HuniePop Space Adventures

Chapter 6: Stranded

The first thing that hit me when I punched the door off of the escape pod was a strong gust of wind and a bit of sand blowing in my face. I fell to the ground with a thud and looked up at the landscape. All I saw was a desert with barely any trees and the wind was whipping up some of the loose sand. Nikki and the hooded figure jumped down from the escape pod and walked over to me.

"You OK?" Nikki asked. I stood up and brushed the sand out of my hair.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said.

"So, where are we?"

"This is the planet of Zandor. It's the one planet where the Overlord won't follow us," the figure said walking in front of us.

"Thank you for helping us," I said.

"Yeah, but who are you?" Nikki asked. The figure turned to us and took off her hood, revealing a young woman underneath. She had light blue skin and short purple hair and her eyes were a vivid green.

"My name is Rhea Magus. I am a Magistrus from the late planet, Obraxis," the figure replied, giving us a bow.

"Late? You mean destroyed?" Nikki asked.

"Unfortunately, yes. The Overlord destroyed my planet when he was looking for the Crucible. My mother and father perished in the aftermath."

"I'm… so sorry," I said. I suddenly remembered that I still had the Crucible and opened the back compartment where it was being stored. But when I reached back, it wasn't there.

"Max? What's wrong?" Nikki asked.

"The Crucible was in the back of my suit. Can you see if it's still there?" I asked. Nikki ran behind me and searched the suit's compartment.

"Max, it's not here! They probably found it and now they have it!"

"Dammit! I just handed him exactly what he wanted!" I said, burying my face in my hands.

"Well, not exactly," Rhea replied. Both me and Nikki gave her confused looks.

"What are you talking about?"

"While the Crucible is deadly by itself, it needs a vital component to become disastrous. When the Crucible is removed from its pedestal, it releases a large amount of Infernite energy and injects it into the host. But that energy needs time to fester and grow until the host uses the Crucible to extract it and be given ultimate power. Although the Overlord has the Crucible, it is but a simple sword. And if you were the one who pulled it from the pedestal…"

"…then the Infernite energy he needs is running through my bloodstream," I finished.

"That would explain the electricity coming from your arm," Nikki said.

"That said, there is a downside to having the Infernite energy in your body. As time wears on, the energy will continue to bring out your negative emotions and make you experience periods of rage," Rhea said.

"That explains why I'm feeling so agitated lately," I replied before I winced a bit.

"Are you alright?" Rhea asked.

"Yeah, it's just that the Overlord really puts a lot of good faith in his interrogators. That Selene person's got a really mean whip," I said. Nikki immediately took off the back portion of my suit and stared in horror at my scars.

"WHY didn't you tell me about this?!" Nikki asked.

"I didn't want you to worry…" I said.

"We should get him to the village. The inhabitants will be able to heal him," Rhea said.

"What village? And what inhabitants?"

"The Zandorians. They are masters of the mystical arts. Far more advanced than even the Overlord. Their village is roughly ten miles from here, over those dunes," Rhea said, pointing to said dunes. Nikki got me to my feet and put my arm around her shoulders.

"Well, then let's get going. With any luck, our friends will find us before the Overlord does," she said as the three of us started walking toward the village.

3rd person perspective, Overlord's ship

The Overlord stared in awe at the Crucible in silence as he stood in front of the window overlooking the cosmos. Selene then came in and kneeled to the ground in an act of courtesy.

"My lord, I don't mean to disturb you, but I must speak to you," she said.

"Is Philip well?" the Overlord asked. Selene got up and walked up to the side of him and looked out into the void with him.

"He has a severe burn on a portion of his face, but he'll live."

"Good. What is it that you wish to know?"

"The girl that the humans escaped with. I've never seen her before. Was she a prisoner like they were?"

"She was. But she was also the last reminder I have of my world."

"I'm so sorry. I had no idea, my lord," Selene said.

"Think nothing of it. All that matters now is finding them and retrieving the energy we need for our quest," the Overlord said. As if on cue, General Taarkin walked into the room and bowed before the Overlord.

"My lord, I'm heading back to my home planet to deal with some personal matters. I will inform you if we make any progress on relocating the prisoners," he said. The Overlord nodded and raised a hand, giving permission for Taarkin to leave. After he exited the room, Selene spoke up.

"My lord, something about Taarkin feels… off. I feel like he's not actually with us," she said.

"He knows better than to cross me. If he even thinks of doing so, it would be the last mistake he would ever make. But we mustn't worry about that now. We must continue our efforts to locate the human for now," the Overlord said as he continued to stare out into the void.

Max's perspective, Zandor

Through the whole ten miles that we walked, not a single thing attacked us. No predators, no soldiers, nothing. Then again, it would've been pretty easy to spot anything, given that there was nowhere to hide. When the three of us crested the dune, we saw a pretty large village in the valley below. It looked like the kind of villages you see in Sicily or ancient Greece, except that they still looked new and not at all run down. However, there was not a single person or alien in sight.

"It looks deserted," Nikki said.

"Looks can be deceiving," Rhea replied as we made our way down to the village. But when we did enter the village, it was silent. DEAD silent. There were some robes out drying, some books on the tables, but there was no one out and about.

"Something's wrong. It shouldn't be this quiet," Rhea finally said.

"Is that so?" Nikki asked.

"They are mostly quiet when they meditate so they can hone their magic. But it's too quiet, even by their standards."

