Gundam Apocalypse
by Maria Rocket
***
Author's Notes: Another sign of the coming end, I completed another chapter of this baby! Wah, this was my first GW fic, I'm too sentimental to just abandon it, y'know! A big thank you to everyone who poked and prodded at me about this. Everytime I got a comment about it, I would remember I had to get going on continuing this. I'm still a little unhappy with some of the previous chapters, and I still intend to overhaul a few things. But since it probably wouldn't impact the story in any major way, and I take 'til forever, I figured I'd just continue on in the meantime. Anyhoooo... the evil GW NextGen fic is back! Flee for your lives!!!!
***
Chapter Seven
***
"I don't want to sit around in here!" Solo complained loudly.
"Well, you're going to." Heero strapped a weapon across his astrosuit. Quatre and three of the Preventer officers they'd brought along did the same. "This isn't like the space station. The ship reported a signal being broadcast from here that's interfering with its sensors. And there's another signal being sent from this area towards Earth. Whoever's sending those signals is probably still here."
"Or whatever," Solo muttered. "Me an' Zara know more about what's going on than you do! You need us!"
"Solo." Quatre cut in before Heero could reply. "Whatever's out there, we'll deal with it. You and Zara need to stay with Officer Rand and protect Aleta." He glanced over at the girl sitting near the back of the shuttle. Her worried blue eyes were hiding behind long purple hair. "Please?"
"Mmph... Fine. But if you guys can't make it out of there, we're all pretty much screwed anyway, aren't we?" Solo stalked back to his seat. He dropped back into it, slouching down with a scowl.
"Thank you," Quatre smiled, fastening his helmet with a hiss of pressurizing air. He turned to join the officers in the airlock, pausing only briefly as he walked down the aisle to give Zara's shoulder a reassuring squeeze with a gloved hand. The girl had her green eyes cast towards the floor, only glancing up curiously once the blonde man had passed by.
Heero watched Solo for a moment before turning towards Officer Rand. "With any luck, we may return in an hour." He spoke quietly. "But if the situation gets out of hand, just take the shuttle and get them back to the ship, understand?"
"Yes, sir."
***
Beyond the small spaceport, the dark and weathered terraformation base towered on the horizon. It was enormous, sprawling along the rust-red dust and rocks of the Martian landscape. It was the heart of a new world, but there was no spark of life to be seen within it. A red sandstorm still raged about it, but Heero could see the damage done to the complex. Like the space station, it looked as though it had been ripped into.
The wind fighting against them as they reached the shadow of the complex howled like lost souls in anguish. Quatre shuddered at the sound. It increased in volume when Heero cracked open the sand-encrusted doors. The metal squealed as Heero pushed it aside, revealing a long dark hallway.
"Great, no lights." One of the officers moaned.
Quatre searched the ceiling in tight-lipped irritation, then pulled open a velcro pocket on the leg his astrosuit with a crackle barely heard over the wind. He withdrew a narrow flashlight and clicked it on, illuminating a portion of the hallway. Around him, the others did the same, and the darkness came alive with moving beams of light.
As they moved through the station, Quatre felt as he had up on the space station. Except a thousand times worse. It wasn't as cold, but the darkness seemed alive, ready to swallow them whole. Quatre imagined he heard growls and wails coming from something terrible lurking in the shadows, though his logical mind knew it was only the sound of weary metal and machinery, and the wind beating down outside. Still, knowing these things didn't make him feel any better. Something was very wrong.
"Where is everybody?"
Heero's voice startled the others badly. Quatre's nerves were so on edge, he had to restrain himself from snapping back at Heero. Then he realized what Heero had said, and blinked. The feeling of wrongness...
"That's right..." Quatre looked from Heero towards the others, then back around the wherehouse-like area they were currently in. "We should have seen sign of someone by now. Even at the station there were..."
Heero nodded. "I don't like this."
"What's there been to like since this started?" One of the officers turned his flashlight towards a door leading to another room. "God, I feel like I'm in one of those movies where the monster waits until you're right on top of it before it kills you."
"You might be closer to the truth than you know," Heero answered dryly.
Very disturbed, all the officers looked back at Heero, who was then too busy noticing that Quatre was wandering off. Opening the illuminated door, Quatre pushed it open and went inside.
