The metal underfoot groaned as it started to bend. Chat leapt off the side of the ship, taking the twenty-foot drop with some pain since after landing on her feet she fell flat on her face. Schimmel landed with a bit more grace, taking the ground at a roll and coming to a stop on one knee. He knew how to take a fall, since he hadn't figured out how to stop himself from tripping on a regular basis.
"You okay?" Schimmel asked, glancing at Chat as she pushed herself up and looked at her ship.
"Better than the Van Eltia." She sighed, looking at the huge gash out of the side. "This is going to take forever to fix. I only hope my crew survived."
A crash echoed from hole the Van Eltia, followed by someone screaming. Twisted pipes and pieces of ventilation began falling from the gap, crashing to the ground nearby in a heap. The duo stared as they heard voices coming from it.
"OW! Damn it, get off of me!"
"I would, but the vent's crushed. I can't budge."
"Sorry... I can't either."
Chat hurried over to the pile of metal, tossing some of the pipes aside. "Oriana, Philia! Is that you?!"
"Captain? Yes, it's us! Get us out of here! I can't breathe under these two!" Oriana cried out.
"Is she saying we're overweight?" Nemo wondered.
"If so, I'll have to hit her. She knows I haven't enough time to eat, let alone to gain weight." Philia said.
"Nemo, are you in there too?!" Schimmel yelled, helping Chat dig them out.
"Schimmel? Glad to hear you're okay. What happened to Fae and the other students?"
"I wish I knew. It's just me and the Captain out here." The last piece of ventilation fell to the side and they looked into the vent the voices were coming from. The trio was wedged in a half-crushed vent, stacked on top of each other. Oriana on the bottom, Nemo's back pressing against her stomach and Philia topping them off, looking very dazed.
"Hold on, I'll find something to cut it open with." Chat said, running off.
"Are you really alright?" Schimmel asked, sitting down. Since the Captain had gone for help, he thought it'd be better to keep them company. Not to mention he could actually understand one of them.
"As well as you'd expect after being blown up and dropped through the inner workings of a ship." Nemo sighed, trying to move his left leg and getting little response from it.
"Look at it this way, you'll have something interesting to tell Tristan and James when you get back to Inferia. Tristan especially." He grinned. "I bet he'd kill to be in that position."
"If it wasn't for the bag of tools driving into my back, along with the noisy owner of said tools, I'd be happier about it." Nemo said, trying to shift is weight off Oriana's crowbar.
"What are you implying?" Oriana asked, stopping her struggles to escape for a moment.
"That if it weren't for you, I'd be able to find some enjoyment in this situation."
Even if dazed, Philia's face went a bit red at the comment. "W-what?"
"You touch her and I'll put my crowbar somewhere REALLY uncomfortable, Inferian!" Oriana snapped.
"Please, I'm not like Tristan." Nemo scoffed. "Hell, if I was, you'd probably be in more trouble. He usually goes after the tougher girls. That's why he likes Fae."
Tristan has a thing for Fae? I didn't know that..." Schimmel said, leaning over. "...I've never seen him try anything with her, either."
"Because he knows she can and will kick his ass if he does. Plus Fae's not interested."
"How do you know that?"
"I asked, of course."
"Is this really the time to be talking about such things?" Philia asked.
"Not like we can do much else." Nemo pointed out. "Where's the Captain, anyway?"
"Oh, she's... um..." Schimmel stood up, looking around. "...she's gone."
"What?!" Oriana shouted. "She can't be! The Captain wouldn't just abandon us here!"
"Hold on, I'll go find her." Schimmel said, heading toward the gathering he could see in the distance.
"Don't you dare forget about us!" Nemo yelled as his friend sprinted off.
---
Barbarius stared down at the charred monster corpse and sighed. "Damn it, I really wish killing them hadn't been the only way."
"You'd rather they ate the survivors?" Charles asked, stepping up beside him.
"Of course not. It's just... oh, forget it." Barbarius shouldered his Craymel Rifle, looking around. Van Eltia crewmen that were still in fairly good health were tending to the injured, as were some of the other soldiers in his unit.
"Hey, you alright?" Charles asked.
Barbarius turned to say yes, but noticed the question had been directed to a bloodied girl on the ground.
She looked up at Charles and grinned weakly. "The stuck-up Charles Byrd a fighter. I never would have believed it."
"A true scholar should be well-versed in all things." He replied simply. "Now answer me, Fae. How are you feeling?"
