Hibiki Tokai had always wanted more than what the life of a third class citizen offered, and destiny gave him such chance. But he never discarded what he had learned as a laborer even with his newfound pride as a warrior. He was using such knowledge to make this elevator work, or at least try to. He was in front of the controls and was trying to hack on them with his tools.
"How is it going, Alien-san?" Dita, the girl that has become his shadow, asked.
"Not good, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve."
The buttons were dented and the signs on them blurred. The thing worked like it looked. The automated doors worked, but that was it: they were stuck in this floor.
"Should we call leader and tell her?"
"No way!" he raised his voice as usual.
The great Hibiki wasn't going to be defeated by a shoddy elevator. He wanted to prove his reliability, especially after how things went last time he's been in a colony like this, when he easily ended as a hostage of that scummy Rabat.
Suddenly the doors closed and the platform trembled, like trying to finally move after a long time. It started to descend.
"You did it!" Dita pounced him from behind.
She felt him more tense than usual when she did this. She was going to ask what was wrong but something else caught her attention.
"Dita? Hibiki? Do you copy?" It was Meia by the radio, she sounded concerned.
"Yes leader. We just made the elevator work!"
The red haired girl held her communicator with one hand, while she still held Hibiki close with the other. A part of her told her to not let go just yet. But she didn't listen what his Alien-san mumbled to himself:
"That wasn't me."
"I lost contact with Barnette and Jura, I'm going to check it out. I want you to report every five minutes or if anything suspicious comes up."
"Ahh... um... understood!"
Now it was the boy that noticed a sudden change of humor in Dita. He looked at her blue eyes: she was anxious. They've known each other for some time now, and could easily read one another. He knew it probably wasn't something to worry about: Barnette was a badass with or without guns, and Jura carried a rapier. It probably was a faulty transmitter, or interference.
He was about to voice what he thought to ease Dita when the elevator reached the third sub level. The first automated door opened to a side. The second one got stuck, barely going up some centimeters. Hibiki pressed the opening buttons but they did nothing. He was then going to use his 'manly strength' to force it open, but before he could walk away from the disarmed control panel a hand in a bloodied glove appeared below it, and it's owner moved the gate up halfway. A haggard tall middle aged man came in crouching.
"Rickety piece of..." He paused, surprised as them to find someone else in this rundown station.
"Who the hell are you?" Hibiki broke the short silence.
The man just raised his weapon, a three barreled rifle, not aiming at anyone in particular. That made the young Taraak back off and shield Dita with an arm. She didn't walk back, but her arms tensed into her chest.
Isaac just hoped this thing could take him up. He looked at this particular pairing: a redhead girl in an ivory top and skirt getup and a boy in an orange and black outfit, one or two sizes bigger than he needed. They were unarmed and younger than the pirates he had encountered, so he lowered his gun assuming they had nothing to do with them.
"Move, kid." Isaac pushed the boy further away from the controls.
"Who in hell are you calling a kid?!" The teen complained.
Isaac just paid him no mind. He pressed the buttons to see if this elevator could carry him to the upper levels. But it wasn't responding.
"For fuck's sake!"
Dita opened his eyes wide. This 'Alien-sama' (just nicknamed in her mind) had a more 'colorful' way to complain than Alien-san. Not that she enjoyed it.
"Watch out, kids. There are pirates in the station."
He didn't look at them when said that. The man just crouched to exit the elevator, leaving in a hurry.
"How dare you to call me...! Wait. What do you mean?!" The boy tried to grab him by the arm.
Hibiki was stopped by Dita, she grabbed him by both shoulders. She didn't like what she heard neither, but also didn't want him to try to stop an armed man bigger than them.
"Let me go!"
"Alien-san, please! Didn't you see all that blood in him? What if he...?"
She didn't need to complete the sentence. Both looked at each other in the eyes: something bad could have happened to Barnette and Jura.
"Call Meia. If this guy messed with one of us, he's gonna pay!"
Dita obeyed. When she released Hibiki to use her radio, he exited the elevator too and made a break for it.
"Alien-san, wait!"
She felt like a fool, she knew he was hot-headed enough to still chase someone like that scary Alien-sama. She followed him while trying to report to the leader. She was afraid something could happen to him too.
Still on the run, Isaac could have considered going along with the youngsters he found, or even ask for help. But his paranoia didn't let him. The attitude of that boy didn't help neither. Aggressive 'shorties' like him always escalated into conflict, and trying to deal with that while being tired, wounded and armed could have dire results. He knew it pretty well.
"COME BACK HERE, OLD MAN!"
'Ugh... shit.' Isaac tought, shutting his eyes at such annoyance.
The engineer could hear that boy, but didn't want to waste time even just looking back. He just wanted out and to be left alone. Was this loud teenager really going to give him a piece of his mind for calling him 'kid'?