There was more dust in that room than any of the others they'd been in. Quatre climbed over fallen computers and mangled metal structures. Looking at the walls, he suspected the room had once been much smaller. Something had expanded the area by ripping out a few walls. Moving towards one of the walls still standing, Quatre ran his fingertips along a crusty control panel, leaving a clean streak behind. The monitors above the panel had been burned and destroyed. Quatre paused, looking from the monitors towards the dark abyss of destruction behind him. Was this where Trowa had been standing?
Trying to shut away the terrible images, Quatre turned his eyes towards the floor. He could hear Heero and the others making their way inside. The sounds of life in that place were unnatural. It was a tomb, and Quatre felt the terrible coldness of it seep through him. Something inhuman was coming for him, he just knew it. How long would it be until he was dead too?
He swallowed hard. Like all the others...
A tiny movement down on the floor caught his eye. Quatre blinked out of the daze he'd been in, and he started breathing again. A brief terror went through him. Those cold feelings he'd been having were coming from someone hiding beneath the control panel.
His heart racing, Quatre fell to his knees. He could see a form huddled in the darkness, their breath visible in a fine mist. His flashlight revealed a shivering shock of copper-brown hair. It was Trowa, lying limp against one knee. The flashlight clattered to the floor as Quatre lunged forward, ripping his own helmet off and throwing it so that it skid across the room.
"Trowa! Trowa!" He gathered Trowa into his arms, choking his name into his hair. His breath was shallow against Quatre's neck, but he was still alive. Quatre rubbed his knuckles against Trowa's back, desperately trying to warm the cold body. "Trowa, please wake up..."
The room lit up as Heero and the others hurried inside at Quatre's shouts. Heero was at their side in an instant. "Is he alive?"
As if in response, Trowa moaned, leaning into Quatre. His hand reached up and weakly latched onto the front of Quatre's astrosuit. "Quatre... Heero...?" His voice was raw. Slowly he lifted his head and dark green eyes squinted up at them. "You're here..."
"Yes, we're here," Quatre smiled, relief flooding through him.
"Trowa, what happened?" Heero knelt beside them.
Closing his eyes again in pain, Trowa licked his dry lips. "Red mobile suits... I don't know how many. They..." He paused, gathering his strength. Quatre gently stroked his hair, encouraging him to continue. "They came from behind the mountains. We didn't see them until they were right on top of us."
"Falkner's Scorpios," Heero growled.
"What happened to all the people here?" Quatre asked quietly.
"I don't know... Some of them were burnt to ash during the attack. The coils killed on contact." Trowa winced as he shifted, trying to sit up by himself. "When they burned through here, I was trying to warn the space station of the attack, but I was knocked down. My leg was broken, and I must have passed out..."
Heero looked towards the ground. He was kneeling in a fine black powder. The same powder that had been present throughout the building. He grimaced.
"The space station," Trowa opened his eyes, glazed with pain. "Is it...?"
Quatre nodded silently, his eyes filled with sorrow. "It's been destroyed. We were only able to save Aleta."
Trowa closed his eyes again. "It's a miracle she was spared."
"She's not the only miracle," Quatre's eyes shimmered and his voice trembled. "Thank Allah you survived. I was so afraid..." He hid his face against Trowa's temple, crushing a fierce kiss to the cold skin.
***
"I'm ready to die, how about you?"
Glancing up at the seemingly bored sounding voice, Zara saw Solo leaning over the back of his seat with his arms folded, looking down at her. He was trying to play it cool, but she could see the quiet fear in his blue eyes. She shook her head without a thought. So much had happened so quickly that she wasn't sure what she was feeling. Her soul was numb.
"I guess it has to do with that guy... Quatre Winner, right?" Solo was almost just talking to himself. "I finally remembered why your name was so familiar. Quatre was gundam pilot 04."
Zara met Solo's gaze with surprise. "He was a gundam pilot?"
"That's what I said," Solo muttered. "I read about all the pilots years ago when I was trying to learn about my father. Quatre piloted the Sandrock gundam, and now he's one of the most powerful men anywhere."
"The Winner Corporation..." Zara's eyes widened. A picture of her place in Falkner's plans was beginning to form in her mind. And she didn't like it.
"Yeah..." Solo's shoulders hunched slightly as he leaned in. "I think Falkner was going to knock off Quatre and take over his little empire."
"Who are you guys?"
At the sound of the soft voice, Zara and Solo turned to find a pair of big blue eyes staring at them from across the aisle. Absorbed in their own concerns, they had almost forgotten about the lavender-haired girl that had recently joined them. Aleta looked from Zara to Solo.
