind’s culture is dying, everyone hates you for what you are. Plentiful, ungrateful, materialistic, greedy, ravenous.” The black sea to his right and the white light to his left divides Draovilich. On one end, the black, rigid, and faux mask of glory and gold at the top of the ladder, that crushed those that were beneath it, and the other a white sun, healing those who fought, yet let blood leaked from those who begged. “I… can’t keep my head up for so… long-” his body dips to the bottom of the cavernous lake, the small ribbons of water rippling near his skin. his feet grip on the surface of the cavernous creek slipping and lathering on the surface, before his hands catch and snatch the water’s edge. The water boils, and Drao rises to the surface. “No, I am here to locate something. I am bearing my sword, and I’m redeeming myself with it!” “There he is! Viscon, 23 meters.” Drao sees someone about to man a turret, “Wait, don’t shoot!” “Why not?” “Orders are to contain and capture, not to fry him!” “What do you mean not to fry him, I’m taking a shot at him, not the water!” Drao zips and streaks through the air, the water soars into curtaining tidal wings behind him before they convert into deep blue blazes. Electrical arcs buzz the air before Drao drowns them in infernal claws, smacking the zaps away. Drao squats and slings his foot low, swiping a blue whip below the feet of the two soldiers, “Ow, my foot!” one of the men seethes, tripping and slamming butt first onto the floor, before the other does the same, as Drao breaks for it, rocketing himself away from the. Drao looks to see multiple troopers on the other side, before smoke screen studders the room. Drao retaliates by pounding the air with heat, sensing the direction the hot air went, before he launches himself with a miniature thermal explosion. He kicks through the air, to see the entire fireteam underneath him, before he dampens his speed against a wall, using more hot air to break his momentum, before he launches more hot air at the men behind him, knocking them back. “What the f**k is this guy!” One of them asks. Drao sprints through the hall, only to meet several platoons ahead. Several physical walls form around him, as smoke and a loud bang sprashes the room. Drao and several burning spirits crowd his vision, as his legs swipe the floor with an oily wreath of plasma, as it melts and damages the wall that formed to the right of him. He slides below them and jumps towards a vertical corridor. Out of nowhere, a bolt of hot red energy barges through the air, several feet away from Drao. In a nick of a second, Drao chops a vengeful red blossom upwards from his hand, devouring the shot and scattering the electrical particles right away from Drao. Abruptly, a swift puff of loud blue rockets Drao against the wall. Two jumps and a clip on a railing, gravity finally catches up and plonks him onto the ground, dragging him across the smooth floor. “Ow.” he scatters to get back up. He spots an elevator, before also noticing three machine gunners about to beam him from three different sides with everything they got. Drao prepares by creating a crown of hot air around him, before he charges to the doors, mini electron stars hurl towards him, as he spins a disc of flame to nullifies their attacks. Suddenly, he expands the fire balls into a bright white flash, before his hands concentrate the leftover heat near him until it dissociates into desperate unstable lightning, as he swipes his arms inward. Violent electrical streaks harpoons a set of doors right next to the gunner, before he thrusts his fists outwards. The thunderstrike wedges in the gap of the elevator doors, solidifying into two hot, vulcan hands, the limbs melt the metal on the doors until the steel was goop. He sends a hot steam behind him, launching him and dropping him into the shaft of the elevator. -- -- “Disengage, disengage. Priority target’s threat level has escalated. ” “S**t, he can bend lightning now!” “All units, freeze forward movement, pinged fireteams and squads, switch to designated tactical scenario, Admiral, any additional advisory?” “Send me footage of contact movement, provide me any possible weaknesses, theories on target objective, and new plans of engagement.” “Roger.” The woman removes her hand from the ear and exits the room, cameras swiveling to point at Niara in the room. She only blinks. “What’s going on? How is Drao still running?” Niara sputters and stutters out, “who is this guy?” She examines the camera, seeing the front muzzle of an electrolaser gun underneath “One minute, he’s some weird, quirky scientist, and the other, he’s a f*****g lunatic who somehow knows how to fight!” Her figure slumps back into her chair, she takes another glance at the camera. A little giggle bells out from her mouth, “Imagine if the power went out or something-” The lights shut off and the camera falls dead, Her eyes blink again, “Okay, I guess I’m a goddess now.” She wrestles out of the rope, and lobs the chair at the window, only for it to ricochet right off. “Yay. lemme guess, still locked?” She turns the handle, hitting a stop. “Yep. Makes some sense. It would be bad design for it to just unlock suddenly. What’s even happening anymore?” Leaning against the window, a small set of controls reels her attention at the edge of her prison block. She notices small bars leading through the other edge of the door. “It locks wirelessly.” she says very unenthusiastically. Suddenly, a loud shatter screeches right next to her. Niara’s eyes pop up and she jumps back, “Yo Niara!” Trevor chants. “Trevor? What, wait, how did you?” He approaches the glass, a small limping and crunching in all of his movements. “Woah?” “I’m fine, there’s glass stuck in the suit now, that’s all.” “Glass?” “I’ll explain later. Stand back!” Niara perks her head, before nodding and stepping back. Trevor’s fist flies out before it separates into tinier, smaller robotic grains that dented and then cracked the glass completely, as the whole fist tumbles all over the floor after. The fist shakes off the glass before jumping back into Trevor’s suit. “So, so much better.” Trevor says. “I… I’m not even gonna ask. Let’s go!” -- -- “What is even happening anymore? Nearby, sitrep, now.” “B*****d knocked the power out for the prison sector. He must’ve saw his buddies trapped and felt bad.” “What happened to the security in that area?” “Scattered, literally. Check our footage and contact reports, this guy’s a beast.” “Also, you said the prison sector? So his buddies are out too?” “Yep.” The radio is silent. “This group includes the Kraken?” “Correct, but they do not have their equipment.” “That's not that much better.” A loud knock bashes the door. “Yo, open up.” A feminine voice axes through. The infantryman glances. “S**t.” they spit out, as they approach the door. “Oh, what the hell is even happening anymore?” “Attention units in sector, we are assigning new directives. Do not engage, or escalate conflicts between escaped personnel. Ping them and do as they say.” “Wait what?” “Operation details are on visors now.” The soldier reads through the details, before they raises their brows and nods. The door unlocks, and Niara enters the room. She looks at the single rifleman. “You know why I’m here.” The soldier nods and provides Niara back her equipment. “Oh, and some ammo would be nice.” “My what?” “Your 5.56 mags. Gimme some of em.” “Wha?” they shake their head and gives some of them to her. “Thank you!” she backtraces away, out of the room, as the door closes. “Peripherals, I have switched encryption and comm type.” Niara’s armor slips onto her in scary ease. She c***s her pistol and spies several halls, with Trevor sprinting like a madman before a sign with the words: “Data Archives.” hooks Trevor. “Wait.” His eyes run to the door below the sign, before he blasts the door. Niara notices, follows in, “Whoa! what are you doing?” “I’m getting what we came here for. Just be close-” Niara peers at her armor, only to shake her head as she grunts. “Okay, what do you need?” “Whatever Titan has on the Omniscient.” Niara hears.
