Koko chuckles while repositioning her back onto a nearby wall. “I’m seriously being threatened by some grade-schooler. Nngh… Perfect...”

Miya scrunches her eyes. “Grade-schooler? Is that a faction on this planet? I didn’t see anything listed about such an affiliation in the cluster logs.”

Koko raises her eyebrow with a short nod of her head. “So you really aren’t from Earth, are you? You said something about being a Space Patroller for the Galactic Federation... Why would they send one of you to the surface when all of us are being detained down— AGHHH!”

Koko swears beneath her teeth as she looks down at her leg in a painful wince.

Miya continues to smother her boot in the girl’s severed leg with a tempered glare. “I’ll ask questions, you listen and respond. Got it? Or I’ll rip it off and leave you here to die slowly.”

Koko nods slowly, her eyes start to flutter close along with her head stooping toward the ground. Miya walks over to her and detaches the face shield from her suit and taps her cheek.

“Hey! I didn’t say you could sleep! Name! Affiliation! What’re these creatures that attacked you?” Miya questions hastily.

“… Upstairs… Roader… Take me… Bridge…” Koko whispers.

Miya holds Koko’s head up, looking at her now closed unconscious eyes. She sighs and looks down at the girl’s bone artery sticking up from her metal-suit leg.

Miya unlatches a black compartment from her belt and opens the latch, revealing a metal-syringe kit consisting of two blue syringes, one red, and two green.

“I was told to only take these in case of emergency…” Miya murmurs while looking at the case and then back to Koko.

“But… I guess I do need her alive for questioning.” Miya determines with a sigh, taking the green syringe from her compartment.

She then clicks a button on Koko’s helmet, making the metal suit encasing her dematerialize.

Miya assesses the girl’s Japanese school outfit, fiddling with the long red fabric and rubbing her hands within the grooves of her navy-blue skirt. Koko moans and moves her head to the side, making Miya jolt while reaching for her now holstered gun.

She then shakes her head and moves over to Koko’s wounded leg, surveying the limb with a tilt of her head.

“I’ve only ever performed medical procedures in virtual simulators… I never had the opportunity to learn how to do them in person…”

Miya rubs along Koko’s skin and takes a hold of two points between the obtrusive cartilage splitting through her leg. With a firm grip, Miya performs a gradual pull of her limb and seeps the bone back into her skin.

“I-It worked!” Miya enthuses with a smile.

She then takes out a black and red satchel from her side and unclips a cylinder bottle with a blue-lumpy-looking fluid in the container. Miya sprays the liquid onto the gash made by Koko’s protruding bone, along with other cuts and bruises formed on her body.

The fluid then hardens with some of the material breaking off with the cuts now fully healed. Miya gives an astonished gaze as she pokes Koko’s cheek where she applied some of the ointment.

“Yes… Then after covering all the bruises with Cruno-foam, I inject her with VMO-14 for any internal damages. This will also make sure that her bone heals back into place properly.” Miya instructs herself aloud, placing the syringe into Koko’s neck and squeezing it down until all the fluid leaves the capsule.

She looks up to Koko’s face change from a painful wince to a calm-neutral expression. Miya’s eyes sparkle as she performs a small congratulatory jolt of her fist.

Miya then takes off the top of her uniform and wraps it around Koko’s leg before dabbing some smears of blood and sweat from the unconscious girl’s face with a bit of cloth from her emergency kit.

After taking care of her injuries, Miya stands up and wipes her forehead with a deep breath.

“—Bzzt Koko, are you still in the inner-city? Koko…?”

Miya presses a button on her neck-comms device causing a blue-holo screen to appear in front of her. Several symbols wrap around a blue orb until a white-check mark flies across her screen.

“Hello. Can you hear me?”

“—Bzzt Who is this? How did you intercept our transmission?”

“The Federation’s Xacto devices automatically sense any low-frequency communications and deciphers them in a matter of seconds. Now, since I’ve answered your question, please answer mine. Name, affiliation, and your rank within said organization.” Miya orders.

A wave of static ushers through her ears.

“… Or, I can just let your friend, Koko, was it, to sleep here forever with a large hole in her head.”

The threat is met with another wave of static.

“—Bzzt Kid, this is not the time to be playing games. Now where is my—“

—WHIIIR

Miya takes out her handgun from her holster and aims it at Koko, still unconscious on the floor.

“Yeah, I’m playing a game alright. It’s a literal version of life and death, with your companion being contestant number one. Now answer my question or she gets the grand-fucking-prize.”

“—Bzzt What has she gotten herself into… Alright, alright. My name is Loliel and I’m not affiliated with a certain group per se; However, I’m still ranked amongst the highest of our team so you may think of me as captain.”

Miya's lips curl into a smug smile. “Okaaay, Captain Loliel. Could you explain to me what just tried to take my entire head off with one chomp upon landing on this abandoned dustball?”

“You mean… The creeps? We don’t know much about them either. All we know is that they come up through an arbitrary tunneling system and that they’re a threat if left unchecked.”

Miya sighs and scratches the back of her neck with her gun. “You’re lying. I’ve been intercepting your messages ever since I landed here. You guys know exactly what you’re doing here; Battle-suits, Level-6 military equipment… I bet you're some type of radical organization fighting for some bullshit belief or whatever. Or maybe some marauders working to claim a bounty? Come on, I'm open to anything.”

Another wave of static ripples through her ears.

“Ok, I get it. I’ll just meet you face-to-face then. You do want your friend back, right? She said something about a bridge… So I’ll just use this planet’s old geographical maps and find the nearest one, kay’?”

Miya then clicks her comms device off and places both her hands on her hips. She looks over to Koko still sound asleep with a laugh.

“… Is she seriously sleeping after all of this? … And she says I’m the child.”

. . .