"If you did something to Jura and Barnette I'm going to beat you to a pulp!" He was very close now.
'What? Oh no...'
The engineer knew he couldn't outrun him, not like this. By the sound of running footsteps he feared he was about to get tackled from behind. His survival instinct made him react.
Hibiki stopped when the man turned back and aimed at him. This time it was serious, he could see some blue laser lines pointed at him. He couldn't believe how rotten his luck was when he met other men, but still he was cocky enough to not raise his hands like an hostage.
"So... you're a pirate too?" The man asked with tedium evident in his voice.
"WHERE. ARE. THEY?" Hibiki demanded, with his fists tensed to his sides.
"Look, I don't want to hurt you, but if you get in my way, I will."
Isaac didn't feel like being nice or explaining, he just wanted a fucking break.
This "exchange" happened in the middle of a bifurcation of this corridor. In the left side of it someone approached sneaking, but decided to intervene before things could get hot. And with Hibiki, she knew that was pretty much guaranteed.
"Drop it!"
The engineer looked to his side, not lowering his aim. It was another girl. No, a woman. She had a black and white suit and armor covering her chest and shoulders, with a serious expression that her short straight aqua hair didn't hide one bit. He couldn't make out a weapon on her when she aimed at him with just her fist, so he assumed she could do some damage with a subtle or hidden device. Just like he did with his stasis module moments ago.
"Meia!" The 'shorty' called her.
Isaac heard that name before: the leader. He didn't want to admit defeat, but before he considered it, the boy jumped at him, trying to snatch the rifle. Surely being a shorty helped to escape his aim. He acted fast, but maybe too fast.
Meia lost her straight shot when the Vanguard pilot tried to be disarm the unknown male. Both of them started struggling. She tried to intervene but before she figured out that the Hibiki couldn't overpower this big guy, he was thrown to her and both ended in the floor.
Isaac has had enough. He was seeing red; they were on the floor, with a few rifle bursts they wouldn't get back up. He aimed at them.
"STOP!"
The engineer did not recognize that feminine, young voice. It was the redhead girl, she came running to the scene. She didn't sound authoritative at all, but rather pleading. She stopped in the middle of the line of fire and the blue laser dots appeared on her dark tank top.
"Alien-Sama, we are a pacific race!" She claimed, with her arms stretched to cover her friends.
One of Isaac eyes twitched when she said that.
"Bullshit! You are pirates! Your gun toting friend tried to mug me!"
"Please don't hurt my friends!"
The redhead just stood in place, firm. She pleaded with authentic humility, but didn't move one bit. She looked strong willed, but innocent. It was a quality he could see in her blue eyes. No doubt she also was brave.
Isaac snorted. He was not a bad guy, he was so lost, so sick in more ways than just literal. But he wasn't so lost to shoot someone begging for mercy. He just left like before, in a limping hurry.
What happened was getting obvious by the second: Barnette, surely the 'gun toting one', reported finding this man, and it looks like she treated him like, well, like she usually treats men. Seems like things escalated, violently, and the girls couldn't handle it. At least that's how Meia imagined it.
When everything calmed and Dita helped them up, the leader checked on Hibiki: He was only embarrassed. She needed to find out what happened to her missing comrades, the original objective about the power surge could wait.
"You two go search for Barnette and Jura. No matter how you find them, just report back!"
She started running through where the unknown male left.
"But what you gonna do alone? That guy is crazy!" Hibiki yelled
Meia turned back for a second. She had a hunch about 'that guy'.
"He's scared. Just go!"
She continued her chase. That man could try to hijack one of the dreads, know anything about the power surge, and more importantly, explain what he did with Barnette and Jura.
'They better be okay.'
She couldn't let him go that easily.
Isaac was close, he could feel it: he reached a big circular corridor with windows that showed the void of the exterior. No doubt he was in the other side of the station now. He only needed to complete the circle and reach the other landing bay, where he expected to find some transport.
The corridor was segmented by gates. He was about to reach one when suddenly a warning laser shot burned a dot on it, stopping him in his tracks. He turned back to see it was the same serious girl in black and white, again aiming at him. A red light appeared in the ring she wore. He guessed that was the laser weapon. He'd be impressed that something so small and stylish had enough power to be lethal if he wasn't the target.
"Drop the gun. NOW!"
The engineer's jaw tensed and his body language screamed irritation and annoyance when he complied, tossing his gun in front of her. She probably didn't know he had another card: kinesis. He just needed another opening.
"What do you want from me, huh? Why I can't get a fucking break?"
"What you've done with the others?" She directly asked with a no nonsense attitude.
"The others? You mean the diva and the gung-ho, right?"
"Answer me!"
"I left them in the other landing bay." He answered with no effort to hide his weariness.