They spread out and sort through server through server.“LOCKDOWN SCENARIO ACTIVE.” Showed up on every glass server screen. “S**t, Trev, we need, f**k contacts!” Niara says Trevor turns and sees many army and squads converging on their position “Alphas?” “Already on it!” “And can you make several copies? For my suit and Skylancer?” “It’s going to clog space, but sure!” A chatter of gunfire shatters through the air before a sizzling loud blast shocks the room, Trevor turns and spots Niara fainting back from a mass of yellow light before a loud slug pops towards Trevor. He deflects the shot back to a soldier, freezing them upon impact. He spots the clean green on the screen and jumps over the frozen soldier to escape, tripping a trooper behind them with a gust of force. He grabs Niara and heads out of the room. “S**t s**t s**t s**t! How long is Niara out for?” “Perhaps a few minutes, Niara’s life signs are returning to normal pretty quickly.” “Cool!” he jests, while panting his socks off, before he spots a closet and a hall way to the left. Suddenly a wall forms in front of Trevor’s path, skirting him to a halt. He wedges the closet open and shoves it back shut. He kicks down furniture and obstructs the door of the closet. Trevor leans over on a wall, piledriving all of the tension and stress out of his body. “S**t.” He examines the damage on Niara’s armor, seeing bullet holes drilled clean through, with a four by four grid on her fur from the shock wound. Trevor peeks through the wall, locating several orange figures leading up to the closet that he was in. he was about to act, before he notices the soldier’s behavior change. The squad moved away from the closet. “Huh. That’s strange.” “Interpolating radio transmissions.” “SITREP!” “We have sight on final priority target, Deniperon and Kraken are confirmed cold and out. Request new advisories.” “Refresh and reset encryption keys, switch to channel C comms.” “Wait, what?” Suddenly static shackles Trevor’s ears, as he barges out of the room, Niara in hand. Nobody. “What the f**k?” “Contact at 13 meters, bearing 8 degrees!” Guns fire at him from behind a wall, as he slaps the rounds straight into the wall right of the soldiers, reusing the leftover force to launch himself away. He kicks off a wall and sprints. “Where too?” “Projecting exit path.” as an augmented reality line draws in front of him. He runs passed a doorway, only to just spot an entire squad of troopers just waiting right behind. He shrieks and blasts the groups, swerving him in front of another fireteam, and then another fireteam, with the other squad recovering to press and corner him against the elevator entrance. He suddenly notices the lasers that polka dotted all over him and Niara. The racking of weapons clinked and clacked, before muzzles and then an entire other fireteam materializes right in front of Trevor. “Hoh f**k!” “Stand down now if you wish to see your friend again! You are no longer in the position to compromise. Comply or face punishment. ” the Admiral commands them. “Oh, what the f**k? Oh s**t.” “Your armor cannot withstand their ammo, it can withstand the electroshock. However, i advise to do exactly as they say. A soldier carries Drao’s body in a solid white and blue case of gel. “I repeat, stand down now!” Trevor’s hands were in the air, everyones’ weapons plop onto the floor. “We will escort you to the main exit.” the admiral continues, “and you are to never enter a Titan Site, unless previously invited. We have the right to execute you, on sight, if you are not compliant. Do we make ourselves clear!” Trevor and Niara’s head wanders around, before they both slowly nod. They enter the elevator, Niara could barely hold herself up. Trevor presses his hand at some of the stray shots that scarred his armor. A soldier melts the blue casing off his body, his eyes terrified and disappointed at his circumstance. The group’s cuffs detach, the doors slam and lock on the three. All three of them shrug and walk away Drao flicks, a blue spark lights up on his thumb, drawing it a few inches away from him, melting away the rest of the gel, puddling into a mess of grey and translucent blue. “Augh.” she falls to the floor. Trevor goes to help her. “No, I’m good. Getting shocked sucks, that’s all.” Drao looks down. “So, I’m guessing you got the information?” “Yeah, we did.” “I think I just wanna go home.” Niara says, passing a finger through the gap in her armor plating. Drao looks at Niara, “so, uh.” Niara does not speak. “Although, nevermind.” Trevor walks away and sees a lake in the distance, a ruby sun dances its grand symphony all over the little diamond glints of the water. He sits down and admires it. “Hey. I think there’s a beach near here.” Niara and Drao glance at him. “Trevor, I hate to be the party killer, but.” “I know. I’m just, I want to look at this sun.” Niara and Drao peep. The sun and the water played with each other in ways that seemed divine. The small rivets, the tiny, rainbow like flares that purrs through the lenses in their eyes. “Yeah, that’s really pretty.” “It is quite remarkable.” Drao says, leaning on a tree. They gaze upon the wistful sight. “I have a question, why did you two even go after me anyway?” “Because you’re a maniac? You’re lucky enough that they didn’t just blast you with buckshot as soon as you sat foot.” “Yeah, I guess so. Still, I did feel I was handling it well for a while.” I know, but I “‘Handling it well’, which apparently includes being covered in a blue stasis gel, and having to be carried like a f*****g cardboard cut out. Yea, ‘handling it.’” “Well, this is going to be a pain in the a*s to fix.” She drudges out all of her troubles in a big gulping puff, before facing Trevor and Drao, “Wait, why’d you take their mags?” “I dunno, I wanted to see if I could copy their ammo for my guns. Though they have an apparently infinite supply of tungsten, so that makes things difficult.” she stands up. “But yeah, I told you Titan was a f*****g slaughterhouse. I am surprised of how long it took to recover.” “See, and I told you that I could handle it.” “For like an hour.” Niara responds, Trevor mopes over, thoughts wander inside him, as he sighs. “I wanna go home. Actually. I’m kinda thirsty.” he stands up, and asks. “Alrighty. Tea, coffee, what?” “I don’t know, I’m asking you. I’m still vouching we go home.” “Oh wait, Drao, you still owe Niara a meal.” “Oh yeah, and you especially owe us now, double time too, considering the whole fiasco a few minutes ago.” “Aya. This is going to an ordeal, won’t it.”
-- -- -- MeditationThe two ships perch and park inside the hangar of the Monarch. Niara sits on a bench, cleaning her guns, while Trevor takes a sip from a can of Bepis. “So whatcha doin?” “Performing maintenance.” “Anything not working?” “Not yet.” “Oh yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask… can you install that minifridge system on my ship?” Trevor plainly stares at Niara, “you want me to do, what?” “I don’t even know how that would fit in your ship. Didn’t you say your thing was military grade?” “It, kind of? It’s complicated. Remember how I got it?” “You took it from some crime guy?” “Uh, yeah. So, you don’t need to know who the cartel guy is, basically, this guy had a knack for collecting these really special, rare, high caliber star ships, and one of them just so happened to be an original, very venerable, somehow still working Sufov Corsair.” “Sufov? You mean the Skrabian flotilla company? Them? Still working?” “Yes, them.” “And it’s an original? Cuz I know the old ones are like super rare at this point, right? And the new ones after market costs are like, f*****g, quadrillioniare amounts of money right?” “I have no f*****g clue, you’re gonna have to look at the labels. But yeah, after the job was done, I was then able to get this ship for the amazingly low price of free.” “heh, I wonder how?” “By using the good ol fashioned bargaining tool I love to call, just f*****g stealing it.” This caught Trevor off guard, as he started giggling and chortling, as Niara slowly dwindles to laughter. “Damn, it was quite the surprising discount for the guards then, huh?” “Yeah, it definitely was.” They were still laughing. “But anyway, how did you even modify the thing?” “How did you know it was modified?” “Surely, that kind of literal f****n, federation age technology couldn’t have some of that level of independent firepower.” “You’d be surprised how malleable old s**t is. Then again, it shouldn’t, considering your whole.” Niara points at the Skylancer with a brush. Trevor scoots and lies away from his ship. “Are you implying my ship’s an old fart?” “You know I can’t do that. My pet has to stay happy somehow.” Trevor replaces his tool with a wrench, and goes back to rotating and tinkering with the belly of the ship. “What does that even mean?” Niara breaks face, giggling a bit “I have no idea.” they both giggle again together. “Yeah, but anyway, did the ship just come with the tech preinstalled?” “No, you’re right, I had to modify it. I definitely broke a few parts of the ship though, but yeah.” “Eh, you’re close. I bought mainly defense mechanisms, missiles, different ammo types, what have you, anything to make my plane a tank.” “Mm, did you ever have to check the connection type or the voltage systems for any of those upgrades?” “I mean, no?” “Yeah, I figured.” he slides out again, this time to climb the Leviathan’s cockpit. “Oh, and the seats were amongst the modifications. As much as it looks like it, I’m not that short.” “That reminds me, how’s the new materials and retrograde thrusters serving you?” “Oh they’re incredible, and so responsive. Dude, how and where did you find those?” He winks, “Now that’s what we call a