"Like I was blown up."
"As you should, then." Charles rubbed his right shoulder, grumbling. "Damn I'm out of practice. These things are on a different level than what I'm used to."
"Maybe you should stick to books, then." Barbarius suggested.
"And maybe you should do something more than stand around like a useless lump." Charles countered. "You're a Celestian soldier, aren't you? Lend a hand."
"I've never been good at first aid. Making wounds is easier, anyway." He said, staring off into the distance and thinking he could see someone coming from the direction of the wreckage.
"Useless." Charles muttered as he walked off to check on other students.
Ignoring the opinion, Barbarius headed toward the figure in the distance. If someone was coming from that smashed ship, there might be more people left alive. At least he could help with evacuating them.
---
Schimmel waved and slowed to a stop as a Celestian man came into shouting distance. The man was a little taller than him, and a lot more muscular, but he didn't look much older. Judging by the uniform and large weapon on his shoulder, the guy had to be part of the Celestian Army. "Hey, big guy! Can you give me a hand?"
The soldier nodded, saying something that might have been a question. It was a little hard to tell.
Schimmel stared blankly at him for a moment, then tapped the Orz Earring that still hadn't started working for him. "Oh come on, how am I supposed to find help if I can't understand anyone?"
"What do you need help with?" The soldier asked, possibly for the second time.
Schimmel blinked. "Hey, I understood that. This thing does work!"
"No, no... I'm speaking Inferian. It's part of basic training. The language is not that difficult, really." He explained.
"Oh, right." He mumbled, scratching his head and wondering if the earring was useless after all. "A friend of mine and a couple of crewmen are stuck, and I lost track of the Captain... can you help me get them out?"
"Helping's what I'm here for." The soldier said, running by Schimmel and heading for the wreckage. "I'm Barbarius, by the way."
"Schimmel. It's nice to meet a Celestian I can actually communicate with." He said, following behind Barbarius.
---
"Where the helldid you run off to?!" Chat snapped, trying to pry the vent apart with a pipe as the duo approached. "Stupid Inferian can't stay in one place for five minutes..."
"What'd she say?" Schimmel asked, looking at Barbarius.
"You're probably better off not knowing." He replied, shaking his head and going over to help. "Let me do that."
Chat glared at him, but took a step back. The second he pulled a combat knife from his belt was when she quickly got between him and the vent. "Hold on one minute there, I'm not going to let you risk adding any more injuries to my engineers by cutting blindly!"
"I'm not going to go straight down the middle, if that's what you're suggesting." He said, stepping around her and crouching by the vent. Glancing inside he grinned. "Should I get you out now, or come back later?" He asked with a laugh after seeing their position.
"Just start cutting, damn it!" Oriana shouted.
"Anyway you can take the noisy one and then come back later?" Nemo asked, trying to shift his weight off the tool poking his back.
"Sorry, it's all or nothing. All of you try to get to one side." He said, stabbing the knife through the metal and sliding the blade down the side of the interior. It didn't take long to get all the way down, giving Chat and Schimmel the easier job of bending the sheet on top back and freeing them.
Barbarius carefully picked up Philia, who had passed out again at some point during the rescue, and flinched upon seeing the student underneath her. "That... looks horrible." He muttered.
"Holy crap." Schimmel gasped, noticing the blackened thing attached to his friend that used to be a limb. "Nemo, what happened to your leg?!"
"I was in the engine room when it went up, what do you think happened?" Nemo replied, offering a hand to Schimmel. "Help me up, would you? I'm tired of being stuck to the unpleasant thing that attached itself to my back."
"The feeling's mutual, trust me. If you weren't hurt I would have thrown you off the second Philia was moved." Oriana said as the student was lifted off her."What's making that noise, anyway? The ship?"
"Noise?" Barbarius wondered, listening. It didn't take him long to hear the low, steady sound and recognize it. "Oh shit. More of them, now?!" He shouted, turning to face the monsters that had surrounded them while they were focused on helping the trapped trio.
"Quite the welcoming party." Nemo commented. "Think you can handle them without my backup, Schim?"
"With what, exactly?" Schimmel asked. "I couldn't bring my sword on the ship."
"Oh, yeah. I forgot." Nemo mumbled. "We survive being blown up, only to get eaten. Great. Why did I want to come to this planet again?"
"Good question..." Schimmel said as the first wave of beasts charged at them. "...if we live through this, I'll expect a straight answer to it."