"Well, either they aren't here or something's wrong," I replied. We suddenly heard a blaster firing just ahead of us. I immediately ran ahead of Nikki and Rhea and moved to the side of one of the houses. I peeked around the corner and saw three soldiers trying to break into a house adjacent to the one we were hiding behind. The soldiers had dark green armor with silver arms and legs and masks covering their entire heads. One soldier was kneeling above what looked like one of the residents. It was a male, but he had red skin, horns, and light pink hair. His eyes were cyan with red sclera and his blue blood was gushing out onto the cobblestone path. Nikki and Rhea silently looked over my shoulder at the carnage.

"Guess that explains why there's almost no one here," I whispered.

"My God. It's a slaughter. Those soldiers are killing the residents," Rhea said.

"And I'm guessing that there are more in that house. You two wait here, I'll take care of them," I said as my helmet reformed around my head. Before I took a step forward, Nikki silently grabbed my shoulder.

"Max, you're hurt," she said. I put my hand on her cheek to calm her down.

"I have to save them. I promise I'll be safe," I replied. The soldiers finally broke into the house and I silently snuck over to the doorway as they started to ransack the place.

"Nothing here. How about you?" one of the soldiers said.

"No. But that mage went to a lot of trouble trying to hide something from us," the second replied. But as they continued to ransack the house, they, as well as myself, heard a slight whimper. One soldier walked over to a curtain and drew it back, revealing two more of the same alien species. One was an adult female while the other was a little girl who looked to be about 6 and was crying as her mother held her.

"Found them!" the soldier said, pointing his weapon at the two. The adult started talking in some kind of dialect that neither me nor the soldier could understand as the child continued to cry.

"Shut those two up," the first soldier said. But before the second soldier could fire, I immediately ran up to the third soldier and stabbed him through the head, alerting the other two to my presence. They started firing at me, but I used the dead soldier as a shield and ran up to the first soldier and blasted him with my shotgun. The second tried in vain to shoot me, but I grabbed him by the head and slammed him into the ground. He barely had time to say anything or recover before I brought my foot down and crushed his head. I stood back up and looked back at the two Zandorians, who just looked at me in horror. I put my shotgun on my back and held out my hands peacefully.

"Hey, it's OK. I'm not gonna hurt you," I said. But, before I could react, something wrapped itself around my neck and tossed me through three of the houses. I could barely get back up before the unseen object grabbed me again and made me stare into its eyes. It was some kind of blue skinned female humanoid with long flowing sky blue-white hair and prominent blue eyes with glowing blue pupils. She had dark lines under her eyes and all around her body, which looked like she was wearing some kind of dress. She also had eight spider-like appendages coming from her back, one of which was wrapped around my neck, and what seemed to be a crown on her head, with two blue horns protruding from the center: one from her forehead and another from the back of the head. And then it spoke. And I don't mean with its mouth. She spoke with her MIND.

"Disgusting filth. You and your master are not welcome on this planet. I will enjoy removing you from it as fast as you arrived!" she said with a rather mysterious and dark voice. The tentacle holding me slowly started to tighten its grip on me, making me choke a bit. Before she could fully strangle me to death, Nikki and Rhea came running up to us.

"Please, stop! That man is not your enemy!" Rhea said. The humanoid looked back at me as my helmet deformed to show my true face. She immediately uncoiled her tentacle and dropped me . Nikki ran up to me and helped me back up.

"What the hell is your problem?" she asked the creature.

"Forgive me. I thought he was with the soldiers," the creature said.

"It's fine. I've had worse," I replied. I suddenly felt something gnawing on my arm. When I lifted it up, the little Zandorian girl was biting down on the armor, as if she was trying to attack me. But her mother ran up and pried her off of my arm.

"You aren't Zandorian, are you?" Rhea asked the creature.

"I am not. I am the queen of an advanced species called the Ravagers," the creature replied.

"The Ravagers?" Nikki asked.

"What exactly happened here? Where did these soldiers come from?" Rhea asked. The Ravager Queen turned away and stared out into the distance.

"They are a plague upon the people of this planet. And they stem from a pestilence by the name of Taarkin," she answered.

"General Taarkin?" I asked. The Queen looked back at me.

"You've met him?"

"He works for an entity called the Overlord."

"The Overlord? I've never heard of someone like that."

"Wait, why is Taarkin attacking innocent people? And how long has this been going on?" Nikki asked.

"I will answer all of your questions. But right now we must head for the Sanctuary before more soldiers arrive," the Queen replied. The Zandorian woman grabbed her child and we followed the Queen out of the village. After about ten miles, we saw a group of sand dunes and mountains surrounding a dome-like structure. As we made our way to it, we saw more Zandorians of varying ages from infants to a few elders. They were accompanied by other Ravagers similar to the Queen, except some didn't have any horns on their heads, while others had a ring of horns around their entire head. When they saw us, some of them got into a defensive stance, baring their teeth and snarling. The Queen immediately outstretched her hands to the others.

"Hold, my sisters! They are not with the enemy. They are here to help us destroy the plague!" she said. The other Ravagers backed down and some of the Zandorians rushed to greet the two that were with us. They spoke in their dialect and some of them even shed a few tears when they no doubt heard about the fallen. One of the village elders walked up to me and just stared at me for a bit before she made a sign for me to kneel. I did so and she started to carefully examine my face, from my eyes to my teeth. After she closely examined me, Rhea came up to her and kneeled.

"My friend was gravely injured. Is there anyone who can help heal him?" she asked. The elder nodded and beckoned one of the villagers over who was holding some kind of vase. As the elder stuck her hands inside the vase, Rhea took off the backplate of my armor. The elder then took some kind of paste out of the vase and smeared it all over my back. After she had spread it around, she started to say some kind of chant which caused my back to gradually heat up until it felt like it was on fire. But after a while, it started to cool off and the elder stopped chanting. Nikki came over and put a hand on my back. When she touched it, I didn't flinch or even feel anything.

