Writing Prompt: “The sky went dark”

The air was filled with the low moan and creak of tortured metal as the heavy airlock door rose with the protesting groan of engines under heavy strain.

The door opened slowly, letting in swirls of dust.

“The... sky, Sister.” Irene’s amazed voice echoed across the comm as she strode out into the Waste. Holy Knight Jeanne felt the same sense of awestruck wonder herself as she looked up, expecting anything but what she saw.

The skies above Al-Omeg were clear. The usual clouds of chemicals and dust were absent; the winds were shockingly and mercifully silent.

The stars were glittering diamonds scattered across an ebon sky, strange ribbons of multicolored light hissing on the horizons.

“Rad levels are... tolerable. Atmo is... still toxic. Particulate count is negligible.” Evelína reported in Jeanne’s ear.

Some of the ancient spacecraft, long derelict, hung in orbit around the decaying planet, visible now that the storms had passed.

“How’d this happen?” Jeanne mused as she strode outside of the airlock and into the wasteland.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen the stars outside from old texts.” Irene replied wonderingly.

“You’d better record this; you might not ever see the sky again.” Jeanne muttered. “I don’t think anyone would believe you.”

Irene took a few steps and twirled about in Hellena, her Smirtka battlesuit. “This is amazing. Unprecedented.”

“Send a data package to Abigail and stay focused, Irene.” Jeanne chided her. “We’ve got a mission.”

“A night like this... I feel somewhat disappointed that we have to spend it working.” Irene murmured.

“Coordinates received.” Evelína suddenly murmured in Jeanne’s ear. “Relaying to Hellena.”

“Huh?! Coordinates? What?” Jeanne replied, baffled as the jetpacks came online.

“What are you doing?!” She shouted, struggling with controls that no longer responded to her. Evelína’s jetpacks hummed with barely restrained power as Jeanne struggled to move, to act, to do something, anything.

Irene’s startled voice came over the vox as she too struggled with her suit behaving erratically.

With a gut-wrenching lurch, Jeanne was catapulted through the air, jets sizzling, unable to control Evelína. One of the secondary screens showed that Irene was hot on her tail, though from the vox, she was just as unwilling as Jeanne.

“I’m gonna shut you down, Evelína.” Jeanne warned through clenched teeth, toggling for the manual control.

“I can’t let you do that, Jeanne.” Evelína replied, and all of Jeanne’s indicators went red.

It didn’t cross Jeanne’s mind to force a manual eject; at this altitude she’d be paste when she hit the ground.

“I swear to Luna I will have you decommissioned and abandoned in the Boneyard-” Jeanne hissed through clenched teeth as her battlesuit continued to push her higher, straining against earth’s gravity.

Suddenly the sky went dark, the stars blotted out by some supermassive thing that shed no light.

“Sensors!” Jeanne shouted, not expecting Evelína to respond.

However, the sensors lit up and Jeanne was treated to the sight of something she hadn’t seen in a very long time: the triangular supermassive spacecraft she’d seen so long ago, something that belonged to those that had somehow commanded Evelína to stop devouring Jeanne.

A rectangular slice of light appeared in the underbelly of that titanic ship; some sort of hatch or bay was opening up, and according to the telemetry data, Evelína and Hellena were destined to head right inside.

“Jeanne! Jeanne!” Irene called over the vox.

“I have no idea what’s going on, but it’s best to keep your calm, Irene!” Jeanne called back. “We’ll figure out what’s going on soon, I swear it!”

“Critical power failure in Battlesuit Hellena.” Evelína announced, and then suddenly reached out long glistening black tendrils to the other Smirtka. “Smirtka Hellena, I require your assistance.”

Hellena copied Evelína’s gesture, extruding its own tendrils to catch Evelína’s.

The two intertwined, and suddenly Jeanne was yanked back as her weight multiplied exponentially.

“Adjusting thruster output.” Evelína barked, and Jeanne could feel Evelína’s jets roar even harder, though she was certain it wasn’t enough.

“We can’t keep this altitude, Evelína.” Jeanne managed to grit out. “And we can’t haul Irene along with us.”

“Negotiation in progress, Jeanne.” Evelína replied in a much less mechanical tone. “Electromagnetic anchors have us secured.”

Suddenly Evelína’s jetpacks cut out and Jeanne screamed. A fall from this height, regardless if she was protected by a fully armored and fully functional battlesuit would kill her.

“Relax, Jeanne.” Evelína encouraged. “We’re not falling.”