trade secret.” Niara rolls her eyes. Niara’s expression falls apart. “You okay?” Trevor asks, “I don’t know. There you go, my signature catchphrase. But going to be honest, I don’t know, I really don’t. It’s just like, nothing bad has happened yet. I mean, yeah Drao ran off and we had to deal with it, but yeah, things have been really nice to me so far. I don’t know.” she stares off into space literally, admiring the way the stars and black sun passes by. “I kinda want to talk about Drao, if you mind.” “I don’t mind, what’s on yours?” She thinks, continuing to admire the glorious, the wondrous nebulas and stars passing by them. “I feel like, at this point, I would’ve ran again.” she was in the middle of building the rest of her sentence, before Trevor swords through, “What do you mean by that?” Niara gives Trevor a look at her deadpanned, distant, yet coldly sorrowful eyes. “It just feels like, at any minute, something is going to happen. I’m going to run, like a coward, and then I’m going to cry as I realize I made another mistake. And, I feel like I’m going to fail people again. Like I did with everyone else in my life.” Niara balls up with her knees, almost in fetal position. Trevor bunches his lips. “I mean, would it help to say, that I don’t think you failed anyone?” Niara says: “Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t know.” she sighs, shifting her legs, continuing to look into space, now seeing meteorites and asteroids streak across the blackness. She presses her fingers on her scars, reflecting history’s cuts all over her body. “I hurt people, Trevor. I hurt a lot of people. And I used to hurt them for fun, I wonder if I still do.” Silence. “I’m a bad person. I know it.” “You’re not. You risk your life time and time again to save both me and Drao, again and again. Didn’t you save that one boy, what’s his name, Takoy?” “I killed someone Trevor. You wouldn’t ever step over that line yourself, hell you even broke down because of it.” “But you still saved them. You risked yourself, to save someone else.” “But who knows why I’m doing it. Hell, I don’t even know.” Silence impales again. “I don’t even know why I started talking, I don’t get it. There’s so much I don’t understand.” “Me neither.” Silence. “I miss my family. I miss Myrane, I miss my Aunt, I miss Saita, I miss Takoy… Goddammit!” Niara tries to force back tears, but it all came falling out. Trevor rushes to aid her. “I don’t get it. I’m a trained, professional f*****g murderer. I’ve become too good at this s**t too, so why me? Why would you waste your time on me?” “Because you deserve it. Because people deserve love. S**t happens, and maybe not everyone deserves it, at every minute, but, I believe people can change, and in fact, I’ve seen it. I know I have, and I definitely know you have. You helped me to change Niara, you really have.” “How do I know you’re not just saying that? How… why am I questioning… I don’t get it, why are you like this?” “Because I want to be that one person that can help people change for the better, I always have. You know why. I lost both my parents. I lost my friends. I have felt nothing but betrayal from the remainder of my friends… I felt like I lost my dignity. And I can’t afford to lose anything else. But I don’t care about that. All I care about, is that everyone else is safe. It’s in my blood. It’s in my progeny. I have to do this.” The wind blows. The sun glares. “I don’t hate anyone, and I don’t have the time for it. S**t happens, that’s what I say. S**t happens, and all we can do is move on. I hate being angry, pointing fingers, whatever, because there’s no point. Why hate, when you can change them? Why drive all of that anger to an empty cliff? That’s what you do, that’s what you did. You turned that energy into something. Into wild determination. You’re a fighter. You never give up, even when things are hard. I would’ve given up at that prison. You never did. I just hate it when people get hurt.” Silence. “I have a question, when did you become a mercenary?” “After I left the military… hell I didn’t even leave. Missing in action, I deserted. An operation went f*****g downpour. And, I lost myself. I went on a witchhunt to find the b***h who sold me… and I f*****g ended her. Ever since then, I fell even deeper, going on contracts to satiate my bloodlust and anger, hoping that something, something would happen. A bullet going astray, or a f*****g divine epiphany. I guess the latter was what occurred. That’s what led me to you, that’s what led me here… Her brain stops at Trev’s statement. She looks at Trevor’s face, looking at the glass of Trevor’s helmet, sitting idly on the shelf of the hangar, “I want the answer to this question, I really do. I came here specifically to find it, but every time I feel I get closer, I can almost feel I don’t either. I’m tired of being in the dark. I’m tired.” “You don’t have to say so, if you don’t want to.” Trevor glances at his wrist before shaking his head “Thanks. That means a lot.” Trevor exchanges meditation with Niara's statement before sighing. “And yeah, I know that feeling too,” he says solemnly, Silence. “I wanna know how Drao is feeling. That guy, that guy takes his mistakes too seriously. We should probably make sure he’s okay.” Niara is suddenly reminded of something, she stands up and pulls out her Kraken Armor, which was covered and repaired with only duct tape and hot glue. rbuhuehfuhf.
She takes a light gander at it, a feeling of disappointment wavers her. She looks at the broken patch. she says: “D****t, I just fixed this too. I can’t do anything with something as bare as this on.” Trevor spots something and says: “Hey, uh, I have a question. Is that Duck Tape?” “Huh, yeah why do you ask?” “Why’d you repair your armor with Duck Tape?” “Oh yeah, I didn’t have any of that artificial muscle fibers to sew, so I just duct taped it and called it a day?” And then she realizes the ludicrousy of her sentence, and starts to chuckle. “Okay, yeah, that’d do it.” Trevor and Niara chuckle and laugh again. -- -- Trevor walks out of his dorm to meet up with Drao, the homely tans and browns that make up the hallways, as he reaches Drao. His dorm was exactly like Trevor’s, only that Draovilich was staring away at the window. Trevor peeps in, with confusion lodged on his face. He goes to knock, only for Draovilich to turn his head and greet Trevor’s face in response. “Whoa! Right, you guys can sense that.” “Hmm what? Augh, what’s going on?” He sees Trevor with a tank top and a pair of sweatpants. “Oh. oh, uh… there’s no cutting this, I made a mistake that endangered you and Niara. If you’re here to berate me, then let me have it.” “No, I’m not doing that. I… we just want to ask.” Niara enters the room. Draovilich expression shrinks. He realizes and snarls at himself, anger razing through his teeth. “Hey. Are- are you okay?” Drao lets the silence sing. “This has been an issue since I knew of my ability’s power. Of what I could do, what I am able to do. I think it proved too much for me to handle.” “What happened?” Draovilich hunches over, his world seemingly fades into a black, distorted reflection. “It’s hard to explain.” He takes a small glance at a star, seeing a small gush of orange lash a dark spot on it. “Look, can I make my grievances up to you two?” Drao continues “What? I mean I don’t have anything to fix right now, actually I do, but that’s not important. I wanted to ask, for a while now, but I don’t know how to say it.” “It’s also not that simple. I actively endangered you two, all for some stupid charade. I’m such a fool. I can not go without punishment here.” “Drao, I am not your mother. I am not punishing you just because of a mistake you made. It’s a mistake, it’s an error. Things like this happen… I feel pretentious, but you know what i mean right? “I still risked your lives though.” “Yeah, you did, that is something you did, although, at the same time, we also kinda risked your life at the same time. I mean, what am I even saying.” Niara stops and thinks for a minute. “Right, I wanted to ask about your combat background.” Drao’s body rewinds Niara notices. “Oh.” she glances at Drao’s pupils. A horror and terror strained through the whites of his eyes. He shakes his head. “So, was it that obvious?” “I, uh.” Trevor sees Niara’s difficulty with Drao and approaches. “Hey, would you like some help?” “Yeah, I would.” “Okay. All we really want to know is if you’re doing alright.” Drao does not speak. “Alright, you don’t have to speak if you don’t want to.” “It’s not that I don’t want to speak, I just don’t know how to. I don’t know how to describe it. I can’t talk about it. There’s so much that I don’t know how to look at.” Niara takes another glance at Drao’s sorrow, terrified eyes. “We can help.” “I don’t know how to get it across.” “You don’t have to, we’re here for you.” “And that’s a problem. How do I know I’m not going to make the same mistakes? The ones that scarred me the first time. How will I know if I’m strong enough?” Niara sits by Drao’s bedside. “You won’t. Because you will be.” “What? What do you mean by that.” “Take this from me. I think, we all have similar backgrounds. Sure, they’re very different in many aspects, but there is also a lot that happens that we share. I haven’t told my story to you yet, nor has Trevor, but…” Niara glances at Trevor. “Hm?” “May I?” “Yeah.” “Okay. My story begins as a kid. Growing up, I was mostly a lone child, in families that had like, three kids or more. I would get compared, a lot. And my parents would always judge me on things I sucked at. Math, always a minute behind in calculation. Language, I still have trouble with the ç sound from time to time. Eventually, though, I found a