Blinding, white snow swirled in every direction, making it impossible for Lus to see more than a few yards before the scene melted into the blizzard. The others seemed to be faring no better, even with their superior eyesight. A thin alunitanium rope stretched between the four of them, Nippy at the head and Hlnwr at the rear with Dasht and Lus in the middle two spots.

“We’re going to die out here,” Dasht said from behind Lus, his voice barely audible through the layers of clothing and half carried away by the wind.

“Have a little faith, Zer-Dasht. Nippy’s got the scanner. He’ll get us to the wreck safely,” Lusac assured his friend.

“I can’t even use a mistter,” the Nemarian pointed out unhappily.

“What do you need one for? Look at the moisture in the air.” Lus gestured to the swirling snow, really wishing Dasht would lighten up a little. The guy was acting like he was going to freeze to death if a single flake touched him.

For Lus, snow was still something of a wonder. He’d never seen the stuff until joining the Argo’s crew. Treft was too barren after the strip mining that occurred when he was still just a baby, and even knowing how deadly snowstorms could be, Lusac couldn’t help but marvel a bit at the beauty of the white around them.

It helped that he was bundled up in a heavy coat, snow pants, and boots with a scarf wrapped around his face. Plus his alunitanium suit was designed to deal with all kinds of weather, the fibers keeping his body well-insulated against whatever drafts made it through the outer layers.

Zer-Dasht was wrapped up similarly, with two scarves at his neck and over his nose while the Kremel each only had the basic coat, pants, and boats. Hlnwr didn’t even have his hood up, his hair more white than black from the flakes sticking to it.

“We’re almost there,” Nippy shouted from the front. “Hang on a little longer, Dasht. I promise there will be plenty of warmth once we get to the ship.”

“Yeah, warmth I’ll get to enjoy for a couple of hours as the radiation eats my body away,” Dasht bit back. “Suns, I never should have agreed to this mission. It’s an even bigger disaster than Aschir Alpha.”

“Cheer up. I have enough [XP] to buy a new [Skill] so I can save the day again,” Lus replied as they continued their trek through the shin-high snow.

“You and that blasted system,” the Nemarian muttered.

The wind picked up, drowning out the last of Zer-Dasht’s complaints to everyone’s relief, and they trudged on in relative silence. Lus was so distracted trying to match his steps to Nippy’s large prints in hopes of saving some amount of effort, he didn’t notice when the Kremel stopped and bumped right into him.

“Sorry,” he murmured, but Nippy wasn’t paying any attention. Lus looked around his hulking frame to see that they’d arrived at their destination. Thanks to the heat/radiation which kept the wreck from being buried, there was a lot less snow flying through the area, giving the team a clear view of their target.

The shipwreck was huge, the original ship having been at least twice the size of the Argo, if not triple, resulting in a massive crater within the neverending field of snow. The ship stood in two completely separate pieces, obviously ripped apart, with about a quarter of a mile between them. They represented what Lus estimated to be about two thirds of the ship, with the remaining third scattered around the crater in pieces, jagged pieces of hull and fractured beams protruding from the snow.

Hlnwr whistled as he and Dasht joined them at the edge of the crater, looking down at the decades old wreck. The largest chunk of the ship lay to the left, with thick, round engines at the back that provided a red glow to the entire scene.

“So I vote we avoid the glowing half,” Dasht joked. “You know, since I still might want to have kids someday.”

Nippy smiled. “Why don’t you and Lusac take the front half, and Hwnlr and I will explore the part with the radiation?”

“Are you sure it's a good idea to split up?” Lus interjected. “I mean, we don’t know for sure what’s down there.”

Hwnlr laughed. “Afraid of finding a few critters in the wreck, Loser? Aren’t you mission goers trained to deal with the occasional pest?”

Lus glared at the Kremel. “Sometimes we run into a lot worse than pests.”

“There’s no way anything big lives out here. Look at this place,” Nippy gestured to the raging storm around them. “What would animals eat? They need more than water to survive.”

“We made a similar assumption back on Aschir Alpha,” Dasht replied, agreeing with Lus for once.

Hwnlr growled. “Well why don’t you two hand over your all-in cutters, and then we shouldn’t have to worry too much about anything like Aschir repeating.”

“Drop it,” Nippy commanded. “We don’t have time to explore all this together, and not to mention that Hwnlr and Dasht make a good point: it should be the species that can actually endure a little radiation going near the source. I want you two safe,” he pointed to Lusac and Dasht, “so I’m sending you to the safer part of the wreck. Understand?”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Yes, sir.” Lus and Dasht both offered their hollow agreements to the situation.

“Great. Let’s get down there and then settle on details of meeting back up,” Nippy dropped his oversized backpack to the ground and began digging in it. He pulled out his repelling anchor and another set of rope.

“Well…” He motioned to the others to do the same.

Lus used his foot to paw around on the ground, finding that he wasn’t on solid ground, but rather frozen snow that was so old and condensed, it acted as ground for walking, but he had his doubts about it holding up to the anchor and then repelling.

