I watched as the surface below grew larger, to where the corners of the world were no longer visible to me and instead it was a temperate rainforest’s large canopies. All I knew about this place was my mission was here, the fact there was a Bastion, and that a civilisation had been formed.

"It’s beautiful, isn't it?" My trance, as quick as I entered it, was interrupted by the voice from next to me. I turned to Aron, a man who looked to be in his mid-forties with silver streaks running through his onyx-coloured hair. He stretched his free arm and placed it around the back of his head.

"Different, that’s for sure." I said. Aron snorted, and I rolled my amber eyes. His own pair of pearlescent silver eyes dragged themselves down towards a book that quickly caught my attention. I proceeded to skim over the title.

He craned his neck upwards so his glance could meet mine, all with curiosity emanating from him. This was just before we once again dually glanced back at the book. I found him waiting, so I decided to feed the beast. I opened my maw to speak. “A history on medicine?”

“A history of medicine.” He quickly replied. It was this many days into my journey that I realized that the newbie was either interested in medicine or was a medic. I suspected it was the first. I decided to follow up on that thought process, despite how little we talked on the way over.

“Interested in such history?” I queried, my interest divulging to Aron.

“I work in it.” He grinned, almost as if he was proud to be teaching his ways as a pure human; not just part.

It was about that moment when another voice rocked up to the scene, diverting our attention away from the book. “This’ll only be a temporary home away from home, so don’t get too comfortable.” I turned to face our commanding officer, Corporal Idonius Zelzak. He was this menacingly tall, burly young spark with silvery blonde hair.

He clasped his hands on his hips, while positioning his feet shoulder-width apart. His voice was incredibly loud, which was evident because we could hear him from ten rows back, yet he was speaking at a ‘normal’ volume to a brute-sized Valtyorx - at least in comparison to him.

What quickly followed was a nod of agreement from the Valtyorx, before they turned away. Just as they were to vanish behind a curtain, I quickly realized that this one differed from what I’d seen before. Normally, the species have golden skin primarily and black markings, but this one had none of the latter.

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While Corporal Zelzak was preparing something at the console next to the curtain, I subtly tried to point to the Valtyorx. This was all whilst attempting to make it obvious to the human sitting next to me. It went swimmingly; they noticed, turned to me and looked very confused. “They’re golden,” I whispered. “Why are they golden?”

Aron continued his gaze, and his voice was very soft when he spoke; so soft that I could’ve mistaken his motive. “That’s a Valtyorx of Bound kin. They’re way different from the common Cave kin all because they evolved in different environments. For example, they both have sight but Bound kin can see sound; they use echolocation. As a result, Bound kin make excellent guards.” This made me realize that the uniform they had - albeit hard to see with a cloak draped across the back - was that of a guard.

Another thing I noted with a vision as sharp as a hawk is that their squad number matched mine, Zelzak’s and Aron’s. “They’re in our squadron… maybe that’s the new recruit to the fireteam Podaskus talked about?”

Unfortunately, my speculation stopped there. Zelzak gathered the attention of all the personnel in the cabin. He faced center, his arms now down by his sides and he spoke, standing ever so still. “We will be arriving within the next two hours, and I want you all to remember that our placement here is short. Don’t get too comfortable. Understood?”

Almost as soon as he finished, without a second of waiting, we were responding. “Oorah!”

“That’s what I like to hear!” A new presence became known with her husky voice; Sergeant Xalis Podaskus, wearing her brown hair in the usual bun. As fast as she had arrived though, she seemed to be leaving; after turning to face her superior, she whispered something at an incomprehensible volume to most, but not to me.

Podaskus, unlike the officer she was stood with, could actually whisper. She seemed to be speaking in codewords unknown to me, despite my knowledge on human words and culture being supposedly better than most other Traveene; that’s at least what I’d been told in the past.

But even with piqued interest, I turned my attention away and reminded myself of Corporal Zelzak’s words.

As a result, I found my eyes glancing up towards a grated piece of silver metal well above my head, held in a compartment that was supported by storm grey beams. These beams followed the cabin all the way down, and on one side the ceiling would rise, making sure people who were walking could fit in the cabin to take a seat.

I made a mental note not to forget my black bag of belongings, which were on a minimalistic conveyor belt above my head just above the grated metal. After all, if I did not pick it up, I would not be getting it back.

I looked back down at the seats ahead of me, with the sound of chatter having resumed once more filling the cabin. But even despite the noise, I found myself wanting to take a nap. After all, I would not be taking much of a break these following days. So, I pulled out a sleeping kit that I’d been using and put on the eye mask and earplugs, hoping to drown out some of the noise.

Turn around twice and I’m waking up again.