The escape pod launched, shooting out of the Haivu warship. I saw the Haivu warship pulling away from us through the hatch. We passed through the still active shield and started to gain distance from the Haivu warship. After a few moments of watching, I realized that my hearing was more or less back. Still damaged, but I could hear.
“Noah?” I asked. “What happened?”
Noah turned to face me. “Oh, is your hearing back? That’s good.” He paused for a few moments.
“Okay, starting from the top: The explosives that were being set up on the reactor were prematurely detonated. I’m not too sure what happened, but I think the Haivu tried to interfere somehow. And that meant they blew up without any warning, and were way too close to us.”
That explained why I went flying. I was relatively close to the reactor, but not enough to be fatal. My shield took the brunt of the blow.
Noah continued talking. “I saw you go flying after that explosion, but I couldn’t chase you immediately. The Haivu that survived the explosion kept shooting at us, and we were given orders to retreat. While everyone else ran back to the transport ships, I had to fight my way through the Haivu to find you. It took around ten minutes.”
I blinked in surprise. “Ten minutes? I thought I was only knocked down for a few seconds, at most!”
Noah shook his head. “You must’ve gone unconscious or something, then. I couldn’t find you for a while. I thought you were dead. By the time I got to you, everyone else had already gotten out of the reactor room and onto the transport ship, or close to it. And when we made it up the stairs, all of the transport ships had already left without us.”
“Even Keshi, Sil, and Needle left us?”
“They did. Direct orders from Ceel, actually. She gave us all the order to retreat after the reactor was compromised. I disobeyed the order, and I got an earful for it, actually. It was distracting because I was fighting Haivu at the same time.”
I wrapped an arm around Noah’s shoulder in appreciation. “Well, thanks for coming to get me, Noah.”
“Hey, I figured I had to repay you for all the times you’ve saved my ass.” Noah replied, shrugging.
“At this point, I think we’re even.” I said.
Noah laughed, then his expression quickly turned sour. He pressed his hand to the side of his head.
“Yes, we made it. We’re in a Haivu drop pod right now.”
Why couldn’t I hear anything? My comms device probably got fried by the heat of the explosion, or something. I pressed a hand to my head. Yep, definitely broken.
Noah paused for a moment, listening to whoever was talking on the other side.
“You can’t come get us? Why not?”
After a few minutes of a conversation I could only hear half of, Noah turned to speak to me.
“Alright, we’re in trouble. Well, I’m in trouble for disobeying orders, but both of us are in trouble, because the Spear of Kain can’t recover us.”
“Why not?” I asked. “Is it because we’re still too close to the Haivu warship?”
“Yeah,” Noah confirmed, “Along with the fact that the transport ships don’t have anything they can tow a drop pod with. We’re stuck drifting out here until we’re out of the blast radius.”
“Sounds like there’s no problem, then. Unless we never make it out of the blast radius.”
Noah shook his head. “We’re going to be out of the blast radius by the time the warship blows, apparently. The problem is that we’re going to be out of the blast radius because we’ve been caught by the Haivu moon’s gravity well.”
“Shit.” I swore.
This wasn’t good, obviously. We weren’t going to be blown to bits by a reactor explosion, but we were going to crash land onto an enemy controlled moon. If we landed in the wrong spot, it could be a death sentence. Assuming we even survived our landing.
“What are they telling us to do?” I asked Noah.
“Well, they want us to stay put after we land. Once the battle in orbit is over, they’re going to continue with their plan of a ground invasion to seize the weapon. They’re either going to pick us up after it's over, or create a rendezvous point where we can join up with the main force.” Noah replied.
I scratched my head. It wasn’t the worst plan ever. At least we were going to get picked up instead of abandoned.
I sighed. “I guess that’s really our only option. Let’s just pray we land somewhere without Haivu, so they can pick us up after it's all over.”
“Agreed.”
I looked out the window, the one facing away from the Haivu warship we had ejected from. A small, dusty, gray rock floated in silence. Ashy clouds wreathed the oceanless moon. Soon, this miserable rock would decide my fate. At least it had an atmosphere.
“Hey, Saka, the bridge is telling me that the Haivu warship is going to blow within the next few minutes.” Noah said, turning my attention from the moon back to the warship.
“Alright, let’s watch that piece of shit go down.” I replied.
The Haivu ship was in terrible shape. Dozens of fighter ship debris, GU and Haivu alike, littered the area around the ship. Some of them were even near our little escape pod, drawn in by the nearby moon, like us. The shield around the Haivu warship fizzled and cracked since the damaged reactor couldn’t sustain the shield for much longer. The Haivu warship was doomed.
