EPILOGUE VI
MAJI
Sweat poured down her skin as she sprinted, partially hidden under the shadows of the terrain. Hills with sharp crests protruded from the ground, creating a path covered in darkness. Since Bellum and his fleet had invaded their home world many moons ago, she hadn’t seen the sun.
It wasn’t gone – she could still see its light and feel its heat – but there was now something obstructing the way. As such, it got harder to draw the line between sunrise and the night before, which she was now suffering the consequences of.
‘Hover’s going to kill me.’ She thought as she bolted, trying as much as possible to keep to the shadows, but she knew that her luck would soon run out. The wind rushed past her face, slightly burning her cheeks and giving her an unnatural blush. Her hair whipped back on top of her head, moving against the current of the wind and staying out of her field of vision.
Sunlight grew more and more, and her road path of darkness shrunk, squeezing the window of grace she’d given herself to get back to base. There was one course of action left, even though she dreaded having to resort to it. She put her wrist to her mouth.
“Come in, base station 31-24-25. Maji here. I might need help in a minute.”
She listened for a response but was met only with static.
“Again-” She leaped, flying over a ditch, and continued her sprint. “I’m going to be in trouble in a minute!”
The static stopped and a voice came over the comm embedded in her eardrum, “Maji? What are you doing out this late? Or, wait, should I say this early?”
“Bug! Thank goodness it’s you. I’m not going to make it back before I get caught. Send backup. My transponder’s on. Use that to track me.”
“I wouldn’t count on that backup,” Bug responded, “Pretty much everyone’s still- wait, does Hover know about this? If not, you’re in huge trouble.”
“Bug! Focus!” Maji brought his attention back to the situation at hand, “Isn’t there anyone that’s available right now?”
“Not really. Unless you count me, but I’m never stepping foot out there so forget it.”
Ugh
She watched as the shadow covering the path slowly regressed, exposing more and more of the path to sunlight, one thing she absolutely couldn’t afford right now.
“Please, Bug!”
Over the comm, she heard Bug sigh. “I’m telling Hover.”
“Wait, no! Anyone else but Hover!”
“Make up your mind. Do you want backup or not?”
She watched the shadow completely. She was now in complete sunlight.
“Fine! Get Hover!”
Maji pressed on, running at top speed. She’s been exposed to sunlight, they had no doubt seen her. Her only chance now was to get as close as possible to base. It’d give whoever her backup was less distance to come rescue her.
Or at least retrieve her body…
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A buzzing overhead caught her attention.
Damn it. Already?
She looked up, as a streak of white cut across the sky, circling her location. With a sonic boom. it changed its direction, shooting downwards. The object was pretty high up, but she knew it wouldn’t take too long before it got here. After all, this wasn’t her first encounter with one.
Maji skidded to a stop and ducked out of the way at the last minute, as the object crash-landed into where she was a minute ago. She rolled across the rocky ground, pulling out her sword and coming up straight into a fighting stance. It was a long cleaver; a thick blade that was perfect for hacking at both flesh and metal. Its grip was red and green and leather-made in a slit- pattern. A gift from Hover on her 17th birthday.
The smoke cleared and the object revealed itself: a curled-up ball of metal, but Maji knew that what came after was the real threat.
The ball whirred as it unfolded, revealing its inhabitant. No matter how many times she saw one of them, she just couldn’t keep from being irritated. It wasn’t a machine. It was a monster, a large, pale-skinned monster with spikes that jutted out of its head and ran along the length of its back and down its enormous tail.
It had bits of metal grafted onto its shoulder, forearms, hands, wrists, and thighs. A canon was attached to both arms. It raised one of them.
“For Bellum.” And fired off a blast, which Maji threw herself to the side to avoid. A small explosion happened where she’d been.
The monster raised its hands in her direction.
“Die.”
A flash filled the air, and a wave of heat with it, but after a moment, Maji checked her being to see that she was unscathed. She glanced at the robot, who now had a fresh gaping hole right in it center. It fell forward and crashed face-first into the ground.
Behind the monster, a familiar figure stood on one of the crested hills, brandishing a long-barrelled blaster. He cocked the gun and aimed again.
“Woah! Wait, it’s me!” Maji threw her hands in the air and called out to the voice.
“I know.” The voice called back.
“Before you get mad at me, you’re going to want to know where I’ve been.”
“I already know where you’ve been. I don’t care.”
“But I found something important!” Maji glanced around nervously. “In any case, can we not do this outside? What if they come back.”
The figure didn’t respond.
“Hover?” She called out.
“They’re already here.”
Hover jumped, sailing through the air and landing graciously beside her. No longer hidden by the rays of the sun, she could see him and his features more clearly. A man barely into his 50s, whose hair had already started to gray. Broad-chested and a huge frame to go with it, and bulging muscles on every part of his body.
In a regular world, he would’ve been your average athlete, and once upon a time, in this world too…but times have changed drastically. They were constantly at war now, trying to find new ways to survive, to get strong enough to overwhelm whatever enemy stood in their way.
One of the ways they achieved this was Organic Technology Assimilation, which meant replacing parts of their body with robotic prosthetics.
Just like Hover had on.
There were none on his face, but from his neck and the little upper pectoral area of his chest that was exposed by the low-cut collar shirt he had on, metal skin spread. Hover too, was half machine.
“What did I tell you about leaving base?” His voice was cold and hollow, and filled with no emotion, not even the anger that he was currently feeling.
“I know,” Maji said, “But I found something important! I know you said not to go to the institute because it was raided and crawling with monsters, but we needed to know what happened to him! This was the only way.”
The ground rumbled slightly.
“What happened?” Hover asked, ignoring the rumbling.
“Uhhh,” Maji glanced at the ground beneath her feet, at the dancing pebbles, “Shouldn’t we get out of here first?”
“It’s too late for that. If we were to try running back to base, they would simply follow us and we would put innocent lives in danger. What happened at the institute?”
Maji swallowed, pushing her fears down. She stared into his blue eyes as she spoke, trying as much as possible to convey how serious she was. “They made it out! The arc made it out!”
Hover’s expression remained frozen. He stared, expecting more.
“Dang was with them! They all made it off-universe!”
The rumbling beneath their feet crescendoed, and then just stopped abruptly.
“They’re here.” Hover said, cocking the gun he was brandishing. Maji pulled out her cleaver’s blade, preparing herself for battle. They stood back-to-back, in the quiet of the landscape…
BOOM
All around them, the earth exploded and monsters climbed out. Monsters like the one they’d just killed, whose dead body lay there on display for all to see. Maji hoped they’d take it as a warning but these things didn’t really care.
Hover’s gun let off a high-pitched whir, signifying that it was ready for battle. “Maji, when we get back to the base-”
“If we get back,” Maji cut him off.
“When we get back, you’re going to face disciplinary action, but for now, we’re going to have to fight our way out. You ready?”
She put her guard up, steadying herself and raising her blade, its metal glinting in the sunlight. “I was born ready.”