"I'm Zara," was finally offered when Solo remained silent. "This is Solo."
"Oh. My name is Aleta." She looked as though she might burst into tears.
"Umm, don't cry," Zara turned around in her seat. "I'm sure everything's going to alright."
"My Mom's dead. Everything isn't alright." Aleta hunched herself over. "Everyone else can pretend things are okay, but I'm not stupid."
"That's right." Solo almost smiled. "No use trying to delude yourself, that'll only make it worse in the end. We're all screwed, and all we can do is get used to living with it. Or die, it doesn't really matter."
"I'm not ready to die."
Aleta looked back up at Zara's statement. "I guess... I guess you're right, Solo. But I don't want to die yet either. I want to see my father again."
Before Solo could say anything, Zara whipped around to face him, her eyes burning. Back on the Peacemillion, they had overheard Heero and Quatre discussing Milliardo's condition, and it hadn't sounded good. Since then, they'd come to their own conclusions. Zara didn't have to say a word. Those shining, anguished eyes held the threat of certain pain if Solo said anything more. With a disapproving groan, he fell back into his seat.
"What is it?" Aleta frowned.
Quickly composing herself, Zara turned back around to smile gently at her. "Nothing. It's just that, for someone who knows what it's like to lose their mother, Solo can be really insensitive."
"Really?" Aleta's eyes went round, and looked towards Solo, who was sulking down in his seat. He refused to turn around anymore. Then her blue eyes flickered up towards Zara suspiciously. "But at least he's honest."
Back in his seat, Solo opened his eyes, a little surprised.
"There's something wrong with my father isn't there? Is that what you didn't want him to tell me?" Her words were tinged with a bitter despair. "Is my father dead too? Well?"
"No." Zara felt sick.
"But there's something wrong with him?" She looked anxiously from Zara to the back of Solo's seat. "One of you tell me!"
"Just tell her," Solo growled.
"It isn't right for her to hear it from me!" Zara snapped angrily back at Solo. The nausea she was feeling was making her irritable. "Besides, we don't really know anything."
"You called him insensitive, but you're the one who's insensitive!" Aleta cried at amber haired girl. "He knows what it's like to lose his mother, he knows how important family is after something like that!" Finally, tears spilled down her cheeks. "You're so cruel...!"
Zara's jade eyes filled with sorrow. "Maybe you're right. I've never had any parents, so I can't imagine what it's like."
Very still, Aleta stared at Zara. An uncomfortable silence settled on them, and Solo squirmed back in his seat. It might have gone on for a long time, if the shuttle cockpit hadn't been suddenly flung open with a loud bang. Officer Rand came storming out, his eyes wild.
"All of you put your helmets on! We're taking off!"
"What?" Solo shot up in his seat. "Heero and the others aren't back yet!"
There was no reply as Rand had already returned to the cockpit. Around them, the shuttle hummed to life. And above that, they became aware of rising roar. Quickly, they grabbed their helmets started reattaching them.
"What is he doing?" Solo ran towards the front of the shuttle. "We can't just leave them like this!"
Jumping across the seats, Zara looked out one of the windows. Outside was a red blur thanks to the red sand that was now whipping around. Her eyes narrowed in concentration. The storm outside was getting wilder. And the sound... She knew that sound...
"That isn't the storm." Zara mumbled under her breath. "Thats..." Her eyes shot wide open as she caught a glimpse of light that flashed out on the horizon. "That's a mobile suit!"
"What?" Aleta also stood up, only to find herself being dragged off by the wrist. "Ow! What are you doing!?"
"We have to get out of here! Solo!" With Aleta, she ran for the cockpit.
Then there was a loud crack. Aleta screamed as they went flying through the air. There was a searing light as they tumbled back through the shuttle fuselage, and sparks flew all around them. There was red sand everywhere. It flew up like a fountain as they fell into the powder.
What felt like an eternity later, Zara opened her eyes, and realized that she was still alive. She felt bruised, and her helmet was mildly cracked, but otherwise she seemed to be fine. Aching, she sat up, to find herself surrounded with flying sand. She couldn't see a thing.
"Aleta!" She cried.
Somewhere to her right, there was a great blue flash as something exploded. She shielded her face. "Solo!" She scrambled to her feet, swaying indecisively. "Officer Rand! Anybody, is anybody here?"