"Whoa. It's like nothing even happened," she said. Rhea put my backplate back on and gave a small bow to the elder.

"Thank you for your help," she said. Both me and Nikki also gave a small bow to the elder, who did the same.

"You are welcome to stay as long as you need to. The Sanctuary is the safest place to be at… for now," the Ravager Queen said.

"How long has this been here?" Nikki asked.

"No one knows. But they say that ten years ago, the night sky light up so brightly. And from that phenomenon came these very formations."

"So this was here only ten years ago and no one bothered to see what fell from the sky?" Nikki asked.

"This place is ravaged by sandstorms most of the year. No one dares to venture out here during that time."

"Well, that makes some sense," I said, before I began to walk away.

"Wait, where are you going?" Rhea asked.

"We need to at least get a signal out to our friends. It'll be easier to take out the remaining soldiers if there are even more of us that can fight."

"I don't disagree. But Zandor is a dead zone for communications. It's almost impossible to get a message in or out of this place."

"Well, maybe there's a spot where there's barely any interference. We have to at least try."

"I shall accompany you. I have been around this place several times. Should you get lost, I'll be able to guide you back," the Ravager Queen said. I gave her a nod and hugged Nikki before we left.

"Be careful out there," she said.

"Don't worry. I've got her to protect me," I said, pointing at the Queen. Nikki just smiled and kissed me on the forehead and the two of us headed out into the winds.

Celeste's perspective, The Centurion

We continued to scan for any signs of Max or Nikki's tracking devices, but nothing was showing up. The message Nikki had sent brought us to where they said they would be and yet, there didn't seem to be anything on our radar. Amki was completely upset, while Eva and Odango were calm.

"Are you SURE that this is where they said they were going?" Amki asked.

"The last transmission Nikki sent said that they were heading for Sector 16," I replied.

"Yeah, but this sector has LITERALLY no inhabitable planets!"

"That's not true. They are 10 inhabitable planets in this sector out of only 14. The could be on any one of those," Eva said.

"So there's a large chance that their on one of the 10 planets in this sector. This should be pretty easy!" Odango said.

"Yeah, as easy as finding a needle in a planet-sized haystack…" Amki said under her breath.

"Hey, Celeste said I need to be a bit more upbeat and positive! That's what I'm doing!"

"Stop it, both of you. Wherever Max and Nikki are, they no doubt have gotten help and are trying to reach us now," I said.

Max's perspective, Zandor

The winds of the desert whistled as they made their way across the dunes and past me. I tried getting a signal out as me and the Ravager Queen moved around the dunes, but nothing was getting out into the void so Celeste could hear.

"So, how long have you been on this planet?" I asked the Ravager Queen.

"My kind and I have been on this planet for 5 years. We were created by Taarkin's top scientists on his home planet for one single purpose: to destroy those who threatened or refused to bow down to Taarkin's rule. This was the first planet that they dispatched us to. But, when we came across the first Zandorians, we didn't see hostility or hate. We saw only fear and peacefulness. We turned on the soldiers that were with us and escorted the Zandorians to safety, but when the other soldiers found out about our treachery, they retaliated by slaughtering both my kind and the Zandorians. Even after we killed the soldiers we were sent here with, Taarkin continued to keep sending more and more of his soldiers. 500 of my sisters, myself included, were sent here. Only 50 of us remain due to our tireless efforts to keep the people of this planet. And yet, that DISEASE still continues to live in his high castle, watching from afar as his empire continues to grow," she answered.

"Taarkin's a coward," I said. The Queen looked at me with some confusion.

"Hm?"

"I mean, yeah, he's got this whole army and he's holed up in his fortress, but it sounds to me like he's scared of you. Because he knows what you're capable of. He CREATED you. That's why he's scared of you," I said. The Queen's blank expression suddenly changed and the corners of her mouth formed a slight smile.

"You are very brave for a human. In fact, I wonder if you ARE human," she said. Her body suddenly went tense and she looked back behind her.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"We are being followed," the Queen said. Sure enough, I started hearing the sound of footsteps. They were slight, but it was starting to get louder by the minute. I prepared to grab my shotgun, but through the wind and sand, I could make out the silhouette of a rather small person. In fact, it looked like a kid. Sure enough, when the silhouette got close enough, it was one of the villager's children, hopping into each of my footprints. The Queen softened her aggressive display and kneeled close to the ground to meet her.

"Little one, what are you doing so far from your mother?" the Queen asked. The girl just ran around her and came over to me. She just stood there, staring at me with those big childlike eyes of hers. After a few seconds, her face scrunched up into an angry-yet-cute face and she bit on my right arm.

"I don't think that she likes me very much," I said.

"It's probably because of your armor. You look like Taarkin's soldiers. That and the fact that she lost her father recently," the Queen said. I just sighed and pried the girl off and set her back on the ground. But as I was about to turn away, the girl started yelling at me in her alien dialect.

"Seriously, what is she saying? My universal translators aren't working for some reason," I said.

"The Zandorians speak a dead tongue. Only myself, my sisters, and experienced mages can understand it. And what she's saying would probably offend you," the Queen replied. I kneeled back to the ground and outstretched my hand to the girl. She started growling like a little chihuahua and bared her teeth. But I just calmly inched my hand closer and closer until I finally rested it on her head and started to pet her. She didn't seem to like it at first, but her expression softened as I continued to pet her.

"You don't need to be afraid of me, OK?" I said. As I took my hand off her head, the girl grabbed it and placed it back on her head and made a little pout. I couldn't help but smile at how cute she was and the girl smiled back.

