Kiera coughed, spitting out water as she pulled herself from the freezing cold pond that had persisted through the day. The second storm had caught them off guard, while impatiently waiting for signal flares to tell them the two parties had rescued the others. There had been no orange flare from either direction. Locke and Kiera had talked while they worked, Kiera asking Locke both about his tattoo and his scar. He got both of them when he was a prisoner of an ork clan.

His father was an ASF soldier involved in the First Contact war with the orks of Sargax. He had been captured and enslaved, earning his freedom when he killed one of the ork clan’s raid leaders, and then the Chief. He was able to contact the Empire and the clan was swiftly defeated, one of eight that the Empire had either conquered or had joined by rite of challenge. Lieutenant Mickleson took his daughter he’d been forced to sire back to the Empire. Ten years later he was called back to help settle a dispute since he was technically the chieftain. It wasn’t the first time he’d done it and nothing had ever broken into violence so he took his children. Dakka so she could see her ork relatives and Locke so he could get exposure to another culture. It had been a trap.

Locke’s father was killed and both he and his sister were captured. They were going to kill Locke; the chief swung an axe only to be stopped at the last minute by the tribe’s shaman who said the boy could be useful if trained. The axe was buried up to Locke's skull and then healed by orkish alchemy giving him the scar. The tattoo was from the shaman, it covered his right shoulder, right pec and part of his back. It was a mixture of elemental symbols, and a skaggan: a beast with the head of a crag wolf, the forequarters of a bear,the wings of an eagle and the hindquarters of a shadow panther. They were powerful creatures that were both revered and feared. The shaman wanted to bind one to Locke and then set him loose upon other tribes. He was thirteen when the binding was attempted, the last three years spent building up his strength and stamina for the binding to be successful. The shaman’s young assistant claimed Locke’s body for herself.

The binding failed, and the skaggan killed the shaman. Locke took advantage of the chaos. He killed two guards that were standing guard and took the shaman’s assistant as a hostage. The tribe sent two warriors to stop him; one was killed by the skaggan and the other was killed by Locke. The chief, convinced that Locke was the skaggan, went to kill him and end the beast's ramage. He failed. Locke attacked with the skaggan and slew the chief, becoming the new Chief by Ork law. He used his father’s PUC to call for a rescue, saving his sister.

Kiera had been enraptured by the story, at several points she took Locke’s hand or put her arm around him. There was shame and resentment, anger as he spoke, all expected, but outwardly he told it like some epic tale of adventure. There was happiness when he talked about the skaggan, and told Kiera when they got back to the academy so she could see the skaggan feathers he had; most of the time he made himself scarce so Kiera and Gargax could be alone. He showed her a picture of the creature, there was one of a young, battered and bloodied Locke with his forehead on the skaggain’s. He also showed her his tattoo. There were more scars on his muscular, toned body and she definitely liked what she saw.

“It’s amazing!” Kiera said, gently moving Locke so she could look at the tattoo in detail. Going through all that, it’s no wonder that you’re so dedicated to helping people. You’re quite the amazing man, Locke.”

“I don’t want anyone to go through what I did. But here we are. On a hostile world where no one knows where we are except the people you drew us into this trap, and no one coming to rescue us.”

Kiera pulled him into a hug, “ You’re wrong, Lucky. Major Peregrine knows we’re here. I know he and his squad weren’t party to this.”

Locke returned the hug, his embrace was strong and warm. When they pulled back Kiera impulsively leaned forward to kiss him. She caught herself, but his lips found hers. They shared a long, tender kiss.

“Thanks, Kiera,” Lock murmured when their lips parted.

“You’ve been so sweet to me, and you looked like you needed the hug…and I really wanted to kiss you.”

“I’ve wanted to kiss you, too. Ever since I met you at the officer’s test.”

“I think Tam and Kins would like to kiss you, too. They were both very happy to snuggle with you last night.”

“I was happy to snuggle with them,” Locke grinned, “I’d be happy to snuggle with you, too.”

“Hopefully Riley won’t mind you joining us tonight, tell me about her!”

=+=

Locke left Kiera to do a patrol around the camp and check in with everyone, the bandersnatch hides were on drying racks in the sun they made from branches from the forest. There was no salt to treat them with but Locke said they didn’t need it. Then the heavens opened up. Both Kiera and the pup were washed down the small valley into the chilling water that had gathered.

The pup whimpered and cried, trying to paddle out of the pond, fighting against the stream of water that ran down the hill. She wrapped her left arm around him and tried to use her remaining two limbs to extract them from the hole. The torrent of water was strong; any of the dens would do, she just needed to get out of the water. She grit her teeth and dug her foot and hand into the mud, trying to get any kind of hold.