She was repulsed at the wave of fear that overcame her. She was all alone. "Somebody answer me! Please, don't leave me out here! Solo! Quatre!"
by Maria Rocket
***
Author's Notes: Another sign of the coming end, I completed another chapter of this baby! Wah, this was my first GW fic, I'm too sentimental to just abandon it, y'know! A big thank you to everyone who poked and prodded at me about this. Everytime I got a comment about it, I would remember I had to get going on continuing this. I'm still a little unhappy with some of the previous chapters, and I still intend to overhaul a few things. But since it probably wouldn't impact the story in any major way, and I take 'til forever, I figured I'd just continue on in the meantime. Anyhoooo... the evil GW NextGen fic is back! Flee for your lives!!!!
***
Chapter Seven
***
"I don't want to sit around in here!" Solo complained loudly.
"Well, you're going to." Heero strapped a weapon across his astrosuit. Quatre and three of the Preventer officers they'd brought along did the same. "This isn't like the space station. The ship reported a signal being broadcast from here that's interfering with its sensors. And there's another signal being sent from this area towards Earth. Whoever's sending those signals is probably still here."
"Or whatever," Solo muttered. "Me an' Zara know more about what's going on than you do! You need us!"
"Solo." Quatre cut in before Heero could reply. "Whatever's out there, we'll deal with it. You and Zara need to stay with Officer Rand and protect Aleta." He glanced over at the girl sitting near the back of the shuttle. Her worried blue eyes were hiding behind long purple hair. "Please?"
"Mmph... Fine. But if you guys can't make it out of there, we're all pretty much screwed anyway, aren't we?" Solo stalked back to his seat. He dropped back into it, slouching down with a scowl.
"Thank you," Quatre smiled, fastening his helmet with a hiss of pressurizing air. He turned to join the officers in the airlock, pausing only briefly as he walked down the aisle to give Zara's shoulder a reassuring squeeze with a gloved hand. The girl had her green eyes cast towards the floor, only glancing up curiously once the blonde man had passed by.
Heero watched Solo for a moment before turning towards Officer Rand. "With any luck, we may return in an hour." He spoke quietly. "But if the situation gets out of hand, just take the shuttle and get them back to the ship, understand?"
"Yes, sir."
***
Beyond the small spaceport, the dark and weathered terraformation base towered on the horizon. It was enormous, sprawling along the rust-red dust and rocks of the Martian landscape. It was the heart of a new world, but there was no spark of life to be seen within it. A red sandstorm still raged about it, but Heero could see the damage done to the complex. Like the space station, it looked as though it had been ripped into.
The wind fighting against them as they reached the shadow of the complex howled like lost souls in anguish. Quatre shuddered at the sound. It increased in volume when Heero cracked open the sand-encrusted doors. The metal squealed as Heero pushed it aside, revealing a long dark hallway.
"Great, no lights." One of the officers moaned.
Quatre searched the ceiling in tight-lipped irritation, then pulled open a velcro pocket on the leg his astrosuit with a crackle barely heard over the wind. He withdrew a narrow flashlight and clicked it on, illuminating a portion of the hallway. Around him, the others did the same, and the darkness came alive with moving beams of light.
As they moved through the station, Quatre felt as he had up on the space station. Except a thousand times worse. It wasn't as cold, but the darkness seemed alive, ready to swallow them whole. Quatre imagined he heard growls and wails coming from something terrible lurking in the shadows, though his logical mind knew it was only the sound of weary metal and machinery, and the wind beating down outside. Still, knowing these things didn't make him feel any better. Something was very wrong.
"Where is everybody?"
Heero's voice startled the others badly. Quatre's nerves were so on edge, he had to restrain himself from snapping back at Heero. Then he realized what Heero had said, and blinked. The feeling of wrongness...
"That's right..." Quatre looked from Heero towards the others, then back around the wherehouse-like area they were currently in. "We should have seen sign of someone by now. Even at the station there were..."
Heero nodded. "I don't like this."
"What's there been to like since this started?" One of the officers turned his flashlight towards a door leading to another room. "God, I feel like I'm in one of those movies where the monster waits until you're right on top of it before it kills you."
"You might be closer to the truth than you know," Heero answered dryly.
Very disturbed, all the officers looked back at Heero, who was then too busy noticing that Quatre was wandering off. Opening the illuminated door, Quatre pushed it open and went inside.