"Paki," she finally said.

"Is that your name?" I asked. The girl nodded and smiled again. But something must've caught her eye, because she turned her head toward the desert and then ran out into the vast, open valley.

"Hey, wait, hold up!" I said, running after her. But, barely even two feet from where I was, I tripped over something and fell face-first into the sand. I got back up and looked back at what exactly I tripped over and I saw something glinting in the sand. I crawled over to it and brushed it off. It was some kind of gray-blue metal, which seemed to come to a point like an antenna.

"The hell? What is this?" I asked. The Queen came over to me and inspected the metal herself.

"I've never seen this kind of metal out here before," she said.

"Is it rare for ships to crash on this planet?"

"This entire sector has barely anything of little value. Ships would have no reason to venture here unless it's for research. This is something else," the Queen replied. I suddenly saw Nikki running up behind her, almost out of breath.

"Nikki, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"One of the… villagers… said that… her daughter went… missing," Nikki said in between breaths. I saw that Rhea, one of the village elders, and a small handful of Zandorians were also walking up to us.

"Well, she followed us. She's out there somewhere," I said, pointing out into the desert. I saw that Paki was now running back to us with something in the fold of her robes. Her mother immediately ran over to her and gently hugged her before talking to her in their language again. The mother then asked Paki what she was holding and she unwrapped the object and presented to the group. It was some kind of black rock that was pulsating a purplish glow. The Zandorians immediately crowded around Paki and her mother and put their hands on the rock and began to say some kind of prayer or something.

"What are they saying?" I asked Rhea.

"I'm not sure. I know just their normal dialect but it's like they're saying some sort of prayer" she replied. She then walked up to the elder and asked her what was going on. But when the elder answered her, Rhea came back with a surprised and worried look on her face.

"What? What is it?" Nikki asked.

"They said that that rock isn't of this world. And there's something coming off of it. Voices."

"Voices of WHAT?"

"Trapped souls of countless species," Rhea said. Everybody fell silent after she made that statement. I then walked back to the metal sticking out of the ground as the others talked.

"What exactly do you mean by 'trapped souls'?" Nikki asked.

"It could mean anything. But… it's aura. It isn't part of this planet or anywhere near here," the Ravager Queen said. I took a look at the metal again before turning back to the dunes.

"So, it's possible that it was brought here by something," Rhea said.

"By WHAT?" Nikki asked. I put my hand up to the dunes for a while before I balled up my fist and punched it. The blow caused a shockwave which blew some of the sand off and alerted the others to what I was doing.

"Max, what are you doing?!" Rhea asked as I took another swing at the sand dune.

"This feels unusually solid! You sure that there isn't anything underneath this?" I replied.

"This place is sacred to them!"

"And yet it showed up only 10 years ago! You ask me, this seems a little suspicious!" I said, punching the dune again.

"Max, maybe you should listen to Rhea!" Nikki said. I just ignored them and punched the dune one final time. This time, what I hit made the sound of reverberating metal, causing everyone to fall silent again. I removed my fist from the dune, which revealed some kind of white metal underneath the sand.

"You were saying?" I said.

"Step back," Rhea replied, holding up her staff toward the dune and conjuring up a strong windstorm which blew away the sand covering the metal. But what was underneath the sand defied all logic. It looked a large robot with a body colored white, orange, and red. Its armored head had two strands of gold "hair" coming from the sides while the forehead sprouted a grey-blue horn-like structure which had been broken off and ended up where I found it. And this robot also had a face, but it had no eyes or mouth, so it looked blank and expressionless.

"OK, that's a thing," Nikki said, completely dumbfounded. The Zandorians stood there in awe, staring at the wonder that laid before them. Suddenly, in the distance came the sound of screeching and howling. Me and Nikki looked back and saw a large sandstorm moving in from that direction. And it was moving fast.

"What's that sound?" Nikki asked.

"Stormhounds," the Queen said.

"Stormhounds?"

"They are wolf-like creatures that live in burrows throughout this desert. The signal the arrival of coming storms so every other creature can know and take shelter," the Queen said.

"And what kind of storm is that?" I asked.

"The worst kind. It masquerades as a sand storm, but holds toxic chemicals that will kill anything on the surface within seconds."

"How far away are we from the Sanctuary?" Rhea asked as I began to closely inspect the robot.

"Too far. Even with cloth masks, we would still die within a minute," the Queen replied. I began to knock on the metal, looking for any changes. When I got to the robot's face, it made a hollow knocking.

"It's hollow here! I'll bet that this robot has a cockpit or something!" I said.

"Do you see any emergency access points?" Rhea asked.

"No! The whole thing is sealed tight!" I said as I tried to break through. The Ravager Queen then grabbed me with one of her tentacles and moved me to the side.

"Step aside, human. I'll take it from here," she said before she tore through the robot's metal face with her tentacles, creating a large enough gap for all of us to get through. Through that gap, there was an opening into a control room of some kind. I immediately helped some of the Zandorians into the cockpit while Rhea and the Ravager Queen did their best to calm down the others. Just as the storm was within seconds of reaching us, we had gotten everyone inside the robot's head and the Queen plugged up the hole with her tentacles, cutting off both the storm and light from outside. Everything was pitch black until a blue glow came from the Queen's body and tentacles, which brightly illuminated the entire room. The cockpit was completely barren except for one single chair-like structure sitting slightly to the back.

"Well, this isn't spacious, but it'll do," I said.

"Let's just hope we don't run out of oxygen until the storm's over," Nikki replied.

"That won't be an issue," the Queen said before a strong gust of cool air blew in all around us.

"What was that?!" Nikki asked.