A wave of water and mud crashed over her, causing her to lose her tenuous grip on both the pup and the mud. Then the frozen armor slammed into her, pinning her to the bottom of the pond. It only lasted a moment. The ice lifted off of her as it rose to the surface, she paddled after it, gasping for air as she surfaced. She swam towards the side of the pool, the rushing of water was slower there compared to the water slide of doom that fed the pool. The loose leg of her fatigues made swimming difficult, the fabric was just dead weight.

She grabbed onto a rock and then turned, looking around the pond for the brown and tan wolf pup. She heard his whines before she saw him; he was paddling for all his worth towards Kiera. Once he reached her she pulled him close and pushed him onto the rocky side she was clinging to. His claws were made to cling to rocky surfaces, as long as he stayed on the outcropping he wouldn’t be swept in again. Kiera wasn’t. She found a grip with her other hand and then pushed herself under the water, pulling with all her strength as she surfaced again, hoping to use the momentum to help her exit.

Her knee caught on the rocky ledge and she pulled herself out of the water. She pulled her boot off and then stripped off the fatigues, the loose leg was only a hazard to catch on something; Astrian uniforms didn’t tear easily. The boot was a necessity and she put it back on, despite the uncomfortable sensation of wet sock. The boot would give her more of a grip than her bare foot. The pup whined and gave a short bark as he pranced along the outcropping as easily as walking up a set of stairs. The slick jagged rock, and the icy pouring rain made it a much more difficult task for a nymph.

Lightning flashed, striking the outcropping and transformed the slick rocks into ice covered rocks, as if that climb needed to be any more difficult. The ice would also prevent the pup from dancing along the stones. He leapt from the stones and landed on the side of the hill. Kiera leapt back into the water; she didn’t want to know what would happen if the ice of the rapidly transforming rock reached her. Being a Kierasicle was not a life goal. The water pushed him down again, but his angle let him curve and he came to a halt on top of one of the dens the cadets had been digging.

“Get inside!” Kiera shouted, but only received a cocked head in reply. “In, go in!” she said, waving at the cave.

The pup glanced down at the muddy cave and looked up at a den that was completely stone. He barked and then scrambled towards it, mud flying from his paws as the water pushed him back towards the pond and the mud. Kiera paddled as hard as he could; it was a lot easier without the pant leg holding her down, the boot came off; she didn’t have time to lace it up properly and she couldn’t worry about it. She scrambled up the hill, digging her hands into the mud, pulling herself along while to move out of the deluge. She slipped, but caught her foot against a rock that arrested her fall for just a moment. She surrendered her positioning to take the pup in both hands and toss him to the den, tumbling down the water slide again and plunging into the freezing water, chunks of ice floating leisurely in it.

Barking caught her attention when she surfaced, and the little wolf pup was looking down at her from the den. Fear emanating from him, “Stay!” Kiera shouted. The lightning’s freezing effect had taken over the whole section of rock, making it that much harder to escape the pool. The cold was quickly sapping her energy, she had dozed off while waiting for the signal, brutally awakened by the unplanned cold shower.

She tried the other side of the pool, there was a single rock that was separated enough from the others that it was still stone. She pulled against it, her free hand searching for another hidden rock, a secret lifeline. All she found was mud. Still she pulled, pressing her knee into the mud and sinking her arm to the elbow. Without the dead weight of the fatigues she managed to extract herself. There was a den ten feet away, but it might as well have been ten kilometers. She crawled, shoving her hands into the mud and pulling her body up until she could bury her foot and repeated the process. She was shivering and the effort was draining the last bit of stamina. Her hand touched stone. She reached out and grabbed another one and pulled, pumping her leg for a grip that would let her push off and catch one just out of reach. Her fingers brushed it, her other hand slipped.

She wouldn’t be able to get out of that pool again, she was out of steam. This would be how she died. She slid down the hill, grabbing onto the original jutting rock and stopping herself from falling to her doom. Her chest heaved. She was at her breaking point. The pups' bark broke through the sound of rain. Kiera looked over at him unable to smile at his worried dance on the doorstep of the den. It looked like he was about to jump out and try to grab her. It would kill them both.

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“You look like her in trouble, girlie!” Vandreg’s voice came from the hill. The large cadet was slowly making his way down the hill towards her.

“Dat weak pretty boy who think he’s in charge told me to come check on you. Da girlie that wouldn’t sleep with me! After I save you, der won’t be a way you can say ‘no!’

Kiera swore, she was in no mood to deal with this oaf. With his normal arrogance, Vandreg trudged down the hill towards her. He stumbled a couple times but didn’t fall. The pup was barking and growing at the large mecha cadet.