Meia saw him better: the man looked and sounded like he was on his last legs. The blood that covered his suit was dry and in flakes; blood didn't dry that fast. His priority was obviously to flee, he didn't shoot all of them when he could a moment ago.
The beep of Meia's radio caught the attention of both. It could be an opening for Isaac, but he felt that this 'leader' could easily keep tabs on him while responding. She even looked more professional that the brazen girl that started his 'rude awakening'.
"Meia, we found them! What do..."
Dita's reporting was interrupted by another feminine voice.
"GIMME THAT! Meia! It's Barnette, watch out with that man! He looks injured but don't let that fool you, he took my pistol after he…"
"Tell her to look behind her" Isaac added, he just discarded that antiquity after removing the clip.
"Silence!" She demanded at both her angry comrade and the male. "Are you and Jura okay?"
"We are. Did you catch him?"
"Affirmative, I got him."
"Great job leader. Can you give me his rifle?"
So this is what was about: Barnette got greedy. She usually was determined and focused. There were very few things that could distract her: rebellious men that she hated, and guns, which she loved. It seems both things mixed this time.
"That wasn't even a priority. We're gonna have a talk about this later, Barnette."
Isaac couldn't help to smirk when he heard that.
'I hope you get burned, bitch.'
"I'll meet you all in the north landing bays, get there ASAP."
Meia's full attention was back on Isaac again. She was relieved that Barnette and Jura were okay. She had a feeling this man wasn't a killer. Her years on the streets have cultivated her judge of character about people in extreme situations. Yes, people: she considered men as such now. Her frown relaxed.
"I'm off the hook now?" Isaac asked, noticing the tension lowering.
"Not yet. What do you know about a Power Surge in this installation?"
Her tone of voice was calmer but that didn't help him to understand what she meant. He wanted to say a fusion reactor exploded, but they wouldn't be here if that was the case. And there was no way he was saying another thing about The Marker. The engineer didn't know what to respond.
He was so engrossed trying to survive and then flee that he just remembered the big loose end of Saturn not being in the visible horizon. Unless he was somewhere else, but he still didn't understand how that's possible, even if it was evident. Was he losing his mind? He had to say something.
"I don't know anything about that, I just got here. Look, I refuse to be a prisoner again. So if that's your plan, you better shoot me." He declared.
That didn't sound promising, has this man been trough that much to say such thing? But she asked anyway.
"Who kept you prisoner?"
"EarthGov."
Isaac wanted to kick himself in the ass just now. What if there was a reward for his head? But he wasn't thinking clearly in his current state.
"Earth... Gov? Is that how you call 'The Harvest'?" she asked, tilting her head to a side.
He didn't expect her aim to relax when she asked that. Almost caught him off-guard.
"The Harvest?"
Another radio call interrupted them again. Meia brought it to her ear, no speaker activated this time.
"What is it now?"
Whatever they told her surely was important, because her firm demeanor lapsed for a second: her expression tensed and her gaze diverted to the windows. Isaac couldn't help but to do the same.
Red blurs were moving in formation to the station and one stopped for a second, making itself visible. It looked weird, like a head of an insect drawn by Picasso, but it made itself evident as a gunship when it fired at them. Before the deafening impact she gestured at him to take cover.
"GET DOWN!" She demanded loudly.
He fell backwards, covering his face in the nick of time. She hit the deck too, face to the floor. The brunt of the attack was absorbed by the station. Before getting back up, Isaac used his kinesis to get his rifle back, thanks to this hell of an opening. When the dust subdued he saw his captor, face to floor. The shockwave didn't do much to her either. The tables turned: he was armed and she was on the other end.
Meia's reluctant expression made it evident that she wasn't going to allow this but something claimed their attention before they aimed at each other in a duel.
GRAVITY FAILURE. IN. NORTH. SIDE.
The pre-recorded message distorted when it tried to report specific sectors, becoming incomprehensible in the end. They both started floating. Isaac recovered his footing when he activated his integrated gravity boots. Something exploded behind the young woman.
HULL BREACH. IN. NORTH. SIDE.
The sound of air being sucked out to space was getting louder by the second. The engineer knew what was happening just by what he heard: a small breach would become bigger fast, and if someone was caught on it, hopefully they'll be sucked out whole instead of being a temporal meat plug that eventually got thorn to shreds. He only heard about that gruesome and painful death in his risk prevention exercises in CEC, but now he was going to witness how this young woman was about to suffer it.
Isaac reacted, grabbing her by the right wrist before she gained more momentum. He was beaten and broken, but a part of him simply couldn't allow it.
"HOLD ON!"
Both looked at each other, reflecting the exasperation in their faces. The breach was growing, just like the force that was trying to suck them through it.
Meia held onto him with both hands. Isaac used a railing on a side of the corridor to move, holding to it with his right hand while his left one held her. She floated horizontally, pulled by the sucking force with such intensity that Isaac's badly cauterized wounds in his left side were opening. She could see the pain in his whole being: clenched teeth, eyes shut, and a scream loud enough to be able to still hear him between all the noise of rupturing infrastructure.
