the guardian
Saide turned over in the hammock, and tried to get back to sleep. But did he want to get back to sleep? He might have another dream, another recall of the gunblades slashing at the house, and the soldiers marching in and grabbing his sister and his mother, but leaving him behind. Why? Why did they leave him behind? He had to return there at some point, maybe, to Winhill. To the broken skeletons of the windows and structures of the houses. The ones that had been torn apart by the Centra Ruby Calvalry.
But no one went there anymore.
He turned over and went to his desk, switched on the infoTech, and while it was loading up lit a tobacco cigarette. He took a deep drag on it, before tapping in his ID into the InfoTech. As the usual Global Interface screen opened up, saying he had 6 new messages, and listing more headlines about the Centra restoration, the Galbadian workforce and such. Exhale; smoke billowing out into his cabin. He tapped a button, entering his AirGalactica IDCode, then his ship, and then found out he was somewhere over Mahid Desert Town. It still surprised him, remembering he was up in the sky, rather than still down in Dollet, with Lila.
He closed down the infoTech and sat back in his hammock, looking out the porthole.
Night times in the desert were curious. Unless there was a sandstorm it was like on huge beach with the lights out. Which he supposed is what it was. His cigarette was nearly eaten up, so he took a final drag and stubbed it out on the ashtray by his bed.
He didn't know what to do. It would soon be dawn, and then the rest of the crew would be up, and about, charging off to Deling City for another heist. So it looked like he was to stay awake. He looked out of the porthole. The wind was picking up. He hoped there wasn't another sandstorm.
And then he felt it.
Felt the air pick up around the ship and hurtle it forwards. He ran out the room, banged on the rest of the crews door – Regge, Sergeant, Calad – and steered the ship up further into the air. Maybe he could get above it?
Sergeant ran forward, still in his nightclothes. "Now what the hell's goin' on here?" He shouted, though a weak fear hid behind his sterness.
"The ship, it's trapped in another sandstorm. I... I'm tryin' to take us out of the way, then we can make an emergency landing, if we aim for the sea."
"The sea!? The sea's geezards away, fool!"
Just then the ships windshield smashed open, sand billowing in. Saide screamed for the crew to cover their eyes (for Regge and Calad were now awake). The machinery of the computer set alight, the raw heat of the sand melting the plastic frame of the control desk, and the main engine.
"Shit, man," shouted Calad, above the noise of the storm, "the engine's gonna blow!"
"Can't we crash land in the oasis at Mahim?" Regge said, hope physically draining from his body.
"Nope, we're moving a thousands time fast now, and the sandstorm is moving with us." Said Sergeant.
Suddenly there was a loud roar and the sand suddenly stopped, froze and turned to ice. "...the hell's happening?" whispered Saide, shocked by the sudden silence.
"Somethings coming..." said Regge, looking at the radar.
"Mother of Adel, man, we've gotta do something!"
Saide could see a huge blue mass of ice moving towards them in the distance. "Grab your weapons, now!"
Saide grabbed his sword, Regge his gun, Sergeant his hammer, and Calad backed away behind the defense system screen, preparing a ship attack.
The blue ice entered the ship and smashed, the icicles vanishing. In its place was a beautiful woman, her skin blue and her eyes a dark navy.
Calad glanced up from his screen, "it's... it's a guardian force?"
"No shit man, but this seems like more of an enemy..."
The ethereal being stepped forward, and began to flicker, like a bad reception on a VisionSet.
Saide ran forward, summoning fire powers from the bottom of heart. His sword flicking red and he stabbed the sword blade deep inside her, Shiva.
She swung back, her webbed icey hand darting forward, but before she had time to cast some spell on Saide the whole crew were upon her, slicing, shooting, whacking and burning. Shiva collapsed on the floor, gasping at freezing air that had collected around her. Her neck began to crack and she let out a piercing, broken scream and then the world went BLUE.
somewhere new
For awhile, he was so cold his veins were rigid with blood, and his skin was a frozen, snowy colour. And his eyes... his vision was blurred, and all he could see was whitey-yellow, until a figure stepped towards him, and sliced a cold blade of ice deep into his heart. A voice whispered: "a broken hero suffered same".
Saide awoke, trying to remember his dream. But it was no use it was forgotten. All he could recollect was a cruel, empty feeling of numbed trauma. Like an anarchist on armadodo weed. But yes, he was alive. But where was he? Shouldn't he be dead? He couldn't remember anything... where was Regge? Sergeant? Calad? They'd been on the airship, he'd checked the location on the infoTech...then he'd...what had he done? He'd gone back to sleep right? And woken up here?
But where was here?