Vandreg looked at the pup and then bent over and pulled out a small rock. “Shut up, doggy! I hate animals! Der so annoying!” As he started to stand another deluge of water raced down the hill. It threatened to put Vandreg off balance, he managed to keep on his feet. He leered as he approached. While the cadet didn't go sliding down the hill, the frozen statue of Kiera's bodyguard did. Vandreg threw the rock at the wolf pup, who jumped away closer to the den that Kiera wanted him to go into. The cadet turned back to Kiera.

"I can't wait to get you. You're going to be all mine! De prettiest girl should be with the strongest man, and I'm the strongest and most skilled!" Vandreg took another step, "No more you saying 'hard pass!'" The frozen power armor came to Kiera's aid. It slammed into the back of Vandreg and dragged him towards the pool.

Kiera was forced to dive out of the way, under the freezing water to avoid being caught in that entanglement. That wasn't a threesome that Kiera wanted any part of. The statue and cadet crashed into the pool with such force that Kiera was drenched and lost her tenuous hand hold, she started to slip back towards the pool.

Thunder boomed overhead, water poured down, the hill once more became a waterfall with chunks of ice flowing down it courtesy of the lightning. No matter how exhausted she felt, she wasn't going to die here. A hand grabbed her ankle and tried to pull her down, or use her to pull himself up. It could only have been Vandreg.

No. Kiera wasn't going to go down again, she wasn't going to let this oaf rescue her. She saved herself on Dalimar and she would save herself here. With a shout of defiance, she pulled her leg out of Vandreg's grasp and pulled herself up on the hill enough to grab the part of the outcropping. Then the next. Her pup was barking at her, guiding her to him. She drug her leg through the mud, and then got her leg out. She pushed along the hill, along the frozen rocks until her torso was inside one of the caves. The water washed over her but it wasn’t going to pull her back into the pool of frozen death. She would live. She’d rescued herself. For now.

Warm arms wrapped around her and lifted her back into the downpour. Then the rain stopped, she was someplace dry. Whoever had her carried her into the den put her down on the soft, dry sponge moss and it immediately began soaking up the water on her. She felt her clothes stripped off of her, with more sponge moss applied. She kept shivering, even when the blanket was put back on.

“Kiera, I need to get you warm. I’m asking for your permission to strip and get under that blanket with you.”

Locke. Locke had come back to make sure she was okay. He probably realized his mistake when he sent that oaf to check on her. No, he wouldn't send someone like that to check on her, he'd do it himself. He took her from that half-safe haven she had reached and carried her to true safety into her den. He shouldn’t have asked, it was standard practice for hypothermia.

“You don't ask that," Kiera said, "But yes, please! Please hold me,” Kiera begged. After everything she’d experience she wanted affection, more than a hug or a kiss. She wanted sex, “Take me."

He either didn’t hear her or ignored her request and lay down next to her and put her arms around her body. She needed more than this. She was scared, frightened. She had almost died four or five times in the last forty-eight hours. She wanted to feel alive, feel loved. She wanted to feel like she was wanted by someone who didn’t just want to sleep with a girl because she was a pretty girl.

“Locke, I need you. Can we have sex, make love? I need the affection, I need to feel alive, to…” she trailed off.

She felt Locke’s uncertainty. He wanted to sleep with her, he wanted to give her what she wanted. There was a sense of unease from him, but luckily no revulsion.

“Are you sure this is what you want, I’m who you want?”

“Yes, yes to both,” she said.

Locke kissed her, tentatively at first and then hungrily as she returned the kiss. He shifted on top of her and she let out a happy moan. She didn’t know how she would have felt if he had rejected her, but based on their previous conversation she didn’t think he would. She was glad she was right.

=+=

<<”That storm cell is still raging over the southern peninsula,” Leiella reported from high in Pentaurus’ atmosphere, <<”My gut is telling me that’s where the cadets were dropped.”>>

<<”Of course they would be dropped there, according to intelligence there’s a eborsisk that roams there. Don’t know why those things are allowed to live,”>> Nevis replied, <<”How long is it going to take the Engineering Corps to disable the scramblers?”>>

<<”They’re living creatures, Killshot,”>> Holt replied, <<”Just because they are dangerous does not give us license to kill them. It has ranged much further south than expected according to intelligence. The clanks aren’t due for another thirty-six hours local time. It’s been a debacle. The Preservation Society is demanding three additional cruisers to safeguard the planet before they will give their approval.”>>

<<”Yet they are due in thirty-six hours,”>> Solanthus chuckled, “Eastern continent is clear. I have to agree with Ella. I am picking up very faint traces of heat signatures consistent with infantry deployment.”>>