friend, and I found things I was good at. And then everything said I had to lose all of that to be successful. My friend was going to be moving away to another planet, because of a scholarship she had received. My parents said I couldn’t dream of pursuing photography as a career. Pays like pennies compared to my siblings. So I ran. I got manipulated and abused by a… a sexual predator, probably.” Trevor and Drao meet Niara’s empty gaze. “Got sold as a work slave, eventually met another friend, who taught me how to be confident, as well as how to stand my ground and fight back… then I had to kill his terrifying mother with that ability. Then I had to run again, got turned into a soldier for some private military, or I’d be turned in. I don’t even know if it’s even a military, or a militia. Then I feel in love with someone, an operation went awry, and I had to hold her corpse in my hands. Went insane, got revenge, and became a mercenary, a bounty hunter… because what could I do now?” She looks at her palms, and the bruises and scars that laid across her arms. “I still have her knife.” Trevor and Drao stare at her. “Do you want to go, or.” “I mean, I don’t really want to.” “You don’t have to. But, yeah. I had to face separation, betrayal, both from myself and from others, anguish, loss. Trevor had to face those things too. I won’t get into details, but he’s been through s**t too. We’ve all been through it, and it’s not fair to compare, because all of that is real… it sticks with us. But no matter what, we had to deal with it, and we’re now through it too. That means, we all had to go through it. We all had to push through it, and persevere. We had to fight and claw our way through the bullshit, to tunnel out the light on the other side.” Trevor, Drao, and Niara continue to sit, and admire the stars passing by. “We are stronger because of those experiences alone. You shouldn’t worry if you are not, because you already did. You had and still have that strength, and you can do it again. Sure maybe as you get older, it’s going to be slower. Sure as things pile up, s**t will make recovery slower. But you can still, and, or at least for me, so as long as you have done it, it doesn’t matter how long or slow it will take. You can do it, you can do it again and again, and you can push through, and conquer whatever’s on the other side. To me, strength is not what you can do, but what you do, when you can’t do something.” Drao sits and thinks. “I mean…” Drao thinks. A sun begins to walk by the window. “To respond to your previous point. I am just unsure if I will be ready enough to counter my issues, when the time comes.” Niara pans her head. “I may recess again, in fact, I’ve already done so, and I am ashamed that I let myself fall.” “Dude, no, that’s not what happened. You wanted a shortcut, you took it, and now we’re here. That’s what happened. You didn’t fail anyone, you just made a decision, and now you’re facing the results of it. There’s no need to put more pressure on yourself. “I am just afraid that it will happen again.” Niara pauses. “And that, I relate too.” “That I will fail again?” “No. That I will.” Drao takes one gander at Niara, before returning to the sun strolling by. Niara does the same to Drao. “Here’s the thing though, what I’ve learned about the ready thing. You won’t be. A lot of things will come at you, and slap you in the face. Whether you like it or not, whether you wanted it or not. Death, loss, having to leave your home, the ones you loved. I don’t think there was ever a moment where someone was ready to see their most beloveds just disappear right in front of them. My point is, you will never be ready for some of these things, and that’s okay. Sometimes, the best way to get ready, to be ready, is to just take a deep breath, and like I said, just keep pushing, and keep rolling on. Sometimes, it’s better to just run and take the shot than it is to walk and wait for an outcome.” Niara exhales, “I hope to hell that made sense.” “No no, it did. I appreciate your advice. So, okay.” Drao takes a peek at Niara and notices something. “Hm?” “So, you’ve been wearing the same basic outfits since I met you.” “What, what do you mean?” “I mean, this is the fiftieth time you’ve worn those military drabs? And you only wear your most stylistic material oh so rarely. Also, why do you specialize in firearms?” Niara’s face screws up. “Are you going to start questioning my whole existence now too?” “Maybe. That is if you answer my firearm question.” Niara’s eyes roll. “Okay. I mean, I think you know the reason why I choose firearms over magna arms.” “I mean, magna require less aim.” “But are worse at penetrating targets. When it comes to killing something, I’d rather make sure I got them with certainty, rather than just praying that I hit them, although, you’re free to poke holes in that sentence all you like.” “Hm. Have you sprayed and prayed before?” “Yeah, definitely.” “So wouldn’t diamagnetically composite bullets be quite the viable tactic there?” “Tell that to every spacecraft that exists.” “Uh, what’s a magna arm?” Trevor asks. Drao and Niara stare at Trevor. They say at the exact same time. “No do you wanna explain?” “I mean, you seem to know pretty well.” “So should I tell him first or?” They both nod together before Drao says, “Magna arms are in reference to the types of weapon systems that use diamagnetically sensitive material to accelerate rounds. Similar to a coil or rail gun, except significantly less powerful. Typically, these kinds of weapons are found in cultures that were raised on planets that did not have as much explosively reactive materials on hand. Uhh, what else is there to say. More modern variants have competition with newer chemical ballistic weapons as they incorporate electromagnetic acceleration technology to compensate for differing atmospheres.” “Right, and they do have their advantages against normal chem bullets, it’s just they also have caviats that make them annoying, like magna arms rarely need to be cleaned, but you do have to make sure that the barrels are not worn down, they also have a similar issue to electrolasers in that you need to have a good power grid system to keep them charged. It’s just, they can also get pretty expensive up front too.” “Aren’t there hybrid systems though?” Trevor asks “Yes, there are, but they’re, they’re alright. Just, like I said, they’re kinda costly and especially for military applications where logistics is a factor, it really depends on what’s best for you. Anyway, why’d you ask?” “I’m just curious. A lot of the weaponry that exist today would make your life easier.” “I dunno. It’s the one I started with, it’s the one I’m most good at. Like, I’ve tried plasma weapons, thermal lasers, magna arms, and stuff. Meh, I just prefer guns. Plus I got most of mine for really cheap. Like, I swiped my scout rifle from a surplus store that was selling old gear, and my shotgun was at a really low price from a gun show a while back. Also, man, I wear other clothes too, it’s not like I wear this all the time, besides why do you care?” “Because you look rather shabby, and I apologize if I offend you, but it’s not in a graceful way either.” Niara stares at him, predictably offended by his comment, “I… look, it’s not like I go shopping every day finding the newest and shiniest clothes, I just wear whatever I have in hand.” “Yes, but that’s what I mean, whatever you have in hand is the most miserable wardrobe I’ve seen to date. Trevor has a more refined and classy wardrobe in comparison and.” “But he has basically the same stuff!” “Yes, but it has more of a personal touch to it, in a more, his way or style.” Trevor glances at his tank top, which had a Pixar logo on it. “I mean, I’m just a fan of animation.” “Right, it speaks to you because you have a taste in that niche.” “Right, and mine doesn’t?” “I believe this is the tenth day you’ve worn this. And it’s not even personable. It just looks like you’ve been stuck with the clothes you’ve had since your schooling days. You deserve better than this.” “I, well it’s not like I have much in my wardrobe anyway.” Niara’s voice decrescendoes as she speaks. “Mm.” He stands as she barely sputters, “I mean, I do wash it.” Drao eyes her a little bit. Her clothes were a bit small for her, where her body was barely fitting and whatever original color it was, was worn down and greyed out. “I feel, uh tight. Like, these are some of the clothes I had for, like a while? So I’ve gotten used to it.” “How long have you had them?” “Uh.” she looks at her limp, lazy body, a silence protruding between the two of them “Mhm. Do not answer that.” “Uhh, when was the last time you bought clothes? If you don’t mind me asking?” Niara clenches her teeth, “like, five, three years ago? Somewhere around there?” “And besides, don’t you have to repair your armor too?” “I, yeah, that’s something I have to do too.” “Huh, I guess. Probably some new parts then, need to improve the modem and routing system on the SkyLancer, so maybe.” “Then I am settling it. I believe a trip to a mall would be an exquisite idea for us right at this moment.” The two of their eyes bounce open. “What?” “A mall?” “Most of malls around my town were shut down because of Savannah™ shopping services.” “I haven’t been to a mall since like, literal years.” “Mm, then I shall share with you my favorite market locations. Although, the one I have in mind is a quite common and simple, shared, what would the word be. I guess, locally popular, that’s it, location.” Niara and Trevor continue to stare. “S**t. Didn’t know you were quite the browser, or shopper.” Drao smirks, “Indeed, I am, or was. Perhaps, our travels there will reveal more about my old trade dispositions.”