When they were close enough Isaac used the safety lever on the side of the gate to unlock it. By sheer luck it worked. With one last painful effort he carried both of them finally to the other side. They took refuge by the control panel. Meia smashed the glass covering the safety button with her fist, finally sealing the danger behind them. Or at least that one: the Harvest Cubes were still raining hell on the station. Explosions echoed trough the hallways.
Both of them relaxed their backs on the wall and let themselves on the floor, with the alarm lights creating a red hue above their heads. Meia caught her breath way faster than him. She stood up and moved in front of the man that saved her.
"Still on the hook?" He asked with a pessimistic tone.
He was too beat to resist anything. But she simply held out a hand to him.
"Thanks." She said.
Isaac doubted for a second before taking it. She helped him up easily, to his surprise. Maybe too fast for his liking: the pain of his shoulder and hand wounds made him groan. He rested his back on the wall behind him again.
Meia was about to ask he man that just saved her if he was okay, but her radio demanded her attention before such question could came out of her mouth.
"Leader! Are you okay?" Seems Dita got her radio back.
"Affirmative. Have you reached the landing bay yet?"
"We can't! The attack knocked down the force field, and a security lockdown activated. Alien-san says there's a power outage."
"Can he activate a backup somewhere?"
They heard Dita repeat the question in her side.
"If I can find the backup generators I can get 'em running!" the boy screamed to the radio in the other side.
Meia didn't want to send Hibiki alone while they boarded their dreads. It was a delicate situation, there was no telling how much this battered colony was going to hold, they we're like fish in a barrel.
"The backup generators could be the ones that kept this piece of shit running, there's no guarantee they'll work well now, if you even find them." Isaac added.
"THAT BASTARD? Tell him to shut the-"
"Enough!" Meia cut Barnette's protest in the radio. "Do you have a plan?" She turned to Isaac.
"I can go there and re-route the power. Everyone has to be there, the rest of the station may go dark."
If she didn't trust this man after he saved her life, then she should do it now, because he had a better plan. It took her less than a second to decide.
"Dita, is everyone with you?"
"Affirmative!"
Meia started walking and made a gesture to Isaac to follow her.
"I'm reaching you with company, you know who, tell Barnette and Jura to hold their fire."
"Roger!"
Meia put her radio away and looked at him.
"Can you run mister...?"
"Isaac. Yes, I can still run."
"Then let's go!"
He didn't admit the difficulty to pick up such pace, he just dealt with it.
When Meia and 'company' reached the rendezvous point in the corridor, everyone had a menacing glare for Isaac with the exception of the red haired teenage girl. Her expression wasn't thankful, nor anxious, just cautious.
"Why isn't he cuffed?!" Barnette scolded, just like everyone expected.
"He has a plan now, stow it." Meia told her.
The girl in violet wasn't afraid to face the leader reprimands and glare back at her, but before she could express more disagreement a tremor and the flicker of lights silenced her. The attacks were getting stronger. Everyone stumbled: Hibiki held Dita before she tripped. Meia did the same for Isaac. Barnette had to be helped up by Jura.
After a second of darkness, the backup lights went on, too dim compared to the original ones. They were running out of time, Isaac took the matter in his own hands.
"We need to hurry. You," he pointed at Hibiki, "you're a technician, I need you to help me hack the door to get in."
The boy looked at Meia, she just nodded.
"Fine." The Taraak teen answered, almost snarling.
Dita watched as both men began to tear down the door panel, the red lights indicating the lock above them. Meia knew that the redhead was afraid of letting Hibiki work with a man that pointed a rifle at them moments ago, but like her, now she would have to trust him. Everyone had their doubts, but they trusted their leader's gut.
In a few moments they had everything ready to kill the fail-safe of the gate.
"OK, we have this. The place is probably depressurized, everyone hold onto something!"
"How you gonna get there without the decompression killing you?"-Hibiki asked anxiously.
"I'm equipped for the job. "
After he said that, the engineer activated the helmet of his Advanced Suit. Everyone looked in awe how Isaac's face was getting covered by sliding plates, interlocking themselves from his neck all the way to his forehead and doing a metal on metal sighing sound. They all thought Parfait was going to get nuts if she saw this.
Hibiki was bathed by the blue light of Isaac helmet. He was looking at him, he still had something else to tell him:
"After I close the gate put these systems back together so it can open normally. I'm going to contact you when I have everything fixed, remember to check the pressure light before going in."
Isaac's voice was partially muffled by the helmet. The boy nodded anyway, thankfully he could still understand him.
"How do we know you won't hijack one of our ships and leave us here?" Barnette asked warily just before they opened the gate.