Jeanne eyed the altimeter and goggled; not only were they not falling, they were rising slowly, gently towards that titanic hatch that looked to be big enough to swallow the entire Cathedral of the Moon.

“Comms?” Jeanne breathed.

“Vox open.” Evelína replied, humming one of the Cathedral’s hymns in Jeanne’s ear.

“Irene? You still with us?”

“Please tell me we’re not going to fall.” Irene’s response babbled across the vox. “I haven’t gotten married yet, I haven’t earned the right to have a house, I didn’t say goodbye to my parents-”

“It seems... that we’re not falling.” Jeanne cut her fellow Knight short. “Check Hellena’s systems.”

“Generator and jetpacks are in an auto-repair cycle.” Irene reported back. “If I fall, that’s it.”

“Evelína?” Jeanne demanded. “System status?”

“Generators are functioning normally. Jetpacks are eighty percent functional. Repair cycle engaged. ETA is twenty hours until functionality is fully restored.”

“Fuck.” Jeanne complained as they rose, mysteriously, into the massive bay that had opened up for them.

“Deploy ordinance. I authorize release of plasma weaponry.” Jeanne immediately barked. “Irene, weapons hot. I don’t know who decided to co-opt our battlesuits, but they won’t find us easy meat.”

“Jeanne, if I’m reading this right, this whole thing is huge!” Irene replied, her voice aghast and horrified. “It’s at least as big as a Hive.”

“I know.” Jeanne replied. “Don’t shoot unless we have to.”

The interior of the bay they’d been dragged into was a uniform metallic gray; boxlike in appearance. As they rose up into the bay, the massive doors that had opened up to accommodate them closed underneath them.

“I don’t think-” Irene began, but then the mysterious force that pulled them in released, and both of the battlesuits dropped and clattered to the deck.

“Get up, get up!” Jeanne struggled to free Evelína from Hellena’s tangled embrace as an intense blast of air washed over them. Her ears popped as the room pressurized and Jeanne squeezed her eyes shut in pain.

“Air is clean and breathable. Background rads. No toxins detected, no sign of biological contaminants.” Evelína reported. “This air is the cleanest yet. Even the Cathedral doesn’t have air this good.”

Jeanne dragged herself away from Hellena.

“Systems?” Jeanne muttered as she tried to stand upright. For some reason her sense of “upright” had disappeared, and she reeled about drunkenly.

“Evelína, do something about this.” Jeanne complained.

“You want me to stand upright for you?” Evelína’s voice held tones of shocked wonder and humor.

“Yeah. If you would. Please.” Jeanne replied. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

Evelína fixed Jeanne’s stance and deployed her ordinance.

“By Luna.” Jeanne grimaced. “There is something seriously wrong.” She complained. “What’s Irene’s status?”

“Knight Irene is unconscious.” Hellena’s voice replied clinically across the vox.

Jeanne looked around the metallic room, head swimming. “What is wrong with me?” She complained.

“Cogitation in progress.” Evelína replied. “Room analysis is complete; a passage is directly opposite us.”

“Turn us around, then.” Jeanne complained irritably, and then drifted off.

“Jeanne? Jeanne?” Evelína’s voice dragged Jeanne into a sludgy semi consciousness. “Deploying adrenaline-”

“No... no need.” Jeanne complained, forestalling the Smirtka. “What is it?” She asked.

Her screens clicked on, and standing in front of her was a solidly built man with a thick mustache and a uniform that Jeanne didn’t recognize, though it was obvious that it carried the hallmarks of some sort of military uniform.

“I’m Commander David Alvis of the Imperator.” The man introduced himself.

“Close quarters weapons.” Jeanne ordered, and triggered her external vox even as Evelína deployed her knives.

“I’m Holy Knight Jeanne, Block Seven, of Hive City al-Omeg.” Jeanne growled back. “I don’t know how you commandeered our battlesuits, but interfering with a Holy Knight carries a penalty of death.”

He plucked at his collar. “Send the signal.” He muttered, and suddenly Jeanne was forcefully ejected from Evelína’s embrace and onto the metallic deck. Evelína slumped to the deck with a wail.

Jeanne hit the deck on her face, and struggled to gain her footing.

“Holy Knight Jeanne, we need to talk with you and your compatriot. It seems that in order to talk, we’re going to need to separate you from your...” He paused, “Plants.”

As she forced herself upright, he once again tugged at his collar, likely a comm of some kind. “Take them to the medical bay. We have no idea what filth they’re carrying. Full quarantine. Get the two of them cleaned up.”