There was more dust in that room than any of the others they'd been in. Quatre climbed over fallen computers and mangled metal structures. Looking at the walls, he suspected the room had once been much smaller. Something had expanded the area by ripping out a few walls. Moving towards one of the walls still standing, Quatre ran his fingertips along a crusty control panel, leaving a clean streak behind. The monitors above the panel had been burned and destroyed. Quatre paused, looking from the monitors towards the dark abyss of destruction behind him. Was this where Trowa had been standing?
Trying to shut away the terrible images, Quatre turned his eyes towards the floor. He could hear Heero and the others making their way inside. The sounds of life in that place were unnatural. It was a tomb, and Quatre felt the terrible coldness of it seep through him. Something inhuman was coming for him, he just knew it. How long would it be until he was dead too?
He swallowed hard. Like all the others...
A tiny movement down on the floor caught his eye. Quatre blinked out of the daze he'd been in, and he started breathing again. A brief terror went through him. Those cold feelings he'd been having were coming from someone hiding beneath the control panel.
His heart racing, Quatre fell to his knees. He could see a form huddled in the darkness, their breath visible in a fine mist. His flashlight revealed a shivering shock of copper-brown hair. It was Trowa, lying limp against one knee. The flashlight clattered to the floor as Quatre lunged forward, ripping his own helmet off and throwing it so that it skid across the room.
"Trowa! Trowa!" He gathered Trowa into his arms, choking his name into his hair. His breath was shallow against Quatre's neck, but he was still alive. Quatre rubbed his knuckles against Trowa's back, desperately trying to warm the cold body. "Trowa, please wake up..."
The room lit up as Heero and the others hurried inside at Quatre's shouts. Heero was at their side in an instant. "Is he alive?"
As if in response, Trowa moaned, leaning into Quatre. His hand reached up and weakly latched onto the front of Quatre's astrosuit. "Quatre... Heero...?" His voice was raw. Slowly he lifted his head and dark green eyes squinted up at them. "You're here..."
"Yes, we're here," Quatre smiled, relief flooding through him.
"Trowa, what happened?" Heero knelt beside them.
Closing his eyes again in pain, Trowa licked his dry lips. "Red mobile suits... I don't know how many. They..." He paused, gathering his strength. Quatre gently stroked his hair, encouraging him to continue. "They came from behind the mountains. We didn't see them until they were right on top of us."
"Falkner's Scorpios," Heero growled.
"What happened to all the people here?" Quatre asked quietly.
"I don't know... Some of them were burnt to ash during the attack. The coils killed on contact." Trowa winced as he shifted, trying to sit up by himself. "When they burned through here, I was trying to warn the space station of the attack, but I was knocked down. My leg was broken, and I must have passed out..."
Heero looked towards the ground. He was kneeling in a fine black powder. The same powder that had been present throughout the building. He grimaced.
"The space station," Trowa opened his eyes, glazed with pain. "Is it...?"
Quatre nodded silently, his eyes filled with sorrow. "It's been destroyed. We were only able to save Aleta."
Trowa closed his eyes again. "It's a miracle she was spared."
"She's not the only miracle," Quatre's eyes shimmered and his voice trembled. "Thank Allah you survived. I was so afraid..." He hid his face against Trowa's temple, crushing a fierce kiss to the cold skin.
***
"I'm ready to die, how about you?"
Glancing up at the seemingly bored sounding voice, Zara saw Solo leaning over the back of his seat with his arms folded, looking down at her. He was trying to play it cool, but she could see the quiet fear in his blue eyes. She shook her head without a thought. So much had happened so quickly that she wasn't sure what she was feeling. Her soul was numb.
"I guess it has to do with that guy... Quatre Winner, right?" Solo was almost just talking to himself. "I finally remembered why your name was so familiar. Quatre was gundam pilot 04."
Zara met Solo's gaze with surprise. "He was a gundam pilot?"
"That's what I said," Solo muttered. "I read about all the pilots years ago when I was trying to learn about my father. Quatre piloted the Sandrock gundam, and now he's one of the most powerful men anywhere."
"The Winner Corporation..." Zara's eyes widened. A picture of her place in Falkner's plans was beginning to form in her mind. And she didn't like it.
"Yeah..." Solo's shoulders hunched slightly as he leaned in. "I think Falkner was going to knock off Quatre and take over his little empire."
"Who are you guys?"
At the sound of the soft voice, Zara and Solo turned to find a pair of big blue eyes staring at them from across the aisle. Absorbed in their own concerns, they had almost forgotten about the lavender-haired girl that had recently joined them. Aleta looked from Zara to Solo.