She stood in the middle of the corridor, defiantly without holding onto nothing. She obviously didn't trust him. He turned around to answer, illuminating her with the blue light. He knew she wasn't going to get intimidated by a luminescent helmet that looked like some frowns stacked up, so he kept it simple and direct:
"You don't have a choice."
She grimaced with disgust at such reality. Meia did a signal at her to prepare like everyone else, then at Isaac to continue.
"Everyone ready?" He asked while facing the gate.
They all answered "Yes", but not at the same time and with varied degrees of doubt, except for 'certain someone'. Maybe no one really trusted him, or maybe they were scared for what was coming, just like him. Isaac interacted with the circuit exposed, it did a small spark and the gate opened.
The strong draft of air hit everyone. They all closed their eyes except for Meia. She wanted to close them too for the same reason the rest did: the frightening sensation of air vented out coursing through them was a visceral reminder of how close they were to the danger of outer space. But she wanted to be sure that no one got sucked out; the sudden air current dried her eyes. Their hairs flapped under such wind currents, along with Jura's dress.
In the next instant the door was closed. Everyone breathed with great relief. More than one of her team screamed in fear of such experience. Meia obviously didn't judge them: she was too close to comfort to that sensation minutes ago.
Hibiki looked around to see if everyone was fine before getting back to the panel like the plan dictated. He looked at how Jura's cleavage was messed up and how she tried to put "those mounds in her chest" back in. He didn't understand why he couldn't stop watching how that robe malfunction exposed her. He was so absorbed by that curiosity, he didn't see Dita closing at his side.
"Is everything okay, Alien-san? You're all red and screamed a lot."
He turned frantically, he didn't want to be caught ogling a woman.
"Ahem! I'm okay! Move away and let me do this!"
He resumed with the plan and started to put the board circuit back together, taking such chance to hide his blushing expression. Meanwhile Meia reported the dire situation to Nirvana's command.
The force field separating the cold exterior of space and the inside of the landing bay was back. It was quickly after Isaac reconfigured the junction boxes in the second level. Air was cycling again, in here and in his suit.
He gave word but access wasn't granted just yet. The lights on the gates went from red to yellow, probably signaling a "pressurizing" stage. He hoped this was quick, he was starting to feel lightheaded. He felt a warm and damp sensation in his neck. He opened his helmet and touched there. What he saw on his fingers was expected, but not good news: it was the blood from his shoulder puncture. Probably it ascended when he momentarily turned the gravity off.
He joined his soaked fingers and the blood dripped to the floor. He should be alarmed with such blood loss.
He wasn't.
He leaned over the railing to see everything better from up there. This bay simply looked like the other one they found him in. He saw the docked gunships that a certain 'pain in the ass' talked about: they looked like fighter jets and were pretty different in shape and color from each other: for him it was another sign that they were paramilitary.
Lights went green. He could see them pretty well when they entered: they were a noisy and colorful bunch after all. They divided to go each to their own gunship. The one with aqua hair looked like she was searching for something when she was next to her silver fighter jet: probably for him. The rest were scrambling, one by one.
"Up here!" He screamed and waved, or more like tried to.
Meia saw him and waved back. She got inside her dread and started a video call after sending Jura in her red dread out to battle. She shared frequencies with the engineer before, when they were on the way to meet with the rest of her group.
The dread squad leader had Isaac in her left side of the screen, she was somewhat impressed of how complete his space suit was: it also had integrated video feed. Jura was in the right side, already in combat and reporting:
"I count twelve cube types. Bart can't support us until we are all out of the colony!"
"Got it. Isaac, how is the power feed?"
"It's barely holding up, you need to get out as fast as you can!"
It was fortunate she demanded her squad to station their ships front to the exit point before arriving. She followed up his advice: her dread disengaged, in the next instant it flew through the apparently immutable blue force field.
"Ok, I'm out. Barnette, you're next."
The violet-clad pilot wasn't on screen, but a clear and tense "Roger that" let her knew she was in radio contact and copied that. She was going to be the last one to scramble. Isaac found ironic that he was left here with the last pirate he wanted to see, ever. But he just didn't care. He wasn't planning to see any of them again.
Barnette was looking above, at the engineer. She was next to her violet gunship that looked like a dagger without hilt. He did a nonchalant gesture at the exit point, indicating her to go. She did a signal pointing with her index and middle fingers to her eyes, then at him. It was the "I'm watching you" gesture.
'Is this broad fucking serious?'
He just gave up to the temptation and responded with a gesture too. Albeit a different one: the back of a hand with the middle finger extended upwards. A classic that didn't need explanation.
Isaac was far and his vision was getting blurry by the blood loss, but he could clearly see that it pissed her off, to his delight. It was evident by her reaction and her body language when she got inside her gunship. She flew out, like the rest.