"Another one of my species' perks: we can siphon off the oxygen from outside and provide it in enclosed areas, even in hazardous conditions like this."

"Jeez, Taarkin really made you his ultimate nightmare, didn't he?" I asked. The Queen gave me a slight smile.

"Everyone seems to be accounted for. How long do these storms last?" Rhea asked.

"Twenty minutes at most. We should be in here for a while," the Queen replied.

"Well, I guess I'll take a short nap while we wait. Wake me up in ten minutes," I said as I walked over to the wall and sat down. Nikki sat down beside me and rested her head on my shoulder as we drifted off to sleep.

Celeste's perspective, The Centurion

Amki had fallen asleep on the console after we had searched for so long while Odango was searching through every frequency possible to try and find any SOS signal from Max or Nikki. I felt like I had failed to protect my friends and now the blood was on my hands.

"Celeste, you should get some rest," Eva said.

"I'll rest when we've found them," I replied.

"Celeste, even you need to rest. I'm sure that Max and Nikki are alright and they're trying to reach us now. I'll notify you if there are any changes."

"Alright then," I said. But just as I was getting up, Odango started going crazy.

"I'VE GOT SOMETHING!" she yelled, which woke Amki up.

"I wasn't sleeping!" she said, making my eyes roll. I immediately went over to the console Odango was at and looked at the display she had pulled up.

"What did you find?" I asked.

"A distress signal coming from the planet of Zandor," Odango replied.

"Is it Max and Nikki?"

"It could be. But it's not like any distress signal I've seen."

"What does it say?"

"It says 'SOS. Strelizia has taken major hull damage. Requesting immediate pickup for Parasite pilots.'"

"What the hell's a 'Strelizia'?" Amki asked.

"It's a code name. It must be name of a ship," I replied.

"OK, but how do we even know that Max and Nikki are there?"

"Zandor is a dead zone for communications of any sort. You'd either have to find an area where there's little to no interference or broadcast a strong enough signal," Eva said.

"Then that's where we need to go. Odango, plot a course for Zandor!" I said, sitting back in the command chair.

"There's another issue. What exactly are 'Parasite pilots'? It's not talking about Max and Nikki, is it?" Amki asked.

"I have a feeling we're about to find out," I replied.

Nikki's perspective, Zandor

10 minutes had passed since the storm had started. Yet, everyone was completely calm. The elders were telling stories to the children, the adults were talking and laughing amongst themselves, and some of the children were playing with any toys they had brought with them. Rhea was busy meditating while the Ravager Queen was up top, examining the place. I turned to Max, who was still asleep. I gently nudged him to wake him up, which he did, opening his eyes to me and smiling.

"I could get used to waking up like this," he said. I just smiled and pressed my forehead against his. But I noticed that one of the elders was holding Max's right arm and inscribing something into his armor with just her finger. What she was inscribing looked like five separate symbols, each glowing a different color before each of them went out and turned black. After the elder had finished writing the symbols, she got back up and gave Max a smile and a bow before walking away.

"Uh… thanks?" he said, confused. Rhea walked over and inspected Max's arm.

"What exactly did she write on his armor?" I asked.

"They're runes. Each of them reflect a quality that Max has. Compassion, courage, humility, empathy, integrity," she said, pointing to each symbol. She then flipped Max's hand and revealed a sixth symbol in the palm of Max's hand. It looked a bit like an S.

"And what's that one?"

"Hope," Max said, earning a smile from Rhea.

"How did you know?" Rhea asked.

"The symbol looks a bit familiar to us," I replied. We suddenly heard one of the Zandorian females calling out the name 'Paki' throughout the entire room.

"What's wrong?" I asked. Rhea walked over to the mother and asked what was going on. The mother frantically talked in her alien dialect while Max began to search the room. I walked over to Rhea to see what was happening.

"It's one of the villagers' children. She's gone missing," Rhea said.

"AGAIN?"

"Zandorian children are very mischievous. They love to explore any new environment even if it means exploring hazardous areas and getting into trouble."

"OK, but we're in a closed area. How'd she just disappear?"

"I think I may have figured that out," Max said from behind. I turned around and saw that he was kneeling on the floor next to a large hole that looked like it had been torn through.

"Was this here earlier?" I asked.

"It was. I just didn't pay it any attention at first. Looks like a meteor tore through the hull," Max replied. I looked back around and saw where the entry point was. Luckily, it was plugged up with tightly packed sand.

"Well, looks like the sand is blocking the outside."

"Yeah, but the only problem is that this hole is too small for me to crawl through. There's no way for me to tell where this leads," Max replied. The Ravager Queen came over to us and looked closely at the hole.

"It looks like it heads deeper into the robot. Possibly towards the chest cavity," she said. I walked around as they talked, but I noticed something a bit peculiar about the chair-like structure. On the floor in front of it, there were some straight, small tracks leading out from the structure.

"Max, over here!" I said. Max came over to me and inspected the tracks.

"These tracks move the chair back. When the robot got hit, it must've activated some sort of protocol to save the pilot," Max said. He suddenly turned his attention to the center of where the chair originally was. There was a hatch that was sealed tight. Unfortunately, it wasn't sealed tight enough because Max was able to pry it open which lead down into a vertical corridor and another hatch. The Ravager Queen grabbed me, Max, and Rhea and lowered us down to the second hatch, which Max tore open. The second hatch lead to a giant open room, no doubt located in the robot's chest. Around the center of the chest was an enormous chunk of ice connected to bunch of wires and machinery.

"Whoa," I said, amazed.

"Max, look there," Rhea said, pointing to the Zandorian girl, who was standing on some type of railing with her hands on the ice. For some reason, her hands were glowing and she was speaking in her alien dialect.

