Booming sounds erupt from outside the castle, guards clasping at their weapons and running to battle, readying themselves. Traitors have begun attacking the others inside the castle walls, some struggling to know who is who. War has been declared...

Someone finds Liean in a hall, clamoring at the railing sides as they escort him to a ship, putting him a Mexe suit and swiftly trying to escape from the planet, other nobles and royals doing the same. Orlanis is nowhere to be seen in this fleet, Velonica being sat upon the same ship as Liean. The ship they're on flies into the atmosphere, some pieces of the ship flying off for its speed. It leaves the atmosphere, attempting to latch itself onto the skyhook nearby but misses. The pilot spins the ship around and accelerates, leaving it on auto-pilot before checking on Liean and Velonica.

"Are you both alright!? No injuries!?" Velonica nods desperately.

Liean's calm expression disturbs the pilot as he speaks, "What happened? I thought that there were only a few traitors not a whole fucking war front. How did we not detect it?"

"I don't know, they blindsided us somehow!" The pilot yells in a panic, the ship shaking, unstable from the damage caused by atmospheric interference. Shields, damaged, weapons, damaged.

"How did they blindside us? That is what I am asking."

"I don't know! I'm not a fucking strategist or soldier! I'm a pilot!" The pilot grasps his hair tightly.

Velonica looks to her Pauldron, looking as if she'll vomit, repeating, "Is father okay?" Over and over, seeing if she could get in contact with him.

Liean moves seats, sitting next to Velonica, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. "Calm down... panicking will get you nowhere."

"First my uncle and maybe my father! How can I calm down!" She screams, pushing Liean off of her.

"Well, you need to be!" Liean raises his voice, "If you aren't, it could spell death! Fear brings death and death brings fear, that is how it will always be! So... think about survival before thinking of the worst possible scenario... alright?"

Velonica attempts to calm herself down by breathing but fails, "What... I can't..." Velonica gags.

"Do you have something she can vomit in!?" Liean yells to the pilot.

The pilot runs across the ship's hallways. The pilot encounters a machine specifically made for space-sickness. He runs back to the room Liean and Velonica are in and gives her the machine, putting the mask for it around her mouth and gagging into it. Liean pets her back, holding her hair behind her head as to not get any residual vomit on it. A violent spewing comes from her throat, tears welling up in her eyes.

The pilot runs back into the cockpit of the ship, adjusting it so that they could escape through a warp gate. He spins around with the center stick while adjusting the acceleration.

Velonica tears pour from Velonica's face, her face becoming a contorted mess of sadness, not being able to resist vomiting any longer. Liean takes a deep breath, "Everything will be fine... convince yourself that it will be. If you do not we'll die. When this all blows over, you can cry to your heart's content, uncaring to everything else in the world. Cry for not but do not cry later. That is what it means to be a soldier." Liean blows air out of his nose.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"What do we do...!?" Velonica screams into the mask, tears floating in the air as she looks to Liean in distress. Liean gives a solemn smile.

"I think... there is only one planet that I have been intrigued by. Eskin-Castros - It's a planet that apparently has an Aurora Borealis at least three times a month. I could only imagine how breathtaking a sight that could be. Carrying around a picnic, watching ships exit the atmosphere as lights that are normally found in the south and north pole of a planet's magnetic field could be seen."

"What are you saying?"

"It is best, in a distressing situation, to keep your mind off of it through an unrelated dialogue. It lightens the mood and could sometimes help you imagine what's to come... it may even help you want to survive even harder. Gives you a reason to try. Maybe you wanted to try a new tea, maybe you want to become stronger as a person? This is how it is... cry once we're done... cry when you can... sleep when you can... I don't know." Liean smiles kindly to Velonica, "It's the best we can do as humans, right?"

"I just... wanted to rest..." Velonica continues sobbing, Liean comforting her.

The pilot curses loudly as the ship shakes, "Steel yourself... things will only get worse."

***

The ship is only using reserve oxygen by now, imbedded in a moon's surface around an asteroid belt. Though the atmosphere is thick, everything outside of it is clearly visible, like there was nothing around the moon at all. A brown planet surrounded by rings and space dust, large masses of it, two to be exact. Both belts sitting on top of each other, asteroids plummeting through other asteroids, all of it visible through a moon.

Velonica wakes up, she had blacked out. She realizes that she's wearing a helmet with her Mexe suit... she wasn't before. Liean moves in from the outside of the ship, helmet lighting the inside, the ship being practically lightless, pitch black. Velonica looks to the other side of the ship to find the pilot dead, body plastered against the wall of the ship's inside, slightly frozen due to the temperature of the moon.

Liean pulls Velonica out of the ship, her hands, shaking. Liean cups her hands with his, holding her close. "Calm down," His voice comes through a speaker in her helmet, crackling.

"The... what happened?"

"We were shot out of space and crashed near Iminen Prime. Our main worry here is food. Our suits will filter us oxygen and water through its system but it cannot give us food. We can find something here since the liquids here can be turned into an edible substance that can be digested but the problem is how we can eat it through an open space shuttle leaking oxygen..." Liean had quickly analyzed the situation they were in which surprised Velonica, who could barely understand what was happening. Liean noticed which is why he is voicing his thoughts.

"Will there be someone to rescue us?"

Liean glances at her, kneeling down to her level. "I have activated a rescue signal, all we have to do now is hope that an enemy doesn't find us here but the fact that we're on a moon gives us the advantage. If we were still out in space, we'd be dead."

"Do... do you know what happened to everyone? Your Pauldron is still connected to the network right? Even from here?"

"No updates, nothing. My Pauldron won't pick any of it up, it may be damaged due to the crash, or... we've been completely disconnected."

Velonica quickly looks on her Pauldron for something, anything... silence. No connection to anywhere off the moon they were on. "If we can't connect, will the rescue signal even reach them?"

"Rescue signals are stronger than connection signals by an extremely wide margin," Liean cuts his sentence off, pointing to the ship, "You might want to grab some extra oxygen containers before the ship completely runs out of it."

"Why didn't you grab them?"

"I am more concerned for you than I am for myself. I can take surviving off of recycled oxygen, I do not think you can."

She groans in spite as she enters the ship and grabs some of the reserve oxygen canisters. The oxygen canisters show a number on the both of them, one is 50% empty while the other is 75%. She leaves the ship and shows the canisters to Liean, "What do I do with them?"

"When you feel that the air you breathe is becoming thinner, take a small tablet from the canister and place it on," Liean taps his mask where an odd plug is. "Here..."

"Tablets?"

"Oxygen canisters crush oxygen tablets to distribute air through the ship's system, these tablets can be used for masks as well."

She nods attentively, feeling the outside of the canister, "How do I find it?"

Liean crosses to her and kneels, opening the capsule, pointing. "There."

She nods before closing it.

"Let's hope someone comes before we have to resort to this moon's liquids."