He walked away, boots clicking hollowly on the metallic plates of the deck. Jeanne took a wobbly step after him, her chest aching and burning with each step.

“I won’t let you-” She growled through clenched teeth.

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“We’re not your enemy.” He called over his shoulder, not deigning to turn around. “We need your help, after all.”

Jeanne crashed to her knees again, her vision swimming.

“...Evelína...” She whispered as darkness claimed her.

She was conscious, but she couldn’t move. She couldn’t see, but she could hear; there was some tone that resonated with her heartbeat.

“So, how are they?” the voice of that man, that... commander.

“Remarkably healthy, considering the environment.” a different voice, strong, feminine.

“Biohazard?” He asked.

“Well, I’ve been inoculated against all of the things they’re carrying, and she’s been inoculated against all of the things we’re carrying, so... we’re fine.”

“Their problems breathing?” the commander asked.

The woman laughed. “They’re not used to the air we breathe.”

“Too clean?” He asked, notes of confusion in his voice.

“Nope.” the woman’s voice replied with notes of amusement. “Too rich. The air on the surface- the atmosphere there is... a lot less than it should be. We pressurized the cargo hold and bam, hyperoxia.”

“Will it be a problem?” His voice was concerned.

“They’re adapting. Shouldn’t be a problem.” The woman replied.

“Well, you’ve got a couple of hours. Get them up, get them fed, and... keep them away from anything they can use as a weapon. They’re Landers, after all.”

“Aye-aye~” She lilted.

Jeanne tried to move and discovered she couldn’t. She struggled to move her arms, curl her fingers, so something. Her hands felt numb and swollen and difficult to move, but she tried anyway.

She opened her eyes and came face to face with the woman that owned the voice she’d overheard.

She was somewhat tall, with reddish-brown hair that framed her face.

“You’re a fighter.” The woman acknowledged. “You just don’t want to stay asleep, do you?”

Jeanne struggled to sit upright, and discovered she was naked. She grimaced irritably and rolled off the table and once again landed on her face.

“You’re not going anywhere like that.” The woman- the doctor? observed clinically. “Let’s get you back into bed.”

“...Evelína...” Jeanne growled through clenched teeth.

“Your fellow... pilot?” the woman asked, as she and another woman hauled Jeanne to her feet and put her back onto the bed. The woman pointed across the room. “See? She’s sleeping. Like you should be. You took in way too much oxygen all at once.”

Jeanne panted from her exertion and shook her head. “No. My Smirtka.”

The woman stared at her with a baffled expression. “I don’t know what that is.”

Jeanne rolled her eyes. “My battlesuit!” She tried to shout, but it came out as a grating croak.

The doctor pressed her lips together. “That... is something you will have to go without, for the time being.”

Jeanne forced herself to look at the woman, even as her head started to swim again.

“Why did you kidnap us?”

The doctor shook her head. “I’m a doctor. I’m not in charge of that. You’ll find out from the commander. Do you think you can eat?”

Jeanne stared at her with a baffled, contemptuous look. “Do you really think I care about food at a time like this?”

She’d been testing her legs and was reasonably certain that they’d support her weight if she lunged at the woman.

“Well, if I were in your shoes, I’d think my first concern would be clothes.” The doctor remarked.

“I can connect with Evelína without clothes.” Jeanne remarked sardonically.

“Like I said, that’s not something that’s going to happen.” The woman replied. “Your Plant... thing has been put to sleep for the time being. Don’t want you discharging plasma weaponry in space.”

“What’s space?” Jeanne asked.

“We’re in space.” The doctor replied, moving her hands around to indicate everything around her.

“It’s a ship?” Jeanne frowned.

The doctor sighed and adopted a condescending look. “No, we’re in a ship. The ship is in space. You shoot a plasma weapon in the ship, the ship will break, and you’ll get sucked out into space. You’ll die in space... along with the rest of us.”

Jeanne scrubbed her face with the heel of her hand.

“I need to get out of here.” She muttered. “Irene.” She looked across the room at her fellow Knight, laying on one of the pale white diagnostic beds. “What’s wrong with her?”

“Nothing, now. She’s resting.” the doctor replied. “Just a heads up, but if you try to leave or assault myself or my staff, some burly men will come in and make sure you regret it.”

Jeanne grinned. “I can deal with whatever you throw at me.”

“You’re not embarrassed about not having clothes?” The doctor asked.

