Defiance

"All Your Stars"

"Let me tell you how this is gonna end."

"Not well?"

"Disastrously." Joshua Nolan parked the roller about a mile up the road, all the lights snuffed, but the brush fires pushed back the night intermittently across the hills. He could see cat-sized creatures moving away from the destruction, cutting trails through the tall grass and around the roller's wheels.

He looked over at his daughter, Irisa, and was surprised to see her perked up in the passenger's seat with what he supposed was... What was that? Anticipation? Excitement? It had been a long time since he'd seen that kind of enthusiasm out of her.

Defiance had taken a lot out of them.

"I mean, we have paying jobs now," Nolan said.

A pair of Irathient eyes rolled his way. "Really?"

"Sure."

"Dad..."

"It pays well. Company car and all that. Good benefits. You get to stab people with some consistency."

"Does it pay arkfall-well?"

"Oh, kiddo. It sure doesn't."

"So?"

Nolan took in a deep breath, exhaled, and checked his pistol. "Disastrously," he said and opened the driver's side door.

—

The way an arkfall is salvaged is almost like a signature; everyone attacks different systems from different angles. Some refuse to touch propulsion, others go for plating only, and a special few can remove entire electrical systems without vaporizing themselves.

Nolan and Irisa had always prided themselves on being able to salvage a little bit of everything. It didn't mean a great payday if certain markets weren't available, but it meant steady income. A gradual road to Antarctica was better than none at all, but that road hadn't been without its bumps.

Its Varus- and Defiance-shaped bumps.

This arkfall crash site was cradled in the hills about twenty miles outside of Defiance, where the skies were still layered with white streaks from reentry. Nolan and Irisa approached it carefully, knowing there would be others on their way to pick the carcass clean, but there was an unmistakable sense of anticipation between them. It felt like old times had come back around.

"You know," said Nolan, "I feel bad sometimes. Letting you take the gem from that ark hunter."

Irisa scoffed. "Let me? You told me to. You even gave me that stupid wavy hand signal."

"If it works, it's not stupid."

"And you feel bad about that?"

"Sure, sometimes."

"Sometimes. Huh."

"Well, a couple times. Still, I don't like leaving people to clean up my—our messes. And that ark hunter was on the level."

"Not like they didn't get anything out of it. That weapon you gave them, and that story about how it saved your life a couple times..."

"Lies."

"Right, lies."

"Every word. I just pointed to the nearest weapon lying around after that gunfight and made up a story. The ark hunter seemed pretty happy to have it, though."

"You probably should feel bad."

"Probably wouldn't feel anything except unrestrained joy if we still had the gem and the terrasphere. But the world turns, our stars roll away."

Irisa sighed. "Right."

"It was still a nice gun, though."

Their path to the arkfall led them through a rocky outcropping, poorly lit. Nolan made his wavy hand gesture, but Irisa was already moving away to check for any signs of an ambush. They did not want a repeat of the Spirit Riders incident.

Well—Nolan didn't. The way Irisa talked about them, he couldn't be altogether sure if those Irathients robbing him of the Libera Nova Gem wasn't the best thing to happen to his daughter. He made it no secret that he wasn't Sukar and Rynn's biggest fan.

Nolan met up with Irisa on the far side of the outcropping and he saw her shake her head. They weren't far from the main crash site now.

"I was just thinking," said Nolan, "Sukar has a very punchable face."

"Nolan..."

"I'm back to 'Nolan' already?"

She said nothing but her eyes were burning bright, locked on the arkfall.

Nolan didn't enjoy making his daughter angry. It was just in his nature to irritate those in his immediate proximity, all the time. Irisa knew that more than anyone. He wasn't completely certain if that would come back to bite him somewhere down the line, but he was almost certain.

"What'll we tell her?" Nolan asked.

Irisa didn't look over. "Tell who?"

"Our mayor. What'll we tell her if we strike it rich here?"