-- --
Luxun Galleria “Hello and welcome to Galleria, Luxun’s most premium interstellar shopping centers.” An intercom announces to Trevor as he entered through two rotating white, gold, and purple rings, ornate with both fine strips and decor of gold and ivory, yet plagued with holographic banners of advertisements animating in and out of the rings. “This is quite the shopping mall.” Trevor says, who was eating a bagel from the back.” “Hey Trevor, what is this?” Drao asks, “That is a bagel from the store. There is a deep fried variation called a donut, but those things are unhealthy. Also I wouldn’t eat that if I were you, I’m very certain that’s at least like, two months old.” Drao takes the bagel out from a white gel like wrapping, very similar to the one that he was encased with back in Titan. “Even with the stasis gel?” “Yeah, I’d still wouldn’t trust it. Last time I ate one of those, I had the s***s for weeks.” Drao’s brows pop up, before he shakes his head. “Why does it have a hole in the center?” “I don’t know why actually. You can ask Alphas.” The cockpit plunges into an awkward silence, Out of the blue, Niara comes online to speak. “So I have a question for you, Draovilich. That one girl, guy, person, from like when we first met. Is that all true?” Drao sighs, “yes, indeed, a lot of the praise they gave me was true. Whether you believe all of it, or think I’m just inflating my own ego, is up to you.” “Jeez, yeah no wonder they were all over you. You made the heat sinks?” “Well, I didn’t make the heat sinks, but I did provide detailed documentation on a whole assortment of materials such as liquid nitrogen, ammonia, steel, titanium, ongoing, for their thermal output, conductivity, and insulative properties, as well as other factors such as rigidity, weight, density. I also suggested some new materials for future, experimental compositions, and asserted some feedback on, at the time, current model heatsinks.” “Oh. I do wonder though, how did the idea of disintegrating anything came to be, that could not have been a first thought when you were designing it, right?” “I mean, it was not. Umm, for the company I was currently under for temperature advisory, one of the things that they wanted to incorporate was a sort of self destruct system for the heat sinks. Apparently, many activists from differing blue collar exploration regions were furious at both the high waste that these ships were leaving, as well as the lack of responsibility that the companies were taking for them. In order to reduce costs of clean up, they asked the labs, us, to fabricate a material that would relieve them of that duty. I remember the development process was quite a fascinating one. I learned a lot about submaterial nano electronics, as well as the process of how one goes about engineering smart materials. I was very impressed.” Drao scratches his chin, “Needless to say, we finalized the designs, and prepped the devices for use in the company’s spacecraft.” “You think the CEOs of those ship companies got to keep their seats of money?” “Hm. I would most certainly say so. Intriguingly however, I remember there was a lot of buzz from our company specifically in regards to the new development. The concept was not a new one, definitely inspired by another organization, but apparently, people really wanted ours?” “So what’s your theory on what happened?” “Huh. So this company got really famous out of no where then?” “Indeed. Very much indeed.” Drao leans his elbow on an armrest, staring at his reflection in the cockpit glass. The SkyLancer projects a holographic warning, before landing on a circular mechanical scaffolding, snapping flat when the landing gear meet the plates. The teal cockpit opens, revealing the astonishing expanse of the space. The calming, cool, pool like tints of blue and green stretched out over the hanger, with gradients transitioning to more golden and opulent colors to indicate the entrances, with a bridge above them. Trevor clicks a button on his belt. Nujabes: Horizon was playing. “Also, how come you don’t have a ship?” Niara asks, ash she grabbed her purse from her ship. “I prefer public transit. Ships are too much for my taste.” “Too much, for a being who can bend fire?” Trevor says “Kindle, but fair. Still, having to refuel every minute, as well as do maintenance every few minutes sounds like a total slog. No offense.” Trevor blows his hair away, “None taken.” Trevor tuning in a sarcastic note to his voice as he says “Hmph.” Drao grunts, peering his eye to him. “Anyway, yeah. There’s just so many things that ships have you do, that I cannot be bothered with. It’s just an enormous amount.” Trevor goes to say something, before he realizes he agrees with that statement. He pouts, “Ah, shoot, you have a point.” he admits halfheartedly “I mean, to each to their own, no problem if you actually enjoy the engineering and tinkering side of shipwrighting.” Drao turns, doing almost graceful bowing gestures as he speaks. “Yeah, like cannonballing and surfing through the sky with nothing but your fists.” “Is that a sport? Damn, and I thought our sports were extreme.” “What do y’alls do.” “We have a sport where we’d outfit our trucks and cars with giant f*****g wheels, with giant f*****g engines, and send them crashing together in giant f*****g arenas.” “We still do it, it’s an old one.” “Well, now that’s quite the name for a type of truck and a few sports. You said that I was a bit much with my tastes? Because quite clearly, you all have some unsubtle tastes too.” “Hah, yeah. And that’s just the start!” The ceiling of a hallway had a glass panel facing upwards to the upper levels, as well as multicolored lines directing to random places on the station, as they walk out and on to the establishment. The crew all stare and ogle at the bountiful and lavish gallery of shops and supermarkets, all painted and embellished with heavenly golds and whites, with purple elegantly throned in between the two colors. “This was my parents’ favored shopping malls back when I was still with them, in their care. Luxun Galleria, these interiors, their exteriors, their history and their legacy, is how they get their name.” Drao announces, “Alrighty, then where to mister fancy pants?” Niara ambles close to Drao, juggling her shoulders at him, before tilting her hips and perking her hand to the side. “I do not really know. To wherever you may please, wish, or desire then?” He splays his fingers out like he was acting for a play. “Heh.” Niara looks down. There was a quartz monument, with water fountaining a sculpture near the top, raining down into a deluxe pool, which swords into a translucent line underneath the glass. Niara and Drao dabble and dribble into a clothing store, “Well, I’m off to get some parts then. Peace.” Trevor flashes a peace sign on his fingers before he parts ways, leading away to a blue and red striped store. “Okay, I’m kinda curious about your point on my fashion choices? So, what, am I going to become a hypebeast or something?” “Here. Come with me.” Niara and DraovilichStand together in a red white clothing store, with a humongous V logo inside the store. “What am I looking at?” Draovilich points at the roster, saying in order: “Jackets, coats, t-shirts, shorts.” “Yeah, I know they’re clothes Drao, but what makes that much more unique to my other ones?” “They’ll actually suit you, and fit you. Here, why don’t I lose myself and let you explore the contents of the store.” “Yeah, okay. So what happens if they don’t have my size? Heck, doubt they’ll have my my species collection.” “Oh, they will. Trust me.” “Hmm, and how do you know that?” “This is Vivacia, a super fashion umbrella corporation that houses a many a thousand fabrics and wares for all sorts of species. You’ll find something. Oh, and if they don’t, they will find a way to tailor it for you.” She takes a small gander at the V, “X’plains the V. Wait, you knew this all from your parents?” “They are a wealthy pair, if that clarifies your question.” “Oh, that explains a lot.” “Hmm, do I give off the spoiled, snobby, overprivileged undertones that the wealthy give?” “Oh, so you’re saying I fit neatly into my stereotype?” “Heh. Sorry. I apologize.” “Ah, it’s whatever. But really, your traits actually makes sense now. So, wait, what is being rich like?” “Mm. Overrated.” “What, you could have everything you want.” “Except actually driven, passionate, con forte, people. Everything’s about the fame, the glory, the money. The visage, the image, not the journey, nor the message. Eh, it’s all an act. Nobody cares about the values or virtues. Everyone’s after the golden frame. Or, you know the importance of familial connection or the bond of those who has grown with you, or the grace and joy of humble possessions. You lose the scent of the flowers, if you’re too busy trying to grab them all.” “Oh.” Niara looks at a jacket. It was red and made with a softly knit wool. “Sheesh. So, that explains why you didn’t mention it.” “I mean, it was also because it was just not that important. Besides, I despise conversing about my family or my life for that matter. There are just a lot more fascinating phenomena to discuss, or at least for me.” Niara exhales a tiny bit, trying to find an answer to his statement. “So, is that why you turned that adorer down, the one that said they looked up to you?” Niara says, He answers, but with hesitation: “Yes, umm. That is a reason.” Niara perks her eyebrows at the phrase before she continues to browse through the selection of Clurvaen tops and blouses before hovering her hands over the fabric. She sighs, before saying, “You know Drao, if you want to, you know it’s okay to admit things right? Like, what, I got better because of it. I mean, I don’t want you thinking you gotta admit or anything, I’m not trying to pressure you.” Drao giggles at her statement, “No, I understand. I am also a relatively new member so, that’s fair. I don’t want to admit because, I apologize, but, I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to admit.” “No, no, no, no, don’t be. Take your time. Took me a long while to realize what the hell I was doing, and a whole lot more to realize what I had been doing, or what I had become was… insane. I know what I said, but seriously, don’t think you need to do anything because of me. I’m just, I was just trying to pep you up.” “Heh. I appreciate it.” “You appreciate me?” Drao suggests a pair of socks to Niara. They had cute smiley faces on the black fabric. “I mean.” Drao pauses for a second, “I just didn’t want to see you in, whatever rags this could be.” “Haha, very funny. Also did you give me these because I’m a girl?” Niara giggles a little. “Savoring, Okay, winetaster Opir.” “What, what did I say?” “I’m sorry, you just sound so formal after you gave me a pair of literal smiley faced socks. I just can’t.” she continues to laugh. “Sorry, I don’t know why that’s so funny to me.” “Who’s Opir?” “S**t, oh f**k. How do I describe this weirdo? Know any eccentric cooks?” “There was this one time I met Radan Gormsey. Not really, a cohort asked me to attend one of his most illustrious cooking shows. Quite the fellow, I must say.” “Radan Gormsey? Damn, that guy? What, how do you even get connections like that?” “Don’t query me on that, I’m gambling on my luck there.” “Oh my, how do I not know of this character.” “He’s quite the somebody in our circle of planets, but apparently because of his insane obsessions, he is seen as the ‘crazy kook of the mountain that you should never dare talk to’, person in the culinary world. So that may explain it.” Drao tries to say something before he breaks face, and laughs, “And I sound like this man?” “Well, the way you said savoring sounded like something Opir would say.” He looks around. “You know what, I should be hands off. Locate whatever you want, you should decide your style, not me.” Niara nods to his words. She stares at the smiley face socks.