“I don’t care. Killing comes first. Clothes can come later.” Jeanne replied, and launched herself at the doctor, hands outstretched.

Jeanne opened her eyes and discovered she’d been put into some sort of restraining harness, a thing of long sleeves that wrapped her own arms around her, preventing her from moving. A mask that hissed faintly hung from her face.

The man that introduced himself earlier sat across a large table from her. Jeanne looked around, and discovered Irene bound up and seated next to her. The room had a massive window that looked out into inky darkness, some darkness that seemed to devour all like except for the hard, implacable shine of what looked to be stars.

“So... Knight Jeanne. Knight Irene.” He greeted. “If you hadn’t struggled and resisted so much, we might have had this conversation over dinner...” He mused when he noticed that they were alert.

“The masks provide the sort of air you’re used to breathing. The coats keep you from doing anything...” He rolled his eyes.

“I’ve got a lot of questions for you- like why on Earth you let your Plants get so smart- but instead I’ll tell you why you were brought here and what we expect you to do.”

Irene replied with a lurid stream of profanity; she’d been born and raised in the slums before she’d been harvested to work in the Cathedral.

He rolled his eyes at her, and deciding she was a lost cause, shifted his attentions to Jeanne.

“There’s a derelict that looks ready to fall planetside.” He offered. “Normally we don’t care about such things, except that its reactor is still hot, even after all these centuries. A hot reactor means a nuclear event. A nuclear event means more radiation in the atmosphere, something we don’t want. You following me so far?”

Jeanne said nothing, so he sighed. “Those Plants you use-” He picked up a sheet of something that looked like plastic- “Have a strange resilience to radiation. We’d like you to board the derelict and eject the core for us.” He spread his hands. “Simple.”

Jeanne thought for a moment. “You can’t do it on your own?”

He shook his head. “Our equipment is too bulky. We’d likely annihilate ourselves, along with our ship. Your Plant... suits...” He trailed off at that, and consulted the flimsy plastic again, “are a lot more nimble, and should have no problems.”

“So destroy it.” She replied. “A ship this big should have no problems doing that.”

He shook his head. “Can’t do that, either. That derelict is a treasure trove of lost technologies. Tools and parts we need.”

“Can’t give up?” She asked.

He frowned at that. “You might not be aware of this, but we’ve been trying to put your world back together for the past five centuries. You think we’re willing to accept such a setback?”

Jeanne glanced at Irene, who gave her a baffled look in return.

“Let me talk to Evelína.” Jeanne decided. “Then we’ll talk.”

“That’s your Plant, right?” He asked. “I’m afraid I can’t do that. We’re keeping it in a dormant state. It seems... determined... to rampage.”

He set his hands on the table and gave her a baffled, bewildered look. “Why would you give a Plant the ability to think for itself?”

Jeanne grinned. “You want to keep her from rampaging, right?” She asked. “Let me talk to her.”

“That thing has been trying to infect our computers with all sorts of malicious protocols. You really think I’ll allow it-”

“I am the only one she listens to. She will stop if I tell her to.” Jeanne replied, and then added, “And I’d like some food, too.”

A woman behind Jeanne laughed; she recognized it at the voice of the doctor she’d tried to strangle earlier.

“Every moment Evelína is apart from me, she recognizes it as a crisis event. Right now she is no doubt trying to figure out new and exciting ways to break herself free from your control. If she figures out how to do that, she will unleash her full payload of plasma ordinance to get to me.” Jeanne explained, not unkindly. She looked over at Irene. “I have no idea if Irene’s Hellena feels the same- Evelína is a little... eccentric- but the bond between a Holy Knight and a Smirtka is something that should not be taken lightly.”

The commander pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed his eyes. “And the job?”

“Give the data and objectives to Evelína. I’m a Knight- all I know how to do is protect my city. Evelína will understand what to do better than me.”

Irene spoke up, then.

“Why are we doing this? Why did you agree to do this? Who are these people? We don’t owe them anything.”

Jeanne hesitated. She wasn’t sure how to explain that these people seemed to work for the Lunar Princess in a way that wouldn’t cause her young protege to flip out. Irene was young and impressionable, and her faith in the Lunar Princess was raw and bordered on the side of zealotry, as all the young Knights and Neophytes did.

“I owe them, Irene.” Jeanne replied, turning to face her fellow Knight. “They were able to stop Evelína from eating me alive. Fair’s fair; I think I owe them one.”