"We'll have to tell her something?"

"Hm. I guess not."

"We can just go." After a beat, she added, "Like you promised."

Nolan winced. "Yeah." They walked on in silence for a while, rounding chunks of smoldering debris. "'Course, the guy we have in the drunk tank will probably be none too pleased if we never come back to let him out."

"Tommy'll probably find him eventually."

"You know I was just kidding. Treat yourself sometime, entertain these hilarious images when you can."

She shrugged.

In the distance, alien metals snapped and popped against the intense heat. They could see the shape of the fallen hulk, a jagged outline that stood darkly against the firelight.

They were fifty yards away when they found the first body.

Nolan kneeled down. "What the hell?"

Irisa finally broke out of her arkfall-induced trance and moved to Nolan's side. She looked over the body, feeling for a pulse, checking for injury. "Dead." She lifted up its arm to show Nolan a gnarly entry wound on its side. "Right to his heart."

Nolan muttered a few choice Votan curses. He had a bad feeling about this whole thing. "Let's keep going."

They left the body and resumed their march toward the light, though their pace never quite returned to the excited gait they had previously maintained.

"We're gonna find more," Nolan remarked—and it was only moments later that they did.

Five more corpses, sprawled out beneath a charred solar array. Irisa stepped around pooled blood and a severed arm. "You don't think...?"

"I do, kiddo." Nolan looked up and down the hill. In all that inconstant hellfire he beheld the scattered shadows of disfigured corpses. And some of the wreckage, he realized, wasn't from the arkfall. "I think the Ark Belt dumped this thing on the head of a settlement."

"Shtako." Irisa lowered her gun. "Have you seen this before?"

"More times than the odds should ever allow."

The wreckage of the arkfall towered over them now, looming dark. The scars it had gathered from reentry gave off an intense heat. Inside, it would be much cooler, comfortable, and perhaps there would be something inside of great value. Ounce for ounce, intact arktech was more valuable than gold.

But Nolan found that he hadn't the urge to keep walking. Irisa was looking over her shoulder. With her orange hair and pale skin, she was almost gone into the firelight.

"Should we still check?" she asked, pointing to a sliver of blue pouring out of a breach in the crumpled hull. They could feel a chilled breeze passing through, a courtesy of ruptured coolant tanks.

"Maybe," Nolan replied, but they just stood there and stared.

"Help!" a voice cried out. "Oh God, somebody please help me."

Nolan turned toward the voice, but Irisa was already on the move. They found the man pinned under a chunk of the propulsion nacelle. It wasn't heavy to move, but a piece of the hull was stuck through the man's thigh. The piece came free without hassle, but it sent the man into shock.

"We probably should've counted down or something," Nolan said. He used the rope from his pack to tie a makeshift field dressing. "Let's get him back to the roller. If we drive reckless enough, we might be able to get him back to Defiance before he bleeds out."

Irisa wrapped her arms under the man's shoulders, ready to haul him up. She paused for a moment to regard the deep blue gash in the arkfall wreckage. "Should we even bother to look?"

Nolan followed her gaze, and his response was by no means immediate. "There'll be others."

"Will there?"

Nolan looked at his daughter. He didn't want to give her another promise he couldn't keep. "Let's get back to Defiance."

They hauled the man's limp body back through the hills and a mile down the road to where they had parked the roller. Irisa slipped into the driver's seat while Nolan sat in the back with the ruined settlement's sole survivor, his hands pressing down firmly upon the blood-soaked field dressing.

Irisa guided the roller back onto the main road, such as it was, and drove like mad back the way they had come. Home, was it? Temporary address?

Through the windows, they could see a staggered row of headlights moving down towards the arkfall, hunters who were arriving late—but not too late for the reward. The miles wound away, and the alien hills moved to swallow up the wreckage.

But there in the distance, straight ahead, an unsteady dome of light climbed the darkened skies. The inescapable grasp of Defiance, drawing them back in.