Meia had her whole team out of that deathtrap and ready to fight back. All of them were in her screen, awaiting a formation order. There was just one thing left she needed to assure:
"Thanks for your help Isaac. What about you?" she asked him.
Isaac frowned. He didn't want to waste more of anyone's time, he did a tired gesture to the projection and the transmission ended. Everyone was impressed except the dread leader and Barnette: he kept his word, did his part and he simply wanted out now. Meia wanted to know how important his profile was to be a prisoner of Earth instead of just a piece of meat, but after the terrible impression they had of each other, maybe parting ways was for the best.
"I hope you can get to your ship" Meia mumbled to herself.
Jura saw how that exchange ended and heard her, so she break it to her leader:
"He doesn't have any."
That unsettled her even more than what he said about preferring death over custody. But there wasn't time to think about that now, she had to direct her team.
Barnette wanted to inform Meia about that, but the blonde beat her to it: that man was now grounded, and pretty much trapped. She was angry with him. Not for outsmarting her, not for that obscene gesture, but because he was stupid enough to play the hero now. She couldn't understand why he chose to stay, dooming himself, after all he did.
She wondered if her aggressive approach was what caused that bereft attitude and the fact that he wouldn't trust her, nor any of them, as the last and only way out of here. But she decided she wouldn't care now.
'Screw it, I'm used to being branded as the villainess anyway.' She told herself to deal with it. Or at least try to.
Meanwhile, in the landing bay, another tremor made Isaac lose his balance. He grabbed the railing to try to stand up, but gave in when he realized something.
He was alone now. Just like when he escaped Aegis VII, and when he destroyed the 12B Marker. This time he saved a commander more decent than some of her lackeys and helped some probable EarthGov enemies escape. No one died around him this time, unlike in the Ishimura. He could have called this a victory, but he just wanted an end. He was done.
'Where was I?... Oh, yeah...'
He turned, rested his back on the railing and sat on the floor heavily. He looked up and sighed. He didn't understand why destiny was so cruel to him that it also took his chance to die a noble and more importantly, instant death, vaporized by a SPRAWL's failing fusion reactor.
He didn't know if this place was going to collapse under the bombardment before he bled out. Instead of just waiting, he indulged himself on one last thing. He searched her last message to him. If there was a thing he wanted to add to this second chance for such moment, it was looking at her again.
"Isaac, it's me. I wish I could talk to you. I'm sorry, I'm sorry about everything." He found it: Nicole's last recorded message, the real her.
He didn't know how his RIG did such backup after the data purge. Maybe EarthGov didn't delete it because it didn't contradict the 'story' about the terrorist attack in the USG Ishimura. Maybe it was a fortunate sync-up accident. But only one thing mattered to him now.
"It's strange, such a little thing. In the end, it all comes down to this little thing..."
He stopped the video there. He wanted to know what 'that little thing' was. The fact that he couldn't guess it frustrated him, even more. Were they so apart before all of this that he couldn't interpret what she meant? It made his grief heavier in his heart. If only he could figure it out in this last moments, it could bring some little peace to his soul.
A battle ensued in the vicinity of the space station. The Nirvana was in a visible distance, shields up and raining hell to whatever dared to come close by with the new asset Bart Garsus recently discovered: a massive rain of missiles that left a white trail, mixing elegance with triumphal destruction.
Inside her fast silver gunship, Squad leader Meia Gisborn demanded the rest of the dread squads to scramble and was now coordinating them. She was in her element but, as usual as in any battle, that didn't meant she had everything under control.
"They just keep coming! Maybe they detected the power surge too."- Jura reported while maneuvering her dread.
Harvest ships were converging from all directions, in batches, like they were hailed here for a priority objective. This wasn't a dozen that the blonde originally reported anymore.
"Meia, do you have anything to report from the colony?" BC demanded.
"We couldn't find the origin of the Power Surge in the facility, but we found someone. A man, not sure of his profile, probably military. He didn't know anything either, but he helped us escape."
In the Nirvana's Bridge, Buzam "BC" A. Calessa heard clearly what Meia said. The Boss, Magno Vivan, was behind her, listening intently as always.
"Is he related to the communications blackout you mentioned earlier?" The old woman asked calmly, trying to guess what happened.
Meia had the duty to report what happened, all of it. He may have saved them, especially her. But there wasn't time for a long explanation trying to cover him, she was in the heat of a space dogfight.
"Yes."
That's when she realized something. Him. All the incoming enemy ships, they were coming for him. He said he was a prisoner of the Harvesters. He may have called them differently, but he made pretty clear he was talking about an Earth related force. All the cube ships were hammering the station when they did a fly by, with the same intensity they bombed the Nirvana in previous confrontations. She assumed he was important enough to bring the fleets in the vicinity to hunt him, enough to not let him escape with his life.