"I'm Zara," was finally offered when Solo remained silent. "This is Solo."
"Oh. My name is Aleta." She looked as though she might burst into tears.
"Umm, don't cry," Zara turned around in her seat. "I'm sure everything's going to alright."
"My Mom's dead. Everything isn't alright." Aleta hunched herself over. "Everyone else can pretend things are okay, but I'm not stupid."
"That's right." Solo almost smiled. "No use trying to delude yourself, that'll only make it worse in the end. We're all screwed, and all we can do is get used to living with it. Or die, it doesn't really matter."
"I'm not ready to die."
Aleta looked back up at Zara's statement. "I guess... I guess you're right, Solo. But I don't want to die yet either. I want to see my father again."
Before Solo could say anything, Zara whipped around to face him, her eyes burning. Back on the Peacemillion, they had overheard Heero and Quatre discussing Milliardo's condition, and it hadn't sounded good. Since then, they'd come to their own conclusions. Zara didn't have to say a word. Those shining, anguished eyes held the threat of certain pain if Solo said anything more. With a disapproving groan, he fell back into his seat.
"What is it?" Aleta frowned.
Quickly composing herself, Zara turned back around to smile gently at her. "Nothing. It's just that, for someone who knows what it's like to lose their mother, Solo can be really insensitive."
"Really?" Aleta's eyes went round, and looked towards Solo, who was sulking down in his seat. He refused to turn around anymore. Then her blue eyes flickered up towards Zara suspiciously. "But at least he's honest."
Back in his seat, Solo opened his eyes, a little surprised.
"There's something wrong with my father isn't there? Is that what you didn't want him to tell me?" Her words were tinged with a bitter despair. "Is my father dead too? Well?"
"No." Zara felt sick.
"But there's something wrong with him?" She looked anxiously from Zara to the back of Solo's seat. "One of you tell me!"
"Just tell her," Solo growled.
"It isn't right for her to hear it from me!" Zara snapped angrily back at Solo. The nausea she was feeling was making her irritable. "Besides, we don't really know anything."
"You called him insensitive, but you're the one who's insensitive!" Aleta cried at amber haired girl. "He knows what it's like to lose his mother, he knows how important family is after something like that!" Finally, tears spilled down her cheeks. "You're so cruel...!"
Zara's jade eyes filled with sorrow. "Maybe you're right. I've never had any parents, so I can't imagine what it's like."
Very still, Aleta stared at Zara. An uncomfortable silence settled on them, and Solo squirmed back in his seat. It might have gone on for a long time, if the shuttle cockpit hadn't been suddenly flung open with a loud bang. Officer Rand came storming out, his eyes wild.
"All of you put your helmets on! We're taking off!"
"What?" Solo shot up in his seat. "Heero and the others aren't back yet!"
There was no reply as Rand had already returned to the cockpit. Around them, the shuttle hummed to life. And above that, they became aware of rising roar. Quickly, they grabbed their helmets started reattaching them.
"What is he doing?" Solo ran towards the front of the shuttle. "We can't just leave them like this!"
Jumping across the seats, Zara looked out one of the windows. Outside was a red blur thanks to the red sand that was now whipping around. Her eyes narrowed in concentration. The storm outside was getting wilder. And the sound... She knew that sound...
"That isn't the storm." Zara mumbled under her breath. "Thats..." Her eyes shot wide open as she caught a glimpse of light that flashed out on the horizon. "That's a mobile suit!"
"What?" Aleta also stood up, only to find herself being dragged off by the wrist. "Ow! What are you doing!?"
"We have to get out of here! Solo!" With Aleta, she ran for the cockpit.
Then there was a loud crack. Aleta screamed as they went flying through the air. There was a searing light as they tumbled back through the shuttle fuselage, and sparks flew all around them. There was red sand everywhere. It flew up like a fountain as they fell into the powder.
What felt like an eternity later, Zara opened her eyes, and realized that she was still alive. She felt bruised, and her helmet was mildly cracked, but otherwise she seemed to be fine. Aching, she sat up, to find herself surrounded with flying sand. She couldn't see a thing.
"Aleta!" She cried.
Somewhere to her right, there was a great blue flash as something exploded. She shielded her face. "Solo!" She scrambled to her feet, swaying indecisively. "Officer Rand! Anybody, is anybody here?"
She was repulsed at the wave of fear that overcame her. She was all alone. "Somebody answer me! Please, don't leave me out here! Solo! Quatre!"