A minute of watching the helpless warship later, it finally happened. A series of smaller explosions rocked the gargantuan warship, spreading from the back to the front. A few moments later, a blinding bright light illuminated the warship and the field of debris. It was gone in half a second, and the Haivu warship blew apart into an unfathomable amount of pieces, in every single direction. I couldn’t hear the explosion, but a few seconds after I saw the gigantic fireball, a shockwave passed through the escape pod, rattling the seats inside.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Great,” Noah said, “We didn’t get blown up. I was convinced that the bridge was lying to us about being out of the blast radius to make us feel better.”
“Honestly, we would’ve been better off if we blew up here.” I stated. “I don’t want to get disintegrated by caustic weapons as soon as we land on that shitty moon.”
Noah laughed. “Don’t worry. We still have the chance to die on impact.”
We chuckled for a few seconds. At our lowest point, we couldn’t do anything but laugh. There was literally nothing else we could do for the time being.
“Oh, by the way,” Noah said, “My communicator won’t work if we safely land on the moon because we’re going to be out of range. And am I right to assume that yours is broken?”
I sighed. “Yeah, the heat must’ve fried it. So, we’re going to be landing alone, on an enemy moon, with no communication to command?”
Noah nodded. “Yeah, no communication until the Spear of Kain enters the atmosphere. Then we can talk to them again.”
“Oh, so slightly better. That’s reassuring.” I said, in a sarcastic tone.
“But hey, even if we were able to use it, what good would it do?” Noah said. “The Haivu would pinpoint our location if we tried to use it anyways.”
That was true. The reason why the comms devices were so limited was to make it harder for the Haivu to pick up. The Galactic Union was able to send messages across thousands of lightyears within a day or so. However, the military use of communication was a lot more suppressed because the Haivu’s detection technology was just that good. I’d heard that the GU had almost no issues using advanced communication devices on its fronts with other galactic powers. It was just the Haivu that forced us to use shitty comms with barely any range. It wasn’t even a matter of encryption, they could just scry our location.
The escape pod was picking up speed now, slowly getting closer to the moon as gravity tightened its invisible hold on us. The debris from the warship was also caught by the moon’s gravity, and was doomed to the same fate that awaited us.
“Hey, Noah?” I asked.
“What’s up?”
I gestured at the seats that lined the walls of the escape pod.
“This is a Haivu escape pod, right?”
“That’s correct.”
“So these seats are designed for Haivu.”
“A good assumption.”
“So neither of us, a Togumo and a Human, would fit in these seats.”
“Absolutely not.”
“So what the fuck are we going to do?”
Noah shrugged. “Try to cram ourselves in these seats, and pray that the Haivu design their escape pods to land softly?”
I shook my head. “We’re totally fucked.”
Noah sat down in one of the seats, and tightened the straps over his body.
“It’s really tight and uncomfortable, but I can barely fit. I’m not that much bigger than a Haivu, after all.” Noah said, plainly.
“Okay, but where does that leave me?” I asked.
“Let’s figure that out. Are you sure you don’t fit in these seats?”
I attempted to sit in one of the seats. It didn’t work, of course. I was twice the height of a Haivu, easily.
“Gah! Even with the size difference, my tail is in the way! There’s no way I fit, Noah!” I screeched.
Noah stroked his chin. “Okay, then try that”
He pointed towards the corner of the escape pod, where there was a slight gap between a seat and the wall of the escape pod.
“You want me to sit in the corner of the escape pod? There’s no way that’s going to work!” I shouted.
I took a second look at the corner. It was snug enough to fit me, and I could curl my tail under the seats. But there wasn’t a strap or harness to secure me.
“It might work if you cut out the straps from the other seats and tie yourself down.” Noah said. “It’s better than nothing.”
I sighed. “Okay, guess I’ll try.”
I got to work, unsheathing my knife from the tiny scabbard that was attached to my suit. I sawed away at the harnesses attached to the several unused Haivu seats, and tied them together to mirror my size. Once I had two good lengths of reinforced straps that could secure my body, I sat down in the corner and tied the ropes in an X shape. Noah got up from his seat and helped me knot the ends of the rope on the seat next to the corner. My back was to the seat and I was facing the wall of the escape pod. My makeshift harness was tight enough to keep my torso from moving.
“Is it good?” Noah called from his seat.
Funnily enough, Noah and I were about eye level right now. I was sitting on the ground, and he was sitting in a seat, but our height difference was large enough to negate that.
I tugged the harness with all four of my hands as a demonstration of its security.
“I think this is as good as it gets.” I tried to shrug but it was restricted by the harness.
“Okay, just don’t die on impact. I'm going to be really lonely.” Noah chuckled.