“Nippy,” Dasht said before Lus could say anything. “This ground won’t work for that. The anchor needs rock to be fully stable. We have to figure something else out.”

“The anchor has built in safeties for this kind of thing. It’s meant to be versatile.” Nippy dismissed their concerns with a wave of his hand. “Let me show you.” He plunged the anchor deep into the snow and then held the safety trigger down as he pressed the release button. There was a faint vibration as the metal hook jammed its way into the ground.

The Kremel attached his own thicker rope to the top of the anchor instead of using the provided cord that was only rated to work in more temperate climates. He gave it a hard pull upwards, but the anchor stayed put.

“See?” Nippy said. “You two worry too much.”

He attached the rope to the harness hook buried under his coat and stepped to the edge of the crater. Smiling, Nippy took the first step over the edge and plunged downwards towards the floor of the crash site. In a few moments, his voice echoed in the comms, informing the rest of the team he’d made it down safely.

“You or me next?” Zer-Dasht asked Lus with a dubious look in his eyes as he stared at the hole where the anchor lay.

“Your choice,” Lusac answered, finding some amount of confidence in the device. If it held Nippy, it would have no problems with the others.

Dasht elected to go next, and after Hwnlr hauled all the rope up, Lus dug into the snow to reset the device for the Nemarian’s descent.

“You’ll be fine,” Lusac assured his friend as he stood at the edge.

“Easy for you to say.” Dasht took one last breath and then stepped backwards, starting his own journey down.

Lus paid close attention to the anchor, remaining close in case it did decide to release unexpectedly, but it remained completely solid through Dasht’s journey.

“I’ll go last,” Hwnlr offered, and Lus happily agreed since his faith in the anchor holding the Kremel was a lot less than his faith in it holding him.

They repeated the steps as before, and then it was Lus’s turn to stand at the precipice. He gave Hwnlr a nervous smile as he leaned back and repelled off the edge of the crater.

It was harder than it was to repel against stone since the walls were slick and a bit mushy, but Lusac made it down with relative ease and communicated to Hwnlr that the coast was clear for him.

The crater blocked a lot of the snow, making it a little less miserable down by the wreckage.

The thick rope disappeared up the wall, and a few moments later, the Kremel appeared above them, making his way downwards. Everything was going fine until about two-thirds of the way down when the rope lost its tautness and Hwnlr came speeding to the ground.

Thinking of his own safety, Lusac dove out of the way alongside Dasht and Nippy as the Kremel crashed into the snow, making his own mini-crater.

“Hwnlr!” Nippy ran to him as the rest of the rope as well as the anchor dropped nearby.

“Ugh,” the other Kremel groaned as he sat up, shaking the snow from his body. “At least the landing was soft.”

“No injuries?” Dasht confirmed from a few yards.

“Of course not. I’m a Kremel, not one of you fragile Nemarians,” he scoffed. He accepted Nippy’s hand up. “And since I’m the last one, it’s not a big deal anyway that the anchor failed.”

“Until we have to get back up.” Lus stared upwards at the fifty foot wall that now separated them from their shuttle.

“We’ll worry about that when the time comes. I’m sure as we explore, we’ll find another way out of here.” Nippy was as confident as ever about things. Lus only wished he could find it in himself to feel the same.

“How long should we spend exploring before meeting back up?” Zer-Dasht asked as he stared out across the wreckage.

“Two hours should provide enough time to thoroughly search through things. I want you two to worry about finding the parts we need to repair our shuttle comms while Hwnlr and I search for the artifact,” he said.

“Sounds good,” Lusac adjusted the straps of his backpack to fit a little closer in preparation of entering the wreckage. He was a little worried about having Dasht with him given the Nemarian’s obvious apprehension to the whole mission, especially after the shuttle crash, but it was better than going it completely alone.

“Great. Now I can get my eye stabbed out,” Dasht said quietly as he followed Lusac towards the smaller part of the wreckage where they hoped to find things like the bridge and other key systems.

“Only if you try to kill me.” Lus shot a glare over his shoulders.

The Nemarian rolled his black eyes and then walked faster to push past Lus and take the lead. There was less snow on the ground here, but it still rose above Lus’s ankles, slowing their progress as they made their way to the decrepit ship hull.

The red glow of the engines provided less light the closer they got, leaving them to their lanterns and the single headlamp Lus borrowed from the shuttle. The dark, broken structure reminded Lus of more than one horror film he’d watched in recent years, and he did his best to put those memories from his mind.

“Where to first?” Zer-Dasht said as he came to a stop right before the interior of the ship.

Lusac gaped up at the rubble and questioned the safety of entering the wreckage when it looked so close to collapsing in on itself. From what he could see of the unburied section, there were at least fifteen visible decks, most of them completely out of reach from where they stood.

“I have no idea. Let’s get inside and look around a bit until we find something to orient us,” Lusac suggested. He started towards the closest, safe entrance that led to one of the many dark corridors of the ship.

Dasht was just behind him, muttering a complaint with every step, but Lus couldn’t blame him. It was going to take a lot of work to find what they were looking for. If they could find what they were looking for that was.