-- -- “Hello. Welcome to the ERC emporium.” as a hologram of a segmented cube appears in front of them. “Hello, so, my sylph has told me that this store has both battery and internet data modules for starships, is that correct?” “Indeed. Which series of data modules would you like?” “The Zap L series?.” “I am unfortunately obligated to tell you that all L series quantum modules are currently depleted, and our latest shipment will be delayed due to the uncertain statuses of our suppliers.” “Wait, what? What’s happening?” “Unfortunately, the most information that I can give at this minute regarding the situation, is that our suppliers are undergoing a lower shipment volume than in the previous periods. I am apologetic to tell you that we are unable to fairly sell you the goods you request, due to the lower amount of supplies that have reached this current retail location. We once again apologize for this inconvenience.” “Alphas?” Trevor says in his helmet. “The only thing they told me is mostly the same statement. The supplies have not successfully landed to these retailers within the previous months.” “Well that’s strange? Has an executive come to see anything?” “So far, multiple executives have investigated yet none of brought up anything.” “We could investigate.” “That is an option. It’s not a wise option though.” “Alright, what about the batteries?” sound exits his helmet finally. A similar message plays to Trevor. He notices a few people in formal dress in the back. “What’s going on there?” “Some of the executives that I was talking about.” “What does this store have at a reasonable price?”
-- -- Niara brings a blouse to her chest and examines it. “It’s too big.” “I think the pattern looks good on you.” Drao says, from across the aisle. “Doesn’t change the size though.” “I mean, there’s a size-changing machine in the changing rooms if you need it.” “What? Why didn’t you say so?” “I thought you understood my comment about tailoring.” Her mouth echoes an ‘O’. “Then where are the changing rooms?” Drao points: a sign dances to call her in. While she enters, three girls take photos of themselves in their new clothing, all of them as gleeful as a newly wedded couple. Lucky b******s. There’s no way I could muster the courage to face mine. Niara thinks, as a mirror tells her that a scan had been completed. She slides the blouse under the device before the cloth loads onto the mirror, with virtual contours outlining her torso and body. She glides down on a slider, before the blouse shrinks too tight on her reflection. “I guess I can get a crop top.” She spots an “Advanced Adjustment” setting and presses it, as it then switches to a more complex diagram of virtual levers for different parts of the cloth. She notices presets and taps one, as it instantly resizes to be medium size. Niara then resizes the shoulder width, the arm holes, and presses enter. The whole blouse is then sliced in half, shrunken and then restitched by nanites, meeting the specifications requested by the program exactly. Niara picks it up and threads it over her body. Her shoulders rotate, raise, and flatten to try and get to fit right, only to feel wrong. She slips it off, continues to readjust her clothing before finally. Hey, I actually do look pretty good in this. Drao was right. A note of guilt suddenly stings her. She perceives the scars on her body, the crimes that she has committed, and presses them against her reflection, her face, her beauty in the moment. Her smile was no longer happy, it turned into the most revolting scar on her body. A few redundant moments of disdained silence purses the ambience. This isn’t right. Nothing continues to trace the air. “I can’t wear this.”
-- --
Niara’s head hangs low, staring at the floor, handbag holding all the clothes that she bought. “Hey now, this is much better than before, right?” Niara doesn’t respond, she does not look right. “Uh, Niara.” She stays silent. “Niara? Are you feeling well?” She wanders to a bench at the side of the weirdly vacant corridors of the store, and sits down. “I…” she glances at her lap. Her legs only dangling in twine with the cold nippy air that twirled through. “I…I feel wrong.” The massive halls of the Galleria stings another tinge of doubt onto Niara, glancing around at the groups of friends and families that are sprawling over the place. Niara begins to compact her back down, trying to hide into the crowds of the people, only making her more obvious. “I’m sorry, I dunno.” “If it helps you, I think you are doing better.” “Yeah, I don’t, I don’t know. It’s just like, I don’t feel right.” She takes another glance at her legs, the two seemed wimpy and timidly. “I don’t know. I, I wish…” Niara sighs, “I have to go. I don’t.” Niara stands up and takes a glance at Drao. She turns back and focuses her eyes over the view of the overhang, and towards the ground beneath her. Drao asks, “Wait! What’s going on?” “I, I’m scared. I need to think and concentrate. I just need to think. I need.” Niara looks to an escalator near her. She takes another glance, “I, I don’t. I, I don’t know. I just need to go.” Drao stretches his hand but it was too late, Niara was moving to the escalator, she steps on and sees Drao almost recoiling from what was happening. Drao yells, fifteen steps behind her, “Wait, where are you going? You’ve done nothing wrong!” “I, just stop trying to justify my actions!” “I’m not trying to rectify your actions in the past! I just want to aid you. Maybe you don’t believe it, but I believe you’ve done more than enough to reconcile. You’re not the same person as you were before!” “I don’t think so. I don’t think I ever changed!” She starts to sprint away and into the bay. “No, Niara!” Drao leaps and glides to the floor. Trevor catches a glimpse of the two of them in the nick of time, abandoning everything he was doing. “What happened?” Trevor asks, “I don’t know what happened! I don’t know what happened. I don’t know.” Something failed in Drao, Trevor felt it. His legs looked like they were going to buckle. His eyes straining, body limped to the side, but he was still trying to stand. Trevor stares back at Niara’s last location -- -- Niara trips on a fence pole, tumbling her to the ground. Her breathing almost runs away from her lungs. “F****n…” she barely whisps out, her breathing becoming irregular. Her hands, fingers splayed across the floor, as she notices cold, harsh scarlets bleeding and swimming through the air, like a fresh kill in the deep sea. A store stands in front, with jagged red, violent blacks, and sharp fonts piercing its gaze deep into Niara’s psyche. She’s stuck. Her scars that ridged deep into her skin lurked back into her sight. The memory of her own smile, the sight of her own blood blanketed body. Her own eyes glowing a vengeful white. The feeling of the rounds hitting her skin, shattering, rattling, and rippling through her, yet how they didn’t shake her, how she still stood in the end. “How, what do I do?” A perverted stench nets around her, blotting the surface of her vision before a ticking noise could be heard, slowly tapping at the back of her mind. Tick. Tick. Tick. Get up. She pushes herself up and leans onto a corner. She peers onto the inside of the store. Aisle signs that read, “Ammunition, Arms, Armor Plating.” she takes a peek to her left. Two stores, a green and brown photography store and a sporting good store stood right next. She stares at her scars. She stares at her own reflection. Suddenly a voice calls out. “Wait. Niara? Niara!” She almost missed her own name being called, as instead, she only heard a creak in the a door in the armor and arms store. She gives a peep before the whole scene tunnels by a hundred miles to the man calling her name. The Son was staring right back at her. They both take a second glance before realizing, their eyes lock on and align with each other. “Niara? Niara!” Drao and Trevor finally arrive at the scene, Drao clutching on to Niara’s handbag still. Niara loses her composure, suddenly everything was happening at light speed. “Who are those two, and wait what’s going on?” The Son says, “Who is he?” Trevor