"What is she doing?" I asked.

"It seems to be some kind of fire magic. I believe she is trying to melt the ice," the Ravager Queen said.

"Yeah, but why? Is twenty minutes without water really going to hurt them that much?"

"It's not that. Look," Max said, pointing up at the ice chunk. It was hard for me to tell at first, but when I squinted and took a good look, I could make out the silhouettes of two people in the ice.

"Oh my God," I said. Not even 3 seconds after those words left my mouth, the ice began to crack and break apart, causing the Zandorian girl to stop chanting and took her hands off of the ice and fell off the railing and onto the floor. One piece of ice cracked free of the main chunk and fell toward her. Max immediately jumped into action and sheltered her from the ice chunk which shattered into several pieces against his armor. The Ravager Queen grabbed the girl away just as more pieces of ice fell to the ground. Amidst this, after enough ice had broken away, one of the pilots fell out of the chunk and plummeted towards the ground, only for Max to catch her and crash into the wall. The second pilot also fell out of the chunk, but Rhea held out her staff, which caused the pilot's body to glow and his body to slow down until he softly landed on the ground. I immediately ran over to the male pilot and checked his pulse. It was faint, but it was there. The pilot was wearing a dark grey suit and a black vest, had an average build, height, and a standard "slim" male physique, and had black, shaggy hair. But the most intriguing thing about him was that he had blue eyeliner and two blue horns coming out of his head. I looked back at Max, who still had the female pilot in his arms. She had a slender and athletic figure as well, but instead of a pilot uniform, she had some kind of hospital gown on with bandages all over her arms and on her face. She had waist-length, long pink hair with straight bangs covering her forehead, pinkish-red eyeliner, and a pair of red horns on her head as well as a white headband over her horns. Max just looked up at the ice chunk they were contained in before he finally spoke.

"Where in the hell did they come from?" he said. The Ravager Queen took all of us back up and some of the Zandorians crowded around the two pilots to try and help them recover as Max, Rhea, and I just stood back in thought. One of the elders spoke to the Queen, who then approached us.

"She says that they will both be alright. They should recover within a few minutes," she said.

"Well, that's a relief," Rhea said.

"Wait, we're not gonna talk about the fact that they're HUMAN?" Max asked.

"They are only half human. Their other half is something I've never encountered nor heard of before," the Queen replied.

"Plus the fact that humans aren't capable of machinery like this, correct?" Rhea asked.

"Not even close," Max said. One of the elders suddenly called over to us and beckoned.

"I guess I'll give them some help," I said, walking over to the female pilot. Max and Rhea continued to talk to the Queen while I helped the elder out.

"OK, so they're half human and yet, they have access to a giant robot that we aren't even capable of. Does this not raise any red flags?" Max asked.

"There could be a logical explanation that we don't have yet. We'll ask them when they've woken up and have fully recovered," Rhea replied as I put a cloth over the male pilot's forehead.

"There is something else. The girl. The elders say that she seems to have had severe injuries at one point, but they have been fully healed by something or someone."

"By WHAT?" Max asked.

"They don't know."

"Max, is something bothering you that much?" Rhea asked.

"It's just that this robot suddenly shows up 10 years ago and it's been sitting here ever since then with these two in cryostasis and nobody ever knew that they were out here. It just makes me wonder… what else is there that we don't know about?" Max said as I cautiously opened the female pilot's eye to see if she was conscious yet. She had sharp, cyan eyes with rings around the pupils. The eyes did look a bit enticing, but it also didn't seem normal. But as I was examining her eye, it suddenly twitched to life and looked directly at me before it turned bright red. Before I could say anything, the female pilot lunged to life and pinned me against the wall, screaming violently and alerting everybody of her sudden awakening. Her horns had grown a little bit longer and she now had fangs. I immediately created a blunt mace to try and get her off, but Max grabbed one of her hands with his grappling hook.

"Trust me, you don't want to do that!" he said, trying to talk some sense into her. But the male pilot came in from behind, his eyes glowing a bright blue, and wrapped his arms around Max's neck, making him drop his shotgun. Max, of course, just simply elbowed him in the face and threw him off. I created a stun blaster and shot the female away, but, being a non-lethal blaster, it didn't faze her even a bit and she lunged at me again at full force. I accidently panicked and created a blade and her screaming suddenly stopped. I opened my eyes and saw that she had just stopped sort of getting punctured and was now in some sort of trance due to one of the elders using her magic on her. The female pilot's eyes returned to their normal cyan color and she fell to the ground, panting. Max was wrestling with the male pilot until the Ravager Queen grabbed him with her tentacles and the same elder used her magic on him, which calmed him down as well. The Queen then set him on the ground and he slowly got back onto his knees. The female slowly rubbed her head until her eyes fell on the male.

"Darling?" she said. The male pilot turned to face the female, making her smile and immediately run over to him and hug him.

"Zero Two? What… how are…?" he stuttered.

"It's OK! I'm here now!"

"I-I know that, but… how?"

"That doesn't matter! We're together again! And we're alive! Are you not happy?"

"Of course I am! I just… don't understand!" the male pilot replied. But the female just simply hugged him tighter. But after a while, the male pilot looked around the room at everyone in confusion. After she broke off of the hug, so did the female pilot. And it didn't help that everyone was staring back at them.

"What is this?" the male pilot asked. Nobody answered. But the Queen suddenly moved her tentacles out of the way of the gap we came in, revealing that the storm had died down.

"The storm has passed," she said to me and Max. But the pilots went stiff at that statement.

