Tei looked at Garion, leaning back in his seat on their ship.

“Hey Garion, something just dawned on me.”

“Hm?”

“If it weren’t for us, Rania would’ve died,”

Garion looked up from the screen on the ship’s console. “You’re right. We should’ve asked for a bonus.”

Tei looked out the ship’s cockpit, watching as they raced through lightspeed. “That’s not exactly what I meant, but I guess we could’ve.” He sat there in the awkward silence, thinking of what to say to break it. “If they post another job, I think we should take it.”

Garion shrugged. “Depends on what the job is, but they do pay well, so it’s possible.”

The screen started beeping, alerting them that they were arriving at their destination and that they were coming out of lightspeed.

Garion leaned forward, pressing his hands against the console of his ship as it jolted out of lightspeed. The metal frame shuddered as he lowered the thrusters’ power.

“Y’know, I think it may be time to retire the Avius,” Tei said, knocking against the ship’s hull. “She’s been temperamental for a while now, it’s only a matter of time before she can’t fly anymore.”

“You can retire her when I die Tei,” Garion said with a smile. “She was the first ship I had, and I’m not gonna let her collect dust in some garage.”

Tei shrugged. “I’m just saying if she ends up breaking down while we’re on the job, it won’t be good.”

They continued on, heading towards the planet of Acroria. As they neared orbit, they noticed a large ship watching over the planet. They both squinted to get a better look.

“It’s the Obsidian Coalition,” Garion said with a groan.

“What are they doing here?” Tei asked.

“Ruining the fun,” he answered.

The screen on the console flashed with an incoming communication warning. Garion rolled his eyes before accepting it. “Incoming ship, identify yourself and the purpose of your visit,” a voice said.

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“Garion Rilder and Mahios-Tei Xemitus, we’re coming here for work,” he said.

“Your status has been confirmed, you may proceed,” the voice said before cutting the transmission.

Garion gently moved the thrusters forward and they flew closer to the planet. He flicked off the gravity lock as they entered Acroria’s atmosphere, but when the flames that covered the ship during the usual re-entry process appeared, several warning lights on the console came to life and started flashing, accompanied by a monotone beep.

“What’s going on?” Tei asked, reading the screen on the console.

“I think the heat shield just gave out,” Garion said. He took a slider and pushed it all the way up. “I put the deflector shields on full power, which should at least keep us from burning up.”

Tei watched as the shield power quickly started draining. The ship shook violently, it would’ve thrown them off their seats if they weren’t strapped in. Suddenly there was a loud clanking sound and the ship started spinning. “Starboard engine is gone,” Tei said, looking at the screen.

The flames covering the ship finally dissipated as they entered the atmosphere. Garion heaved on the stick, trying to counteract the spinning. It slowed a little, making him only slightly less nauseous. “Hold on to something!”

“We need to eject the cockpit!” Tei said, reaching for the ejection switch.

“No, not yet, I need to turn the ship so the body doesn’t crash into the city,” Garion said, swatting Tei’s hand away before quickly grabbing the controls again. The south wall came into view, illuminated by the night lights. He pulled on the stick as hard as he could, trying to turn the ship around to face away from the edge of the city. The altitude warning got faster as their descent increased. Garion threw the switch forward and the cockpit shot out, propelling the rest of the ship back to crash just a few hundred meters from the city wall. He then immediately heaved on the cockpit’s emergency thrusters, their descent slowed until they came within arms reach of the roof of the building below them. They both let out a sigh of relief, and Garion pulled the cockpit up. He brought it around the city to the south landing bay, where it gently touched down.

“Now what?” Tei asked.

Garion was already on the move. “C’mon, we need to go to the wreck. I wanna try to salvage whatever we can.”

He ran through the streets and alleyways, his heart was racing and his mind was desperately trying to catch up. He heard a motor get closer behind him, and suddenly a Coalition troop transport sped past him. He looked back at Tei, who shared the same expression of concern. He looked up past the wall, quickly picking out a black pillar of smoke that rose and contrasted against the starry night sky.

They ran out through the south gate and saw the remains of the Avius no more than 100 meters away from the wall. A fireteam of Coalition soldiers was sweeping through the wreckage. They all raised their guns as Garion and Tei approached,

“Stay back looters, this doesn’t concern you,” one of them said.

“Looters?” Garion echoed. “This is my ship dammit, or it was at least.”

They lowered their guns. “Well then, I’m sure you won’t mind telling us what happened here?”

“The heat shield gave out during re-entry and we lost our starboard engine. Now if you’ll excuse me,” he shoved past him. “I need to see what’s left of this wreck.”

The soldier grabbed Garion by the shoulder. “Don’t bother, there’s nothing here. Now if you’ll excuse us, we have a job to do.”

Garion scowled at him before turning back to the city. “C’mon Tei, let’s go. We can come back later.”