Maybe I was calmer than I should’ve been, running down an echoing hallway of blinking red lights and howling sirens. I’d just witnessed a cosmic entity siphon our engines, I knew that we would crash, but I also knew we would survive.
More so, I was also a veteran soldier. Over the years, I’d learned to shut out any anxiety and fear that could’ve pushed against my senses. Now, the chaos unfurling around me was just background noise as I took stock of our situation, the pieces slowly falling into place the more I saw and heard.
The main engines had been knocked out, and by the time the emergency thrusters had come back on, it’d been too late to change our trajectory. The best the BROW/WING’s command could do right now was keep the carrier as stable as possible as we were torn towards the planetary surface below, our speed only accelerating.
The walls creaked and groaned from the strain, pipes rattled, and floors shook, but the gravity generators were at least functioning well enough to keep us from flying down the hallways like helpless dolls. Else, that scene I found as I caught up with the others would’ve been far more gruesome.
Soldiers rushed by, yelling out orders and ushering crying children towards the emergency pods. There was confusion, panic, and desperation. None of which I felt.
There’d been no injuries yet, and that suffocating feeling of déjà vu held me in a choke hold. The future was on track, and within a few years, the events leading up to the end of civilization would begin.
Only I could stop it. The rest of this was insignificant.
I couldn’t even bring myself to be irked as a junior soldier barked his senseless orders at me, shoving me down a corridor towards the nearest drop pod.
It was in a daze I strapped myself into that safety harness, never sized for a child even as a hundred wailing kids were pushed into theirs around me; some crying for their parents, others pale and shivering.
Another violent rocking of the ship, and the nearby soldiers were forced to brace themselves against the walls to keep standing. Some even fell, any kids not strapped in helplessly crashing to the floor.
There were more painful cries and whimpers, and I instinctively grabbed hold of my harness’ handles to keep steady as we all were jerked to the side.
The pull of the planet had begun to overpower the generators. We wouldn’t be able to keep steady for much longer, and it was too late to launch this pod.
Our only hope was that the heavy harnesses — meant to keep soldiers intact as they broke through dense atmospheres at super-sonic speeds — would protect us. Even as crew members began to hurriedly rush for harnesses themselves, tugging any loose kids with them, my mind was still moving in a haze.
I appreciated the efficiency they moved with, if somewhat crude in the way they’d assessed the situation. They’d all hurried to the nearest pods, and now, there was not enough room for everyone. They wouldn’t all be strapped in as we crashed.
Not that it mattered. Most of us would be dead in a few decades anyway. Kids, life, everything gone.
Unless I could prevent it.
I set my jaw as a distant explosion shook the carrier.
One of the thrusters must’ve been overworked and broke. They’d tried to fight the gravitational pull rather than work with it, and now, these next few seconds were bound to be unpleasant because of it.
I’d barely wrapped my arms around the harness as the entire room tilted around us, too many G-forces dragging me down as our violent descent began.
There were screams. Alarms blaring around us as the last lights flickered out of focus. Complete darkness. Another explosion rocking the carrier as everything began to twist and turn.
The sound of screeching metal filled my ears, and I could only praise the harness as it kept my neck from snapping. My stomach, on the other hand, dropped out the moment we fell.
Spinning, tumbling, and turning, all I could do was clutch at that harness as we crashed to the roiling planet.
𐫰 𐫰 𐫰
The impact was deafening, silencing even the loudest cries and replacing them for quiet whimpers.
My muscles ached. I’d been clutching at the harness too tightly, and my heart was racing with adrenaline as I pulled that strap, freeing myself from the belts and buckles that’d held me in place. All it took was a firm yank, and I fell forward on weak legs.
The entire pod was off-tilt, leaning at an awkward angle, and in the ambient light seeping in through half-shut windows, I could see the lifeless figures on the floor. Not everyone had found a harness in time.
I didn’t even try to fool myself that they all might’ve survived, I only prayed that the sobbing children around me wouldn’t notice the same thing I just had.
Some of them were already beginning to recover in the darkness, sniffling and calling for their parents, saying how they were hurting, or needed to go to the bathroom. From the smell of it, some of them had voiced their concerns too late.
I just focused on what I could do.
Weakly staggering forward on wobbly knees, I began shaking lifeless corpses until I found one that groaned back. “Ma’am, we need someone to take control of the situation,” I said as a hazy eye blinked open towards me. “We’ve crashed to the surface of an unknown planet, and the children are beginning to panic.”
There came a wheezing breath, and her fingers began fumbling for something in her uniform.
“Here,” I continued, putting the syringe into her hand. I’d gotten it from another corpse. “It’s primed and ready.”
If there was any surprise in those eyes, it didn’t last long before the needle was jabbed into her side. Seconds later, she’d coughingly gotten to her hands and knees.
There was more than just pain suppressant in those syringes, but from the way the woman got to her feet, I guessed there were some fortification mods at work as well. A wise choice.
