10073047

9:56pm

My head feels like it was crushed by a bus. I got hit by a car when I was 10, got a lot of fractures and bruises, and the feeling isn't very different. I can hear someone in the fog of my brain...Kiryo?

"Wake up!"

My eyes flutter painfully open. They burn like hell and everything is dark and unrefined. I can see wide eyes and really, REALLY orange hair in the relative blur. Ah, yes, it is Kiryo. 

"Thank the Aegis you're conscious. I could only get the emergency mending kits to work, the pods won't respond to anything, you know, and frankly why would they. But I didn't think you'd wake up so soon.. Your vitals are good, but don't move too much. You've got a few cracked ribs and your right arm is broken, not to mention the huge amount of bruises you got. So far our pursuers seem to have given up so I'm able to take the time to fix you guys."

Oh, right. He is the one with medical training. 

I feel so detached from everything. My body is screaming and I'm slowly growing deaf to it, and to my friend blabbering on, too. All I know is I'm hurt and I'm getting fixed. I feel like I've earned a nap. My eyes start to close. I feel so warm. 

I get slapped in the face. 

"You don't get to sleep! You might not even wake up!"

Wha-what?

I finally feel actually awake. I try to sit up but everything inside of me feels like glass shards. I groan, even my throat feeling like it got stabbed repeatedly. 

"W-wait don't get up so fast! You'll hurt yourself!"

"Don't care." I grumble. "Where's Star?"

As if summoned, I hear him grunt in pain somewhere behind us. Okay so everyone is alive. That's good. 

"Seven? Damage report?"

She pops into existence like she always does. She looks pretty banged up herself. 

"Nothing the repair drones can't fix in a few hours. We've sustained heavy damage but no living casualties. As long as nothing-"

She's cut off by the sound of ships hitting through the atmosphere. 

"Two ships approaching our location. Confirmed to be the hostiles from before." She groans. If I didn't know she was an AI, I'd believe her to be really irritated right now. She pauses for a moment. "Energy signature confirms them as Empire ships."

Shit. 

The mood changes immediately to panic. I scramble to get up, almost screaming as I try to move my right arm. Kiryo hurries to Starchaser and gets him up. He seems fit enough to move, so we have a chance. I grab what I can with my broken bones and they both do the same. Weapons, flares, coats, anything. The outside temperature already seeping into the cabin tells us we're off to a rough, cold walk. 

"My sensors detect a cave system two hundred meters from here. You may reach it before they land. I will engage camouflage procedures once you're all out. You can't stay here." Seven gets the side door open for us as she speaks. She looks worried. We all assent and rush out. 

What hit me first isn't the cold, it's the dark. The sky has no moon, no stars, nothing. There's no way to tell the ground from the heavens except with our flashlights. We run our best, Star limping in the back, Kiryo up front. The black wasteland shakes as our enemies land behind us. I trip on something hollow and hit the cold earth. I hiss, the pain in my arm and chest making me go blind. I turn the light towards the lump I hit and my blood runs colder. A skull stares emptily back at me, with broken mandibles and vacant sockets. My friends help me back up and we hurry faster towards our only hope of safety. 

10:45pm

I think we're lost. Seriously. Not to mention I'm having trouble breathing and my chest is on fire. God, I'd give anything to sit down. We stopped for Ashen to make Star a splint for his leg with some broken pieces of wood we found. Seems this cave system was used for mining and there's some frozen lumber strewn about. 

Calling Kiryo by his CODE is so weird. Being called LightRunner is even weirder. If we're being chased by the Empire we have to use them, so we do, but still. There's also been no contact from Lao or anyone from the resistance. I've been sending messages requesting help and backup ever since we started to feel safer. My PDA is glitching like crazy, though, so I don't think we're getting anyone's attention. 

"I don't want to be annoying but can we please stop for like a minute guys?" I plead. They both stop and look at me. Ashen looks unsure but speaks up.  