I was glad Noah’s jokes were back. For the past few months, he’d been really serious. Especially before and during an engagement. He could get deathly serious at times. But for some reason, with possible impending doom, he was laughing and joking around. Maybe he’d switch back once we landed on the Haivu moon.
The escape pod started to rattle loudly.
“Noah, can you see what’s going on? I can’t see any of the windows from here.” I asked.
Noah swiveled his head to look. “It looks like we’re entering the moon’s atmosphere? It’s a lot bigger now, and I’m seeing the front of the escape pod burning the air.”
“Fuck, alright. I was hoping to live a little longer.” I said.
The rattling in the escape pod soon became a roar, and it was too loud to talk to each other anymore. The air rushing past the escape pod made vibrations that I could feel through my back, tail, and ass. The escape pod shook violently a few times, but it wasn’t spinning out of control. I took that as a good sign. I felt weightless, too. We were in a total free fall.
A few minutes later, the roaring noise ceased.
“We’re pretty close to the ground!” Noah shouted. “Saka, brace yourself!”
Noah tightly gripped the handles on the side of his seat. I braced my head with all four of my arms, and tried to tuck my head into my chest as much as I could.
Several seconds later, a set of thrusters roared. The escape pod had thrusters equipped to negate the landing speed, apparently. I felt the escape pod slow down, ending my weightlessness. In fact, it pushed me harder against the ground. I didn’t know how many Gs it was, but it wasn’t a small number.
A few moments later, our escape pod made contact with the ground, with a loud THUD. The impact sent pain through my ass and reverberated throughout my body, shaking it. I may have screeched a little. But I was in one piece.
“Are you alright, Saka?” Noah asked. He was still strapped to his seat. “We’ve landed.”
“Yeah, I’m fine. The impact hurt my ass, though. And my tail.” I shook my head. “Weren’t there any fat Haivu that had seats big enough for me?”
Noah got up from his seat and started helping me get up. I handed him my knife, and he cut me free. Noah offered a hand to help me up, and I took it. He had to grab one of my hands with his two, and lean all the way back to help me get up. I was much heavier than him, after all. 50 centimeters of height, two more limbs, and a tail made a huge difference.
Noah sighed. “Alright, we made it onto the moon safely. Now, where the hell are we?”
Noah made his way towards the hatch, and started fiddling with it, looking for a release. I grabbed his shoulder.
“Wait, don’t open it yet. Is the air here breathable?” I asked.
Noah shrugged. “The Haivu breathe the same air as us, so it’s probably fine, right? If not, we’re already on a timer anyways. This escape pod has limited air and so does our suits. Might as well see the sights. It’s my first time on an alien moon.”
“Can’t argue with that.” I said.
Noah wrestled with the hatch for a few more seconds until it made a click and a hissing noise. The hatch sprung open and flew out.
I peered over Noah to take in the sights.
“Wow this moon… kinda sucks…” Noah muttered.
I had to agree. The ground was rocky and gray and incredibly boring. There were no plants, no strange alien animals, no bodies of water. This moon was literally just a barren rock with an atmosphere, apparently. The most it might’ve had was ice.
“Hey, at least there’s no Haivu!” I exclaimed.
“For now.” Noah muttered.
We stepped out of the crashed escape pod, and I turned to face it. It was rectangular in shape, and tilted slightly, buried into the ground. For all of the doubt Noah and I cast on it, it was a really good escape pod. Both of us came out unscathed.
“Saka, look!” Noah shouted. He pointed up.
The dark sky was brightened by streaks of red-orange light. It was the debris from the warship catching up to us. They shone through the darkness, leaving lines of light in the sky.
“Hey, at least we got to see a beautiful sight before we die horrible deaths.” I joked.
We took in the sight for a few minutes until most of the bright lights faded away. I hoped it wasn’t a metaphor for something. We turned our attention back to our little situation.
“Okay, where do we go now?” Noah asked.
“What do you mean, where do we go? We get our asses back into the escape pod and wait it out!” I said, waving my hands.
Noah frowned. At least, I felt like he did. He turned his expressionless helmet to me.
“And sit and do nothing while the Haivu have their planet busting super weapon?” He said.
“Yeah. What are two little stranded soldiers going to do against a Haivu controlled moon?” I shouted.
“We could scout it out, y’know. Maybe do a little sabotage. If you’re not coming, I’m going alone.” Noah insisted.
I sighed, deeply. “I used to think you were well adjusted.”
“Being kidnapped by aliens changes a man.” Noah said. “And being in some galactic army filled with aliens changes him even more.”
“Let’s get this stupid war over with and get you back to normal, then.” I laughed. “I miss the little innocent Noah.”
On that note, we started our trek.