“Everyone, stay calm!” she now called out, managing to keep her voice surprisingly stable. “Remain where you are, and everything will be fine!”
I knew that was a lie, but it at least managed to silence some of the whimpering children as she took over what I’d been doing: checking for vital signs among the fallen.
I could’ve helped, but an eleven year old trying to play hero would’ve just gotten in the way.
Soon, another handful of crew members had weakly staggered to their feet, though more remained on the floor with necks and limbs unnaturally twisted.
I just quietly kept to the side, eying one of the fallen’s weapon for a moment. It would’ve made me feel more reassured, but it would’ve also caused a mess if anyone had seen me with it.
I was a kid. Their cargo. The best I could do to help was not get in their way. Arming myself to the teeth in the middle of an emergency would only make things more complicated.
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So, I just stayed put as few faint words reached my ear. “Y-you ok, Leyi?”
The voice came from a few harnesses over, and turning my gaze, I could see a little girl, pale as a sheet and wide eyed, clutch at her friend’s hand.
They’d strapped themselves in next to each other, and now, even as she must’ve been more afraid than she let on, Myla kept on mumbling, “I, I’m s-sure we’ll be fine. Just stick with me and I’ll protect you. I’ll get us through this.”
I made my way over, causing her eyes to go even wider as she saw me there. “N-Nyamien?” she said in her small voice, looking once my way, and then towards the beaten crew members moving behind me. “They…they told us to wait here…”
“It’s fine,” I said as I stepped over, pulling at their straps to free them, too. “We won’t be going anywhere for a while.”
Leyi still clutched at her stuffed rabbit as I got her out of her harness, and I was forced to catch her to keep her standing.
The frail girl was shaking from head to toe, but she still managed to get out a weak, “T-thank you.”
“It’s too early for ‘thanks,’” I muttered as I eased her to the floor, and I genuinely meant it. The rough landing had rattled the memories out of my mind, stoved away underneath deep trauma and years of forced therapy.
In the grand scheme of the galaxy dying out, it was a minor thing, but if my recollection served me right, these next few days wouldn’t be pleasant. We’d best prepare for it.
Rain tattered against the hull of the ship, and violent thunder rolled in the distance.
𐫰 𐫰 𐫰
The coming hour would pass beneath yelled orders and confusion; adults telling us to stay put, remain calm, and be quiet.
I did as they asked. No matter how much my fingers itched from just sitting still, I knew when and where I wasn’t needed. Years of being yelled at by my superiors for “doing useless shit that does more harm than good,” had taught me as much.
So, the best I could do was reassure the two girls sitting next to me. “What’s going on?” Myla quietly asked.
She was huddled up against the wall to my right, and her voice was so small that I could barely hear it. It seemed she was still worried that the guards would yell at us if they found us, but I seriously doubted they’d care as long as we stayed out of the way. We were barely visible in the dim shadows anyway.
Even with my glasses on, I could only vaguely make out Myla, and she was sitting right next to me. Leyi was to her other side, clutching at her arm like a pale fairy. There wouldn’t be any emergency generators to kick in either.
“Our engines were drained while you were still sleeping, pulling us into orbit of a nearby planet,” I answered, having slowly been piecing together any hushed conversation I could catch. The rest, my blurry memories filled in. “Before the emergency thrusters could get us back on course, they were smashed by some space rubble. Those were the explosions we felt.
“There was nothing to stop us from breaking through the atmosphere of a nearby D-7 planet—” Or was it a D-6? I couldn’t remember, not that it mattered. “—crash landing after the atmospheric interference knocked out most electronics and communications devices on board.
“That’s the reason for the current commotion. The crew is limited to analogue methods when it comes to communication and figuring out where we are.”
As both of the girls’ owlish eyes had turned my way, I continued, “No need to worry though. There seems to be an Explorers’ Outpost not too far away from here. From there, it’ll only be a few days of travel to reach Wochir-11.
“We’ve reached the A-4-Delta sector. One of the Azure Fleet’s ships should be near enough to pick us up as soon as we’re able to contact them.”
As only silence answered me, those eyes like a twin-pair of saucers in the dark, I wondered if I’d said too much. I’d been sharing information not even the ship’s captain would know, after all.
But then, Myla spoke up, “But we’ve only been traveling for five days? Even if we’ve been sleeping at weird times, I was counting. How can we be this close to Wothir already?”
I raised my eyebrows. I had no clue why she’d been counting in the first place, but I ignored that fact along with her pronunciation of our destination.
“You’re still counting days like we did back home?” I asked instead. “You’re better off relying on the interface of the UI. It’s adjusted to the intergalactic time-zone, Proto-Terra.”
One of the positive things about having enough firepower to erase planets was that, even if it was the archaic remnant of a long lost home world, most species didn’t bother to question your measurements of time.