"What storm?!" the male pilot asked. Before anyone could answer him, both he and the female pilot immediately ran out the gap and onto the desert plains. As soon as they both walked out there, the female pilot began to cry a bit and she fell to her knees. Both me and Nikki walked out to see what they were upset about.

"What… what happened?" the male pilot said. He briefly turned back to face the robot and he too fell to his knees after he saw it. The female pilot put her arms on his shoulder as she continued to cry, causing him to rest his head on hers.

"Darling… what happened? How long were we gone?" she said, the tears running down her face.

"I don't know. I just… don't know," the male pilot said. The two of them just sat there in silence before the male pilot looked back at Max.

"You," he said before he started walking over to him.

"Whoa, buddy, calm down! Let's not do anything…" Max started to say. But the male pilot just grabbed him by the armor's collar instead of attacking.

"What year is it?" he asked.

"What?"

"WHAT YEAR IS IT?! What happened to Earth?!"

"This isn't-" I started to say.

"Where are the plants? The sun is gone! How long were we gone for?!" the female pilot said.

"Look, you were stuck in cryostasis for ten years. We just found you and…" Max tried to explain.

"TEN YEARS?! That can't be! We destroyed VIRM! We won the war! Why does Earth look like a wasteland?!" the male pilot said.

"This isn't Earth! This is Zandor, a planet thousands of light years away from Earth," Rhea said, walking up to us.

"Wha- How did we end up here?!"

"We don't know any more than you do, OK? You need to calm down!" Max said.

"Not until you answer my question! What year is it?!" the male pilot insisted.

"It's March 10th! 2020!" I finally said, trying to get him to calm down. But my answer just shocked him and he crumpled to his knees while still holding onto Max's collar.

"2020…" he said quietly as the three of us looked on.

Max's perspective

Both of the pilots sat against the wall of the robot in complete shock as Nikki and I talked matters over.

"So what was that all about?" Nikki asked me.

"I don't know. And I'm not sure we WILL be able to understand based on what just went down," I replied. I looked back to the pilots who were being offered some water from an elder.

"Maybe we could just start from the beginning? Get to know them better?"

"Hm, that could be a start. Let's try that," I replied. We walked back over to the two pilots as the female had just finished drinking.

"Mmmm, that water tasted so cool and refreshing!" the female pilot said, laying back.

"Soooooo, are you guys doing a bit better?" Nikki asked cautiously.

"A bit. I mean, it's all so confusing, but I am glad that this isn't Earth."

"Still, how did we end up on this planet? And in the past, too…" the male pilot said.

"OK, let's just focus on one thing at a time. Let's start with your names," I said.

"I'm Hiro. And this is Zero Two," the male pilot said, pointing to the female, who gave a small wave.

"Uh, does she have an ACTUAL name?" Nikki asked.

"That is my actual name," Zero Two said, smiling. Both me and Nikki gave her a look like she was crazy.

"OK then. Anyway, my name is Max and this is Nikki. So, you guys are the pilots of this robot?" I asked.

"It's called a FRANXX. And those who can pilot are called Parasites," Hiro said. Nikki and I gave him another confused look.

"Darling, I think we're confusing them," Zero Two said. Hiro just held his head in frustration and stood up.

"I… need to get some air," he said.

"You just need to be calm," I said, grabbing his shoulder.

"Look, I can't be calm, OK?! I don't understand what's going on and I'm not getting any answers! I just… need a minute, OK?!" Hiro yelled before he exited the robot. Zero Two just sat in silence as she looked around the place.

"So, does this, robot, Jaeger, FRANXX, or whatever have a name?" Nikki asked.

"It's called the Strelizia," Zero Two replied, looking up at the ceiling.

"That's a beautiful name."

"It is."

"Look, we sent out a beacon to our friends several hours ago. We'd happy to help you out," I said. Zero Two just gave me a slight smile. Suddenly, Paki, the little Zandorian girl, came over to us and approached Zero Two, holding out a small loaf of bread to her. Zero Two smiled and took the loaf from her, a tear coming to her eye.

"Thank you," she said, tearfully. Paki simply just put her hand on Zero Two's head and started to pet her, as if she was trying to calm her down. Nikki then sat down beside her and gave her a hug, which made her smile. I headed outside to see Hiro, who was just staring out into the distance, deep in thought. I went over and stood beside him, looking out over the horizon with him.

"It's all just… too much," he finally said.

"I know," I replied.

"I just don't understand how we got here in the first place."

"There's no obligation for the universe to make sense to us," I said. Hiro just looked at me funny.

"Who says that?" he asked.

"I don't know. I'm just trying to make conversation to try and ease the mood. I just… thought it would help," I said, starting to walk away.

"Hey, what is that?" Hiro suddenly said. I turned back to him and looked out to where exactly he was looking. Out in the distance was a large dust cloud which was gradually getting larger and larger. My eyes suddenly got wide when I figured out what it was.

"Get inside. NOW!" I yelled, running back towards the Strelizia.

"Why? What is it? Hiro asked, running back with me.

"Nikki! Rhea!" I yelled as the two of us scrambled back in.

"What's wrong?" Rhea asked.

"Taarkin's soldiers! They've found us!"

"What?!" Nikki asked.

"How many?" the Ravager Queen asked.

"About 4 or 5 speeders and a lot of heavy firepower. We need to go now!" I said.

"No. We must stand and fight. The only way to stop the threat of this plague is to fight back!" the Queen replied, slithering out of the Strelizia's head to face the soldiers head on.

"Wait, hold up! You can't face all of those guys by yourself! You'll die!" Nikki protested, following her outside along with Rhea. As I was about to head out, I looked back at the Zandorians and Hiro and Zero Two.