She was about to ask for a defensive formation around the station, and report her priority and plan to Command (BC and Magno). But before she could take a chance to do it, fire engulfed the entry point of the landing bay they used to escape. It happened too fast: a downed cube drifted in fire and crashed inside. The force field glowed a bright yellow, barely containing the fire that burst out a second later.
Even so she opened a channel, they couldn't let the Harvest win this one. She couldn't let him die.
Isaac could only hear the firing that impacted on the station. After all, sound travels through matter, such as the one composing this crumbling space station. He had to give credit to this rickety place, it was holding pretty well.
'Well, this is taking time…'
Suddenly, something entered trough the bay entrance, engulfed in flames and with a precipitation that could only mean it was downed in the ensuing battle outside. It crashed, just like him some time ago, with the difference that it exploded right after. The engineer covered himself instinctively from the fulgor. It looked like one of the red gunships that shot at him and that pirate commander moments ago.
The crashing cube took down the principal column that sustained all the platforms of the landing bay. The whole E shaped platform quickly deformed under it's now unsupported weight. It's colossal scale proved to be a big weakness. The engineer stood up quicker than he thought he was able too, but lost his balance when the surface he was standing on started bending, pointing below where the downed cube created a dense and wide ground fire.
Isaac's back hit the floor, which now was tilted almost 45 degrees. He was dragged down until his boots connected with the railing. It supported his weight, but there was no telling for how long. It was just like that tram in Titan again, but with burning doom below.
'This is what I get for wanting a dramatic end, fuck me.'
A radio call claimed his response, again in an extreme moment. It was like a sick joke, or maybe a last hope. He answered, receiving video and broadcasting himself in this sticky situation. It was the girl with aqua hair, Meia.
"Isaac, are you okay!?" She asked frantically, probably trying to multitask with a fiery space battle.
"No... not really!"
An understatement before his death wasn't something wise on his part, but he severed the communications a few moments ago after all. He didn't want to beg for help after he did that. The only thing he wanted now was for these guys to save themselves.
Another tremor caused by the bombing made him stumble easily. It was too difficult to keep his balance in the bars of the railing, but he managed to grab on it before falling. Meia saw everything that happened. It transpired in seconds, but these became exasperatingly long. The burning inferno awaiting below was pretty visible in her screen now.
Isaac grip wasn't going to hold. The more-than-50-pounds that the suit weighed sure didn't make it any easier. He couldn't believe his inner turmoil still made him cling to life.
'Why I keep doing this to myself?'
He saw at the riglink projection, where this woman, Meia, looked back at him. Her expression was tense by the combat, but her look, he recognized it: it was the same worried one Ellie had when he sent her out in that EarthGov ship. He remembered she was mad to the verge of tears when he did that, but she was safe. This commander had no tears though, too professional and too little time of knowing each other.
This time he wasn't capable of doing the gesture to close the video call like before: he was using both hands to hold himself, barely. He hoped she severed the communication link before seeing his dramatic end.
'I'm sorry.'
He closed his eyes and accepted this fate. And just like that, he let go: Isaac Clarke embraced his end, and fell down.
Little did he know fate had another twist for him. The makeshift wiring he made to maintain the field shorted out. He didn't see it burning, nor hear the exploding junction boxes he tinkered with. All sound was washed away by the explosive decompression caused when the force-field gave out.
Everything was sucked out fiercely to space: the resigned engineer, the wrecked ship and lots of metal debris. Isaac was spinning like a ragdoll tossed by an angry child, so violently that he couldn't grasp what was happening. The burning cube fighter created a chaotic string of fire when it was ejected by the decompression, visible for anyone and anything like a flare in the darkest night.
Meia saw it. They all saw it.
The battered engineer's realized that he was out in the space again. His helmet activated, encasing his head as soon as it detected the vacuum. Varied radio signals echoed in it, saturating his radio reception and his senses. A feminine voice, distorted by interference, screamed his name, but it was immediately drowned in combat chatter.
He couldn't see much else while veering uncontrollably, except for how the space station finally collapsed under the heavy bombing: it was the only thing that wasn't moving in all this chaos. The thing was losing it's circular form while metallic debris flew out in all directions.
He was again out, with no other options, just like how this started. He was going do die out here, suffocated and frozen.
'I can't believe this shit!'
Then, he heard something clearly between all the radio chatter ringing in his helmet.
"...Get him!"
Lots of ships out were maneuvering and leaving traces of their color. But one blur caught his attention: a golden one, coming at him. The last thing he saw was a white mechanical hand, almost as big as him. His momentum still had such force that the impact with it left him unconscious.
When all Dread Teams were called off, everyone tried to understand why Meia gave such order and why BC approved it. It was after everyone made a defensive formation to cover Hibiki's Vanguard, which carried something back to the Nirvana. It was defined as a Person of Interest.