“I…don’t know how to use it,” Myla said, sounding a bit embarrassed as she lowered her gaze to her own wrist mounted graft.
She must’ve seen the other kids play around with it, never knowing how to do it herself. Thinking about it, there would’ve been no advanced tech like this back at our backwater moon, would there?
I glanced down at my own UI, and then towards Leyi who just shook her head as well. “D-don’t know either…”
I guess classes haven’t gotten that far yet?
“I’ll teach you about it later.” I shrugged. “After we get away from here.”
My words caused Myla to light up.
“Promise,” she eagerly said. “I heard there were also games and—"
“Will we?” Leyi quietly cut in, owlish eyes still turned my way. “W-will we get away from her safely, I mean?”
“Of course we will,” Myla huffed, though I could hear the uncertainty in her words as she squeezed the other girl hand. “As long as you stick to my side, I’ll make sure of that.”
“We’ll be fine,” I agreed with a smile that actually managed to be reassuring. I knew we would, after all, even if the experience wouldn’t be pleasant.
Or so I kept telling myself as a voice at last interrupted our conversation.
“Everyone, quiet down!” the woman in charge yelled, causing any faint whispers to die our around us.
Several shadows had just entered our pod; crew members passing through the room to release everyone from their harnesses.
The three of us were ignored as that commanding voice picked up once more, “You are going to stay calm and stay together! Fall behind, and we can’t guarantee your safety. Fall out of line, and you’ll be left fending for yourselves out here.
“A minor incident has delayed our journey to Wochir-11, but as long as you follow our command, there’s no need to worry!”
While I wouldn’t have classified crashing some thousand children to an inhospitable planet as a ‘minor incident’ myself, I could see the benefit of maintaining a semblance of calm. It would help in the long run.
By the time flashlights began cutting through the darkness, any corpses had already been removed from the space. Even so, it was in nervous line that we began trailing after those crew members.
There was a lot of shuffling and bumping into each other. No one wanted to walk in the rear where you’d might get left behind. Myla’s hand even found my own at some point.
She’d said it was to protect me and Leyi. I didn’t question her as I felt the tremble of her fingers. I just held on tight as she bravely led us forward, my eyes insistently sweeping our surroundings.
More than once were my toes stepped upon by the other kids. I wasn’t the only one without shoes. Some were only wearing half of their pajamas as well, either missing the pants or the shirt. There didn’t seem to be any time to go fetch proper clothes either.
No matter what white lies they’d told us, I could taste the tension among the crew members leading us forward. They all held their rifles at a ready, restlessly shining flashlights down every dark and broken hallway we passed by.
The hull of a BROW/WING Carrier was thicker than most. I wasn’t sure if they really feared that something had gotten inside or if it was just precaution.
For what it was worth, by the time we’d reached the ship’s hangar – our current destination – the greatest incident remained a few kids having tripped over each other as a flash of lightning crackled across one of those hallways. The pursuing thunder had been loud enough to leave the floor quaking underneath our feet.
Here, the storm was ever more present.
The entire ship was tilted, leaving much of the rain to trickle inside the hangar’s open gates, forming puddles within the wide space. Fortunately, it didn’t seem to be anything more dangerous than normal water. Although the air itself felt damp and sticky, it was breathable.
Outside, however, was a deluge – visible through a ramp that’d dug halfway into the sizzling lake we’d crashed inside of.
Mangroves and mudbanks poked out of the water. Some led up to elevated swaths of bluish grass and crooked trees that swayed in the downpour.
My eyes never lay at the vegetation outside, however. Not even the flashes of lightning that occasionally illuminated our surroundings kept my attention for long.
No, I stared at the massive vehicles that stood there within the hangar, like great locomotives without any tracks to run upon. Clad in metal and with turrets pointing each direction, they made for imposing behemoths of steel and engineering, but what’d sent my stomach into worried knots was the number of them.
There were four of them, not one.
It’d tugged at a memory that’d been forcefully repressed over years of therapy and mental alterations. Now, however, it all came crashing back.
There was a reason I’d spent weeks looking up this planet and its grading. It’d been my attempt to cope with my own helplessness.
My fingers tightened within Myla’s grip, without knowing what’d just flashed through my mind, she dutifully squeezed back.
Weeping children. Corpses out in the rain. Fear, panic, confusion.
A childhood friend forgotten. Only a single vehicle that ever reached its destination. Something had been out there in the rain. Prowling. Stalking. Protecting its territory.
And now, fate continued on its beaten track.
Levels Gained:
Mental Resilience > 1
Stress Management > 1
Reassurance 1 > 2
Rescuer > 1
First Aid 1 > 2
Crowd Control > 1
Achievement(s) Unlocked:
Quiet Helper
> Helpful Actions Taken From The Shadows:
>
> +5% Success Rate
Crash Landing!
> Survived A Fall From Space
>
> Fall Damage:
>
> -5%