<<”Isn’t that peninsula home to a Bird of Paradise?”>> Jericho asked, “As well as a lot of other nasties including rak’gar? An eborsisk shouldn’t be going anywhere near it.”>>

<<”Yes, and a brakenskarv,”>> Holt said, <<”Although that abomination needed to be put down. If the eborsisk is risking a confrontation then it must really want something down there.”>>

<<”Kind of like you risking your career by confronting Roderick and Laney the way you did,” Solanthas said, <<”Although I really wish that I had been in the room to watch you beat Mack Laney like an ikallan pinata.”>>

<<”I’m not sure what you’re talking about. I hit him twice in self defense. I led no mutiny against the bridge crew,”>> Holt replied.

<<”No, boss, you just told Talbot Meteor that the ship his sister and niece were on was attacked by the bridge crew of the Everlight. Kind of sloppy that he wasn’t reassigned,”>> Jericho commented.

Admiral Snowden has reassigned the senior officers of the Everlight following the Dalimar incident. The junior officers and the rest of the crew had been left on the ship, which included Lieutenant Talbot Meteor, prince of the Astrian Empire and Saia Pellagos’ protege. Like his mentor he was charismatic and well-liked by the crew. When he told them that the cadets they were supposed to be protecting had been attacked by the new senior officers the crew happily joined him in overthrowing the bridge and locking up the ship officers in the brig. That's where they found Commander Madison Bright Holt's counterpart in the Navy and two other of the Navy's professors. Like Holt, she was caught off guard by the Calm Before the Storm and the other changes that Rodrick installed.

<<”Phoenix….I’m picking up an ion signature,”>> Leiella said, <<”It’s on the ridge overlooking the peninsula. Ion drive craft are barred from Pantaurus due to the eborsisk. That is unlikely to be a coincidence. Permission to investigate it?”>> her crusader was already flying towards the lower atmosphere, her voice suggested that her request was merely a formality.

<<”Negative, not until that storm breaks. The last thing we need is for you to get killed by an errant frostbolt. Hold position until that cell dissipates. Patch, Killshot support her. Prism, you and I are going to head back to the Everlight, let’s see what their sensor array has picked up in the last day.”>>

Leiella watched the two mechs fly higher into the atmosphere towards the orbiting starship. Then she turned her head to the stormcell. She could fly north where the peninsula met the continent or south to the island chain and then fly close to the ground to continue the search. There would be less risk of being struck by frost lightning that way.

<<”You heard his orders, Ella,”>> Solanthus said over a private line, <<”I know you are putting a lot of blame on yourself, but you made the right call. The ship was supposed to be safe, all hands verified twice. Giving her the normal experience was right.”>>

<<”She was entrusted to me,”>> Leiella said, <<”They all were, and now they’re on a preserve world filled with some of the deadliest creatures in the Empire. Even the herbivores are deadly. They have nothing but their wits and infantry gear. We don’t know if the ASF cadets are with ours or were given other orders. We were told they were deployed for a rescue but…”>>

<<”You want to see it with your own eyes, I understand. Which is why I took the liberty of taking the EAB. The trick is trying to determine where to deploy it.”>>

An Expedition Auxiliary Base was equipped with everything a planetary or system exploration team needed to survive during their long term assignments. The bases could be customized depending on the size of the expedition. It included medical supplies, survival gear, waypoint markers, survey equipment, various environmental clothing, equipment charging stations and bunks. The larger the base the longer it took to set up, but even the largest ones were fully operational after twelve hours. The cadets were supposed to traverse the wilderness overcoming various pre-planned obstacles and arrive at the Expedition Base to review their experiences and begin rescue training.

Leiella looked down on the peninsula below and then brought up a map. The forest had been marked a lethal danger zone and advised not to enter unless under extreme circumstances. It was where the brakenskarv lurked. Forests usually had everything you needed to survive, but there was also the ridge line and the stream. The plains, although hilly, were prone to flooding and wouldn’t be ideal. There were too many caves on the ridge; rak'gar’s made caves their lairs. A small plateau stuck out to her. There was fresh water, edible food. She cross referenced the biologists notes; that’s where they usually set up for their peninsula survey.

<<”The plateau,”>> Leiella said, <<”I’m assuming you also have a rover on your dragon, you do like those.”>>

<<”It is an expedition standard, my friend, triangulating launch coordinates. EAB and Rover deployed. Magnetic shielding on both will repel electrical based strikes. It’s all we can do for now until that storm cell dissolves and with that ion signature…”>>

<<”We need to lure that eborsisk away.”>>