"Sure. Yeah. Let's uh. Let's take a break."

We find a suitable looking pile of rubble to sit on and take a welcome rest. My breath catches in my throat and my chest hurts enough to knock me out if I'm not careful. 

Starchaser looks exhausted too, but he's got a weird expression on his face I can't coin. Ever since we got here, he seems preoccupied somehow. 

"Everything okay Star?"

He gives me a dirty look. "It's none of your business, LightRunner." He spits my CODE like it's an insult to pronounce. "I just hate this situation. Had you not-"

"Had I not what? Saved our asses by jumping us out of reach of their guns? Kept Haven a secret by doing exactly what the manual says to do? Had I not what, Star?"

He stares at me mutinously but stays silent. Ashen clears his throat. 

"Come on guys. We're all friends here..."

"Shut up." My frenemy hisses. 

"But I was just-"

"Shh! Can you guys hear this?"

We all go quiet for a second. We can faintly hear footsteps coming from the way to the entrance. Shit. We scramble to get up and start hurrying further down into the tunnels. As we go deeper, a light shines slightly at the end. I feel a surge of hope. Maybe someone survived in those mines? We try to get there a little faster, praying we're right. 

But we aren't. 

The mouth of the tunnel opens on a huge grotto, covered in glowing crystals. Any other exit looks caved in or blocked. We're trapped!

"Solaris be damned..." 

We all felt it. Exactly how Star put it. Damn it all to hell. 

The steps get closer. We can hear them clearly now. Ashen and I get in a defensive position, but Star doesn't move. He turns, slowly, his eyes wide with what looks like fear. 

The first thing we see is their eyes. Two emerald sets of eyes. Advancing on us, menacing and full of horrible promise. The first to emerge into the light is human. Male, in his 30s, long brown hair. I swallow hard. My kind. I'm gonna have to fight my kind. 

The other one came out of a nightmare. Tall and built like some kind of bipedal bug. Like a mix of a beetle and a grub, with two big, black eyes and an emerald light coming from within them. They approach, carrying no visible weapons. No guns to be seen, for one, but no knives either. My arm burns fiercely and I'm starting to feel cold sweat go down my spine. I assess our odds. We have survival knives, no guns and a flare. 

We're fucked. 

Ashen charges first. He attempts to tackle the man but he's quicker. It's a one-sided beating. Each blow seems calculated, aiming at his vital points. I rush to help but am blocked by the bug. 

He lands the first blow in my stomach and my vision blurs. My chest is on fire and my mouth fills with the sweet and metallic taste of blood. I pull my knife out with my good hand and slash at his side. 

The wound oozes green goo that smells sickly sweet, but all it does is make him madder. My jaw cracks as its ham sized fist collides with it. I try to back away, not noticing the movement on my left. 

In a flash of pink it's over. Star lodges a huge pickaxe into his skull from the side. The hit is so violent his eye pops out and rolls away from the now twitching thing. The giant collapses, and in pain, so do I. 

I can see his hands shaking horribly, tears falling to the ground at his feet. I look slightly over. With the distraction of his comrade falling, the man doesn't see Ashen draw his own knife, and with a swift strike his throat gushes open and he falls too, gurgling his own blood. Everyone seems so shocked. I don't really feel anything though. Even my jaw is numb. 

Starchaser is soon shaking me back to my senses, but it's like only my mind is there. I can see Ashen behind him, using his blade to pry off the chip from the insect man's nape. He speaks up.

"We need to get him out of here. He could be bleeding internally!"

Star's voice is shaking with fear?

"Are you sure they're the only ones? What if there's more in the tunnels!"

"Let them come. If we don't go now, he could die here. It's too cold. Come on, help me pick him up."

Oh God the pain!

I almost scream as they move me and I can't help crying. The road back out feels like a thousand years but we make it. Slowly, surely, back to Seven and the warmth of the ship.