asks “What? I… I don’t know, I don’t know alright. I just need to be alone, okay? These past everything, I can’t, f*****g… can’t.” Her eyes scramble, her heart and lungs mush and pound. The room kneels in silence to her voice. “I need to go, okay, I- I need to go! I have to go, I’m sorry, I, I don’t know!” She sprints away from the store. Drao reaches for Niara before he stops himself. He could not even get himself to say anything, despite every fiber of his mind forcing him too. Trevor catches this, “Drao, it isn’t your fault.” Trevor starts to console before Draovilich abandons the scene, with only a handbag that was left to be seen. Trevor panics, snapping his sight at every single thing at the room in front of him, including a small stickered, oceanic tinted rubber handle jutting out of the handbag. Finally, Trev comes to realizes it was only him, the Son and the clerk in the store that remained. He then takes his own turn to glance at his reflection. “Are they going to be okay?” the Clerk says. Nothing. The room disintegrates to silence instead. -- -- Drao sits behind a door. Cold, distant lights shiver the inside of a stall. His hands clump together, eyes focus on the streaks in his arms. He could see fire and only fire. A village set alight in a horrid and violent portrait of gore, embers, and burnt skin. His eyes close, feeling nothing but the lack of organic warmth in the air. It was only cold, only warmed by hostile fire. Dirt scuffles away from his knees contacting the ground, tears softening the soil. A scarred flag raised above him, black and brown corrupting the proud red, yellow, and black tints of the flag, as a new white and blue and purple flag pillaged the old. “We did it! The enemy has no hope!” Men and women all around where Draovilich stood, with blue and purple strewn everywhere on their plates, they all paraded and stomped all over the town’s black ruins. One of the women walks over to the kneeling Drao and asks, “Why are you so sad? This is what you wanted right? To be a hero?” The fire roars brighter, launching him back to the white cold lights above him. A screeches impales deep inside Drao’s mind, the smell of sliced skin reeks iron into the cold air surrounding him. A red hot edge burning out of his fist sashes a new streak amongst the graveyard of streaks that resided before. He slits again, this time drawing it out, the line caving deeper and deeper into his arm. And then another streak, and then another streak, each growing in rage and ferocity, gashing lower and lower. Blood rains to the toilet below, as simple droplets tickle the water through out the room. An abrupt rise in heat floats through Drao’s senses, his whole body quivers him awake to the activity near the washroom. A long, brash, scornful sizzle hisses; the new crimson stripes kilns onto his arm as he opens the door.
-- --
An open observatory looks up to the dark heavens. Niara leans over a railing, her eyes trapped gazing under a mask of cold, and empty space, that completely barred her from being able to cherish the warm, glorious wonders of the sun seeping in. What am I doing here? Why am I so terrible at everything? I'm a terrible person, so that’s what I have to be, right? She looks up. A red sun gazes. Ruby, yet distorted, stained to be crimson, sinks through the interior of the observatory. Niara spies the space above. The stars, the rubble, the nearby solar systems floating. They’re wrong, I’m not like that. I’m just a pathetic loser, who can’t do anything right, that can only do harm and hate to others. I will always run away. I will always be the worst person. I will always be a monster. I will never change. I have never changed. I can never change. Her scars duel with her tattoos within the shine of the vengeful light Slowly, she paces her eyesight around the glass, still admiring the wondrous view with her fur. “No one’s here. I’ve never understood anything. I don’t know, why life got so complicated, my family, my distant family, f*****g society. Everything wants me to do something, this one thing. I have to do this, I am to do this if I am a good person. My school, my teachers, everybody. They all want and tell me these, things, are my obligations. That I must do. And, plus, all those other f*****g years. ‘For the good of my future’ yeah f*****g right.” she spits out. She spies her forearm again. She continues to witness the mental duel of her scars and her tattoos against the veil of the blood that surrounded them. Silence. “I am so tired.” she barely forces out, her body could barely stand either, as she trembled towards the support beam, the only thing giving her strength and refuge in this observatory. “I wish I could go back. I wish I wasn’t so scared. I wish for a lot of things. Why won’t I change?” She puts her entire weight over the railing, before her eyes lose themselves into the vast body of space above. “It’s.. What happens when I go back? What will Myrane think of me? Imagine. Her long lost friend. The one that has abandoned her. She has just turned into this thing. This monster. What happened to me? How can I ever go back? How could I ever return.” Memories, of blood, bullets, lightning, lasers, stars, explosions, knife cuts singe inside her, her legs wallowed and buckled, yet her arms had never been more endurant than they were now. “I’ve never felt so powerful as I do now. Never.” she stares around. Still no one was around her. “What am I doing? Why did I even come here. I’m not a good person, I’m a monster, I can never change.” A tapping sound pounds the glass out of nowhere, jumping her right back to the real world. It was just some debris smacking the glass. There was no crimson, but a very graceful autumn color that grazed Niara’s body. She sighs. She notices her reflection, while a shot of black armor stared right back at her. Then her eyes focus and pan to the real person staring back. Scars, and tattoos staring back. A few more black armored goons walk by the observatory window, she remembers each minute her ears sung and stung from the bullets singing in the air, bashing and stampeding her armor, yet how she stood ever so still and strong against them. She sees her tattoos. Suddenly she can see her friends right by her. “I remember I would admire this sun set with my family. How beautiful it still is too. The red sun.” Myrane Suddenly Takoy’s voice interrupts. “Wanna hear the story of how these red suns are interpreted? Or at least in the eyes of earthen cultures? Apparently, some believe the color red symbolizes evil, bloodshed, and destruction, while in others, fortune, warmth, and life. Like fire itself. Like the sun, the source of all life. What a beautiful idea, for such a common type of star.” Niara stared away for a minute, before admiring the rich ruby, amber, and gold the sun was so generously basking them with. “What do you think?” “What do you think? Suddenly, the black armored goons were situating a weird sewer grate sized onto the outside of the glass. Niara’s daydream came to a close as she pushed herself back to reality. The squad on the glass with an equal sign brandishing a sash on their shoulder, continued to set up the grate device, before thumbing each other up. “What? wait.`` She thinks as the device goes from green to red. She backs away from the observatory and peeks into a port. The guards had the same equal sign sash. Oh no. She springs away from the observatory, before registering that all of the port entrances were blocked off by guards, that all of the railings were occupied by guards, and even the bathrooms were secured by guards. She breaks for it, before screams break loose. A family was left as a pummelled puddle on the floor, with one guard pointing their barrel at Niara next. Niara and the guard share gazes for two seconds, as the whole station keels out of nowhere, the artificial gravity sending Niara down into a wall between two shops. She trips and kicks a little before she lands right onto her feet, but it was too late. Niara was facing down the barrel of a guard, as she stared up. The guard aims. A loud shriek claws through, as Niara blocks her face.