Turns out, Meia was right: the pattern of the enemy attack was concentrated against the colony: a now empty, rundown and in conclusion, unimportant installation. They just left the autonomous Harvest Fleet had it's way with it, and they were simply content with that.
Bart received the order to resume their original route, and he obliged. When the Nirvana and everyone else flew away they weren't chased, for the first time in all their encounters. That surprised everyone.
But surprises didn't end there: everyone wanted to go and see this Person of Interest. Crew members of varied roles and uniforms gathered in the hangar where Hibiki's 'bangatta', as the women called it, arrived with 'someone' in it's mechanic hands. The presentation of this subject certainly was more grim than Misty's plain capsule: the subject wore a space suit of tight design with opaque colors, coated in frozen blood. They could easily see it because he wasn't in any kind of pod. That gave the idea that the rescue must have been rough.
The vanguard pilot tried it's best to lower the subject carefully, but the mech wasn't designed to such delicate handling. He let if fall a few centimeters above the floor.
The thud it made gave the signal for the security detail to approach, one that Barnette led. She, Jura and the "Fire Team" came closer to it. The Fire Team was composed of women trained for close quarter battles, armed with laser rings and lances, and they responded to Barnette's order to come here. They had no time to dress on their pink uniform when they were called, and just went on their blue and white casual one. None of them dared to make the violet-clad pilot wait, nor question her orders.
Still, they all were startled when the suit started to cycle air, making a hissing sound while visible jets of air streamed in and out of it's upper back. That stopped everyone in their tracks. It finished in a few seconds. Then they heard a long, deep breath coming from him.
Isaac regained consciousness after hitting the floor. He was confused and breathing rapidly: more symptoms of the blood loss. He tried to stand up, but this time it proved to be harder instead of painful. After managing to do so, he looked in front of him. He recognized the 'cleavage duo': the blonde diva had her arms crossed, and the 'hard-ass' had both hands in her hips. Her smug expression contrasted with the frowns of the rest of the armed women surrounding him. They aimed at him with the same rings he seen before.
'A welcome committee, great.'
Every member of the Fire Team had followed the subject movements with their aim, per Barnette instructions. The eerie light coming from Isaac's visor just added to the apprehensive atmosphere when he looked at them. It was pale blue, just like the hair color of certain someone that just arrived to see this scene.
As usual, Meia Gisborn was the last one to come back to the hangar after ensuring they weren't being followed. It was one of the habits she picked up as the good leader that she was. She came here as soon as she could, and after seeing this, she wished she came in sooner.
"That's enough, lower them." She said while walking in front of the formation, trying to dissipate the tension.
Everyone listened to her and complied. Isaac's shoulders relaxed after he recognized the Dread Team Commander, and he opened his helmet. The sound and look of such mechanism in action was impressive for everyone who haven't seen it before. But what was behind the helmet was the biggest surprise yet.
"It's a man!" Was the most general line in all the murmur.
That wasn't all: the left side of his face was drenched in blood, and not dry one like his suit. He was paler than the pilots remembered. His breath got faster and shallow. He was blinking slowly, as if his eyelids were getting heavier. His terrible aspect wiped the menacing glares of all the security detail, even Barnette's smug grin.
Isaac tried to say something, but he could only keep breathing with the same worrying pace until he finally collapsed on his back. Meia tried to catch him before he hit the floor, but she couldn't. His senses turned off, unable to see the worrying expression drawn in everyone's faces, nor perceive the crowd gasp that resonated in the hangar.
The colony was totally obliterated. Not a single piece of wreckage was habitable, nor could emit any signal or energy lecture. It ended up just like the directive of the fleet of Harvesters demanded: totally silenced.
The subroutine of the directive instructed that any signals that could interfere with the scanning and finding process should be removed or silenced. The other signal in the sector was the ship identified as Nirvana. This one removed itself when they hightailed out of the vicinity, along with all the smaller signals that were the fighter spacecraft.
Such directive was executed after an energy surge was detected in this sector. They couldn't find it, even with it's more advanced scanners, so advanced that it allowed them to track and find even the smallest capsule in a dense magnetic storm. They were designed to hunt for stragglers, to harvest them too, so no one could escape, and maximize capture efficiency. They picked up something else instead: a faint energy signature. The directive was to find and acquire whatever hardware it originated from.
After the 'suppression' subroutine was complete and the scanning resumed, it found something in a cloud of wreckage not far from where the station was. The sings on it's grayish golden surface weren't in the Harvest database either. It was tagged as an "unknown artifact" after seizing it.
The new directive was to send this for study. One of the biggest and sturdiest types of ships in all the fleet was chosen for this task: a cargo spacecraft, like the one lost in the water planet known as Amphatos. Such colossal construct carried munitions and other supplies, and more importantly, the harvested "spoils of war".
The fleet's state of the art scanners didn't detect what started to happen to it's precious cargo after storing the artifact.