Irene eyed the commander, the guards, and shifted in her restraints. “I don’t trust them.” She stated flatly. “They co-opted our Smirtka, dragged us to... wherever this is, and then force a mission on us for their convenience?” She shook her head.

Jeanne nodded. “Fair.” She agreed, and turned back to the commander. “Incentive?” She asked. “From where I sit, all of this just benefits you.”

“So now you’re a mercenary?” He groaned, and rubbed his eyes again. “What is it that you want?” He asked.

Jeanne smiled and opened her mouth.

“Are you sure this is a good idea, Sister?” Irene asked dubiously as they marched on unsteady legs towards the docking bay, where their battlesuits were kept.

“I think it’s the best choice for us right now.” Jeanne replied, already looking forward to reuniting with Evelína.

“Where you lead I will follow as always, Sister.” Irene replied doubtfully.

Jeanne nodded and reached over and patted Irene’s shoulder. “You have no idea how much that means to me, Irene. I need you to watch my back.”

Irene flashed her a rare smile as the door opened to the cargo hold. The two security guards with them gestured imperiously to the two Knights.

The security guards were no different than the enforcer thugs that Jeanne dealt with from time to time in her Hive Crawls. Simple trash pumped up with a sense of false authority. She could disembowel them both in the time it took for them to draw their stun batons... if she weren’t so debilitated by the cumbersome life support equipment she was wearing.

There were a number of men and women with long white coats standing around the disabled battlesuits. One of them was waving some sort of handheld device over it and yelling out a string of numbers.

“Wake her up.” Jeanne demanded, and they turned to stare at her.

“You’re the pilot of this Plant, right?” a woman with dirty blonde hair and a squarish face asked curiously. “Why did you let it get so smart?”

“Evelína manages all the systems installed in the battlesuit and provides combat support.” Jeanne replied simply.

“Yes, but it sings.” one of the men spoke up. “Plants shouldn’t be capable of doing that.”

Jeanne traded looks with Irene and shrugged. “I taught her how.” Jeanne replied. “Now wake her up. I’ve got shit to do.”

The people in white coats looked to the security guards for permission, who nodded. Jeanne seethed at the complete ignorance of her own authority, but knew that whatever power she herself had, it was irrelevant in their own chain of command.

Evelína awoke, the Smirtka battlesuit coming online with a flare of silvery light in the deaths’ head helmet, long tendrils extruding from the battlesuit, long blades appearing from her fists, long plasma lances assembling with frightening speed from her shoulder mounts.

“Evelína, settle down.” She immediately ordered. “We’re not at war with them right now.”

Evelína froze and retracted her tendrils.

“According to the Sacellum Protocol, this place is designated as hostile territory.” Evelína replied.

“Code 17886.” Jeanne replied smoothly, indicating that she was not under duress or a hostage.

“As you command, Holy Knight Jeanne.” Evelína replied.

“Evelína, you’re going to be receiving mission data about traveling to a derelict ship and ejecting a ... ‘reactor core’.” Jeanne instructed. “Look it over, will you?”

“I’ve already received it.” Evelína replied. “It’s straightforward.”

Space was cold, and maneuvering in zero gravity was beyond troublesome. Evelína kept muttering about compensation even as they drifted through a massive debris field that looked to be the graveyard of countless spaceships of strange design.

“I’ve seen parts like this.” Evelína muttered, bringing up a picture of one of the pieces of strange metal. “It was significantly more damaged, however.”

“Huh.” Jeanne muttered, eyeing Irene’s signal.

“Irene, you doing okay?” She asked across the vox.

“It feels weird.” was her immediate reply. “And I don’t like the limited amount of air.”

Jeanne nodded. “There’s a guide laser we’re supposed to follow to get to the derelict; let’s get this done.”

She avoided looking at the planet that seemingly lay just beneath her feet, a thing of browns and grays, with splotches and blue and even white, here and there. Somewhere down there was the hive city of Al-Omeg, her home. It was a long, long, long way down, however. The fall would incinerate her.

The derelict itself was a titanic thing that defied description, defied size itself. Gunports bigger than the airlock doors of Al-Omeg bristled in every direction. Windows as tall and as wide as the Lunar Cathedral.

“We have to go... inside there?” Irene whispered across the vox.

Evelína began projecting a targeted route that would lead them inside the massive thing, lead them towards what the Lunarians believed was the reactor core, and a side screen displayed the necessary ejection procedure.

“We have to go... in there.” Jeanne replied, and touched Evelína’s controls. “Let’s go.”