"Stay here," I said as I headed out. The four of us looked out at the army of soldiers racing towards us, their weapons hot and ready.

"I don't think we're ready for this," Nikki said. The speeders stopped just a couple hundred feet away and some of the soldiers hopped down from them, pointing their weapons at us.

"Rhea, give us some cover. This is gonna get ugly," I said as my helmet reformed around my head. Rhea held out her staff and a large cyclone of sand formed in front of us, blocking perception of the enemy. Some of them immediately ran straight toward us, firing at us. The Queen used her tentacles to block some of the shots and I fired my grappling hook at one of the soldiers, reeling him in and killing him with my arm blade. Nikki started returning fire with her own blasters, hitting several of the soldiers with deadly accuracy. One of the speeders then fired straight at me and the sheer blast knocked me back into the metal face of the Strelizia. Two of the soldiers ran past the sand wall and headed straight toward the Zandorians, but I was able to kill one with a blast from my shotgun and grab the other and decapitate him with my arm blade. After I had wiped the blood off of my visor, I ran back toward the rest of the soldiers and began taking them out, one by one. But as I continued to fight, something heavy hit me from behind and knocked me to the ground. I looked back and saw another soldier standing behind me, except he had much thicker armor and was holding some kind of hammer embedded with spikes. The soldier swung at me again, but I was able to dodge out of the way and fire my shotgun at him. The shot didn't even leave a mark on his armor and he just simply swung and hit me again, knocking me back to the ground. I barely had time to recover before the soldier brought the hammer down on me again, though I did have time to grab it before it pummeled me again. But as I was struggling to keep the hammer from coming down, a small cannon came up out of the soldier's shoulder and it pointed itself directly at my head. As it was about to fire, a plasma bolt suddenly came out of nowhere and pierced through the soldier's head, killing him instantly. I got back up and turned around to see Zero Two holding a plasma rifle from one of the fallen soldiers and was wildly shooting soldiers left and right while yelling like a maniac. One of the speeders aimed its cannon at Zero Two and fired a rocket which sped toward her at full speed, but I managed to grab it before it hit her and threw it back at the speeder, causing it to explode.

"You need to get back to cover, now!" I said.

"I can help!" Zero Two insisted.

"I know you can, but it's not safe for you out here. Now go!" I said as another rocket flew past us. The Ravager Queen grabbed it and threw it back at the speeder while Nikki shot it in midair, which made that speeder explode as well. But the soldiers continued to relentlessly fire on us,

nearly overwhelming us to the point of death. I shielded Zero Two from the plasma bolts, but my suit began to start taking heavy damage from the bolts that did land on me until a hail of large blasts rained down from the sky, destroying two more of the speeders and killing any soldiers. As the dust cleared, a familiar voice came up over my comms.

"Maxwell Smith, did you miss us?" it said. I looked up and saw the Centurion flying overhead, firing on the remaining soldiers who immediately turned their attention to the ship.

"Celeste!" Nikki said, cheering.

"Friends of yours?" Zero Two asked. I just nodded and ran toward the final speeder, firing my shotgun. Amki, Eva, and Odango teleported down from the Centurion and began fighting the soldiers alongside me and Nikki as we made our way over to the remaining soldiers. Standing in the middle of the speeder was a soldier who had black armor with gold highlights holding what looked like a spear. Nikki and I took shelter behind one of the destroyed speeders and fired at the remaining speeder from behind our cover. Eva took up position from the left and used her concussive blasts on the ground to create shockwaves which launched some of the soldiers into the air, which Amki hit with her flail. The main soldier aimed his spear at the two of them and fired a beam of light at the two and scattered them. I took advantage of the distraction and grappled onto the soldier, punching him in the face and grabbing his spear. After I wrenched it free of his grip, I snapped the spear in two and stabbed him with one of the pieces, causing him to fall onto the floor and cough. As he struggled to get back up, I forcibly took off his visor to reveal the green skinned alien underneath the mask. Nikki appeared from behind and pointed her blaster at him as I held him up by his throat.

"You think taking innocent lives isn't gonna go unnoticed?" I asked as I continued to tighten my grip on his neck.

"I… did this… for our honorable General… Taarkin," the soldier replied, coughing. I angrily threw him back onto the floor of the speeder, making him cough up blood.

"There is nothing honorable about this! These people did nothing to you and you're just slaughtering them!" Nikki said.

"You tell General Taarkin that his days of tyranny are over!" I said.

"He… sends… his regards," the soldier said, wheezing before he removed the chestplate, revealing some kind of device with a rapidly blinking light. My eyes got wide as soon as I realized just what it was.

"GET BACK!" I yelled at Nikki. But by the time I jumped toward her, the device exploded, disintegrating the soldier, destroying the speeder, and launching me and Nikki a few miles away from it with parts flying. When I hit the ground, everything went fuzzy and I felt dazed and confused. Through the moments that I blinked, I saw a small transport ship fly down and land just a few feet away from me. The bay door opened and more of Taarkin's soldiers poured out, a few crowding around Nikki before they picked her up and took off the device that held her armor. I stumbled back to my feet and launched my grappling hook at them, but I caught the guy holding Nikki's armor device instead. When I reeled him in close enough and sliced him in half with my arm blade, I picked up the armor disc and slowly limped after the other soldiers, stumbling over some of the debris littering the place. I fired more shots from my shotgun, but it was no use. By the time I had regained my senses and began running at full speed, the transport was already in the air and had jumped straight to lightspeed. I crumpled to my knees, my shotgun clattering to the ground and the tears rolling down my face as I looked up at the sky and let out an agonizing scream which was carried by the desert's winds.

To Be Continued…