-- -- -- -- -- -- **author’s notes. Yeah, not a great cliffhanger, I know. This is meant to act as the end of this part of the story. It took me four years to make this thing, and it’s about to be five in the next few months, and I, really want to move on from this section story and see what happens next, because I gotta lot of stuff planned, and I cannot wait. In fact, these author notes might change too. We’ll see, but first though, I just wanna say a few things.
intercom system as a voice booms through the station. “Attention all. We have you at gunpoint! Any attempt to be a hero and you will meet a swift execution!” Niara walks to the front desk, seeing a man handling the desk. “Do you all have heavy r? Especially from this retailer? Or no?” She flings a business card with the name Virtus over to the seller. “We don’t have many Virtus products in stock, but I can get you a contact who does. Do you want me to hook you up with them?” “Oh no, um, I just need heavy armor. I used Virtus because it had movement benefits.” “Movement benefits? Wouldn’t the exoskeletal models be better for those tasks?” “I … yeah, but I prefer something that isn’t going to break the bank.” “You’re talking about older models? Because the exoskeletal models aren’t expensive anymore. Actually, they’re not much more than those heavy armors anymore actually, and I'm going, to be honest.” he gets closer to whisper, Niara backing up, “I just want to let you know of my honest opinion.” The man continues. Niara brings her ear close. “Our selection is very light, designed against weapons that are low power. If you want something stronger, I can lead you to somewhere better.” The storekeeper backs away, “I can see if I can get you hooked to something special.” he continues. “Uhh, it doesn’t need to be super exotic, I just need something that is robust and good against piercing.” “Exactly, since you still want that armor, I want to make it worthwhile.” Niara looks around. “I can’t. I’m sorry.” “Oh. Oh well, it was a pleasure talking to you.” “Yea, I guess.” “Wait, you know that woman?” Niara backsteps from the store, before running off again, While they were talking,Niara notices her foot was hooked onto glass shards on the window sill, her head wavering over the gun shop “Niara!” Trevor and The Son both shout, “We gotta get her off from there!” “We can’t.” “Why the hell not?” The son points to the balconies across from them. Men stared them down through their iron sights and scopes. “Well, what do we do?” While they are talking, Niara attempts to fidget her foot beneath the glass, seething from the edges slithering below her skin. She shoves her leg down, forcing the glass to break away as wings of a butterfly, This weighs her to the music store below, her arms vise the wall. The men don’t even flinch. D****t, where the hell is Drao? The Son’s and Trevor’s arms reach to catch Niara, only for her grip to loosen. She attempts to claw her way up from the window beartrap before her stomach slumps on the barrier, her legs only resting against the window sill. She leans herself as far she could before her body suplexes through the glass The men above flick to the location of the sound. They see just the faint body of Niara through the glass . “Niara?” She subtly points to the men above, before she plays dead. The men lose attention in the area, Niara finally gets up. “You’re okay! You’re okay!” The son hugs Niara, their grip crunching harder than a thousand tigers’ jaws. “Are you okay?” Trevor says, “Shut!” she points to the men above, “Where’s Drao?” “I haven’t seen him, he hasn't come back yet. Oh no.” The son notices the haunting number of streaks, scars, and bloody lines on her body, and realizes. “Niara? What the hell has happened since we last met?” “Nothing important, did you get anything of where he was?” “No, he just left-” Niara peeks, seeing that the focus and attention had floated away from their center before. She observes her surroundings, noting the positioning of everyone: they were all too far to engage. “Is the shop employee still here?” Takoy and Trevor point behind the register, Niara crouch walks towards “What, what do you want from me?” she whispers, before the employee freaks, “You’re kidding me right, I’m not going to try that.” “Is there a way to exit the store that’s not in front? And do you happen to have some equipment just lying around?” a loud ping strikes, a ricochet bounces a perfect 90 degrees off the counter. “F**k, Yeah? What- Why?” “I can find him, and if I have these, then I definitely-” “No. Niara, if they have the security to keep the stores and the entrances under lock, what makes you think they don’t have security around back?” The Son says. “He has a point. They’re going to keep people out as much as they’re trying to keep people in. Alphas?” Nothing. “Figures.” “So what now? Are we going to do nothing?” Niara says, The voice on the intercom shouts “Now listen carefully, this is what we want. For such a long time, the elite has tied us down and spat on us with lies, excuses, and threats. Now, they will feel our pain. We want the following people to reconcile for their actions. Maniki Ha, for selling poison to our youth-” Eventually, they reached the name, “Takoy Illow, for funneling weapons and armor to criminals.” Niara’s head snaps to The Son, “What? When did I do that? Those were criminals?” A small fire ignited behind Niara’s eyes, “I don’t know, really!” he shrugs. She rolls her eyes, as her irises capture the iridescent lizard’s stature from afar. “Drao!” her voice chimes, noticing hesitation in his gestures and body carriage. You’ve never hesitated before, why now? Drao’s body slumps on the side of the wall. An imaginary cold sea, levels at half his lax body, and warm air hugs him on the other. His attention glacially stands, spying as much as he could, but nothing could lighten his back. I don’t want to keep fighting anymore.” His eyelids fall in unison. I have already hurt enough of my patrons. Why can’t I do anything to repair my tarnished life? I just want things to be happier. Why can’t I make the right decisions? “Hah! Take a look at fryhead. What, can't you depend on that chi to defend yourself?” Drao’s eyes fall flat. Something tastes wrong. Heat surrounds him in a hazy circle, the cold seems to whirl and loop over him. “ Heh, guess these [make up a racial slur] can’t handle normal society, f*****g freaks.” A goon smashes the stock of his rifle onto the downed man’s head Please. I just want something to go right. I’m tired of losing. I’m tired of being dissatisfied. I’m so tired of not having anything go right. I’m tired. He tunes out everything except for his breathing. His slow, aching breathing. I made a promise that I wouldn’t do more harm to anybody, to not further dishonor the name of the Sages, or my people. But at the same time, my people, my companions… friends depend on me-” The men continue to toy and prod his body. “I can’t hurt anymore people. I can’t.” Time slows. “But these are criminals. What the hell is the right decision here!” The men above them were kicking him, spitting insults at his face. Then I guess it’s time to make another dumb decision. He cycles through the several thousands of possibilities-- nothing. No decision could he make. He balls up further as the assault from the goons ensued. -- --
“This is my fault. I sent him away. I literally threw away his gesture of apology. He did this for me, and I threw it away. Why, why can’t I change!” Trevor goes to say something before Niara presents her index finger. “And now Drao is in danger because of me. So much was destroyed because of me.” Her fist clenches. “No. I’m not letting him get hurt. I’m done with the carnage, I’m done seeing everything I love get hurt. Whoever these c***s think they are, they’ve got another thing coming-” “Niara, stop!” Takoy screams, “What, why are you stopping me?” A gunshot pings the side of the cashier counter, Niara only managing a mere nanometer away from the round. “That’s why!” Her breathing grows more violent. “Niara… I-” Trevor tries again, only for her tearfrothing eyes to reply back. “What has happened since the last time we met?” Takoy urges, a flaming concern seethes behind his voice. “It’s too hard to explain now, just… Okay here. Takoy, can you get me a guard’s uniform?” “What? Why?” “I’ll tell you, just do we have access to those?” “Uh, I mean I guess so, I’ll have to go up there eventually. Yeah?” “Okay. Then here’s my plan…”
Niara’s chest and body slips and fastens a light set of armor onto her before escorting Takoy to the mall’s center. Her feet settle into an elevator and the platoon that she accompanies reach the top, seeing the haunting gallery of people kneeling at gunpoint, bags over their faces. A few goons push the defending squad forward to the stand, as the rest of the terrorists drop Takoy to his knees and bury his head under a rummage sack. Niara takes glimmers all around him, seeing all of the enemy locations, she notes of the one behind her. She visualizes something before the train is shoved off course by a voice: Niara reviews the area one more time, her hand twitches and gropes her handgun’s handle. Something prods her mind, a small ticking sound tickles her brain. Her eyes pick out a goon behind her that was playing around with their rifle, A few seconds more. “For all of these years, these vermin have done nothing but squander our resources, and scrapped our potential. Now, they pay-” Niara kicks The Son away from the Monologuer before drawing her gun towards the leader. A trigger pulls.
© 2025 AmateurGuyWithAPen |
Stats
26 Views
Added on January 17, 2025 Last Updated on January 17, 2025 Tags: #idkwhatimdoing #originalcreatio Author
|
Share This
Email
Facebook
Twitter
Read Request
My Library
Subscribe
Flag Writing