Marie Sanders: Planet Taraya, third cycle, the planetary year 2052

The hardest thing about blending in with natives was pretending to sleep. Most sentient life she came in contact with had the habit of shutting down for hours every day. It was one of the worst and stupidest steps evolution liked so much to take.

She still had two or so hours to kill, so she decided to make the armor from primal matter. She was worried the natives would freak out if she would come out of the city walls without any protection. She always wore three pouches around her waist, full of primal matter. It was a peculiar substance, abundantly available inside the subspace. It was a leftover after the beginning of every universe cycle. Although sharing many similarities with regular matter, it had one extra feature. When exposed to energized particles, it could be morphed into any desirable shape or tool.

Marie disassembled many armors and weaponry during her time as Exonerated. She had to learn how stuff looked at the atomic level to recreate them with primal matter. She stroked her pouch while combing her memory for a fitting armor design. She settled for the motorized combat suit heavy infantry wore in the Corwalan war.

She then stood up, trying to be as quiet as possible, and exited the dorms where her squad slept soundly. She found the good old broom closet and slipped in. She took a fistful of primal matter and pressed it at her chest while applying electrons to it, generously provided by the power line running along the wall.

I hope my hosts will forgive me for a few lights flickering. Simple, low-grade armor, like Corwalan, required a tiny amount of energy to take shape. Although offering little protection, she decided it was good enough for the job. She didn’t expect to fight anyone dangerous anyway.

She tried to return to the dorms without being noticed, but Corwalan armor was a heavy and noisy piece of equipment. The thudding of her metal boots and whining of the electrical motors woke her squad mates up.

“What in tarnation is that?” Carrie asked, still half asleep, pointing her finger in the general direction of Marie

“It’s me, I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to suit up early. “

“We should do the same. “ Terry Frisk, a scrawny redhead guy added to the conversation.

“ Okay, we are to meet in the Aegis garage 5. They parked our ride there. Be there 15 minutes before departure.” Marcus agreed. Everyone left the dorms in hurry leaving Marie alone in the room. She pressed the eject button under her right thigh armor plate, to which the back of the combat suit opened to allow her to exit it. Dealing with natives is taxing. I need a vacation.

***

Taraya was in worse shape than she anticipated. The majority of flora and fauna were dead or close to dying. Dust storms were frequent. Thick cloud layer often blanketed the sky. Traveling during the day was extremely taxing on normal humans and their vehicles, so they moved during the night. Their merry fellowship covered a lot of ground in two days. They only stopped by the old repair shops and underground shelters. Tarayan vehicles ran on rudimentary fusion batteries, which needed swapping often.

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The Ancestral river came into view. They had to make a stop and make the Board of directors happy. The Board asked for some water and soil samples. Although almost dried out, the Ancestral river was still massive. In its past, it could have been one of the largest rivers Marie had seen. Testament to its former size was the giant river bed. Damian Marstel and Carrie Tlen descended to the water. Marcus and Frisk stared at what was left of the mighty river and reminisced. Marie decided to scout ahead and not get bored by listening to old war stories.

She came across something that might have been a park back in the day. Taraya's star converted it into a collection of dry grass, dead trees, and dusty fragile benches. The center of the park was the home of a giant fountain. No doubt once beautiful . She walked behind it and got out of her combat suit. She hated it. Its helmet had tactical AI installed, which was very hard to deactivate because suit needed it to function. AI displayed useless info onto screen inside her helmet. It obscured her vision when she had helmet on, but she had to endure it.

She wanted to feel the Taraya. She touched the ground. It was hot even at night, but not hot enough to hurt her hand. She forced herself to inhale the air and absorb every smell the dying planet had to offer. Hot air filled her lungs, and her rib joints cracked a little from not being used for quite some time. It felt like she was burning on the inside, but she knew her Elemental rebuilt her tissues to endure even worse things. Taraya smelled of dust and death. The air was arid and heavy. She activated her Elemental to see the air molecules, and it was apparent that the air was getting thinner at an alarming rate. Radiation looked like heavy rain when observed with the Elemental's power. Beautiful red streaks were deadly for most living beings in the universe. The planet was all but dead, and Marie was sad about it. Goodbye Taraya. I’m sorry it ended like this.

The sounds of weapon fire startled Marie. She re-entered her suit and started running back to her squad. I shouldn’t have left them alone.

***

You’ll never be able to protect them, so don’t get too attached, Marie remembered commander Thrace’s words while watching Carrie lying broken at her feet. Someone ripped the helmet off her head and broke her neck during that process. The other two were dead too. Marstel’s environment suit’s chest plate was bent inwards badly. The force of the impact deformed metal and squashed his heart. Marcus lay near the broken tree, barely breathing. Frisk's body lay close to him. Frisk’s neck was bruised and the back of his helmet was broken. The attacker grabbed him and slammed him into the ground.

She left them alone only for a moment. It was more than enough. The attack was sudden, for only Frisk discharged his weapon.

Marcus’ helmet visor was broken and Marie could hear him wheezing. He fought for his every breath as his lungs filled with poisonous air and blood from the new holes his broken ribs made. Marie closed Carrie’s still-open eyes and hurried to Marcus, to try and help him if she could.

She inspected his injuries. His lumbar vertebrae were broken into tiny pieces, a combined effort of whatever hit him and the tree that found itself in his flight path. Unfortunately, there was nothing else she could do aside from making him the Exonerated. But that was something, at least.

“Marcus, look at me. Do you know who I am? Can you understand me?” Marie asked slowly to which Marcus nodded with great effort

“There is only one way I can save your life, but it will cost you. Greatly. Are you ready to trade your freedom for your life? “

“Y-yees…I am.” Marcus spoke, and his words were hardly audible.

Marie got out of her suit and took his hand while he watched her in disbelief, stumped at how thin radioactive air did not affect her. She put her palm on his chest and said

“Sulra hort.” those were the only two words of the Adjusters’ language she knew. The familiar feeling of unease meant the Adjuster had arrived. They always wore ceremonial pitch-black armor when recruiting. Some said it was made when infusing the primal matter with dark matter, but it was only speculation.

The Adjuster tapped Marcus’ suit, using it to create the healing gizmo, then pressed it at Marcus’ neck and stabilized him. It spoke to Marie

“You are his caretaker now. We will bring him to you after the bonding ceremony.” after those words Adjuster disappeared with Marcus into the subspace gate.

I have to clean up this mess. Nordis should be close.