8. Hull Breach

Hayner was sitting on his couch again. Olette would have scolded him for sitting there for so long if she hadn't been sitting right next to him. They were both fixated on the news, which was reporting the first attack on an orbital platform since the system went live four years ago. The station Marines were doing a good job of holding the attackers off, but everyone knew it was nearly impossible to exterminate a Heartless infestation once it started.

But that's not what had them worried. The talking heads were now saying that Sora and Kairi were on board as well, acting as a potent two-person strike team. Orbital Defense Command wasn't releasing any details, but supposedly they had just retaken a vital platform component.

"It's either the power core or the fire control center," Olette dictated. She was a technical specialist with the Navy. Her degree in mechanical engineering had allowed her to become a commissioned officer immediately upon enlistment. Highly-qualified technicians were few and far between. "Those are the two most vital parts of any station. If I had to guess, I'd say the power core, because it's the most isolated and the Marines would have a tough time getting there fast enough to stop it from being taken in the first place," she continued, her voice picking up a hurried, anxious tone.

Though it was barely daybreak, Hayner was listening intently. Any other morning, he would be groggy and unhappy, but today he was sharp as a razor. He had two friends on that station, and he couldn't do a thing to help them. Being an Army infantryman, he would be busy preparing to fend off ground assaults if, or more likely, when the Heartless got to the surface. He'd just have to trust the Marines, something no Army grunt did unless it was absolutely necessary.

The news continued to report on the fighting, which was unusually sparse and weak. The station's soldiers could have been wielding monkey wrenches and the result would be the same. The Heartless had put a great deal of effort into getting onto that station and were treating it like an apartment rather than a combat zone.

Eventually, the anchor began to announce bulletins to the general populace.

"And finally, all off-duty and reserve military personnel will be called up to active duty within the next seventy-two hours. You will receive individual notifications via telephone or mail."

Hayner and Olette looked at each other. There hadn't been a planet-wide mobilization of troops in the entire history of Aegis, even pre-Heartless. Something big was brewing, something much larger than an assault on a single platform. Both of them were itching to find out what.

***

The new Orbital Defense Network Command Center was radically different with the introduction of SkyEye into their targeting systems. The once-spacious room was now dark and cramped because of all the new computers and cooling equipment they required. Where people could once walk in groups more than three people wide, they now struggled to squirm past each other. Nobody wanted to wait for the permanent installation to be finished. Everyone liked the convenience provided by SkyEye, but the price was paid in maneuvering room.

That fact became painfully obvious today. While there were the normal overseers ranging from 1st Lieutenants to Colonels, the ODNCC was playing host to many people with varying numbers of stars on their collars. Navy Admirals, Air Force and Marine Generals, and intelligence service directors all wanted to be in the loop with the most recent developments. None of them seemed to have gotten the memo that the room was now absolutely packed with hot, loud server carts and cooling fans. The room had built-in revenge for the higher-ups that had disregarded them until now.

The question on everyone's irritated mind was what the Heartless were doing on the Marathon. They hadn't staged a true offensive since they had taken the power core. Now that it was safely under human control again, the black critters hadn't done anything but serve as target practice for a few Marines. And now that reinforcements had started arriving from the surface, it seemed that the assault had failed. Though the Heartless were tenacious little dirtbags, they knew when they had been beaten. The fact that they hadn't retreated yet motivated some of the most senior Marine sergeants recommend sending hunter-killer teams throughout the station to sweep it clean.

The platform commander had swiftly rejected the idea, saying it was "a poor use of resources" and assigning the newly arrived reinforcements to the already over-staffed choke points. The junior officers reluctantly followed their orders; silently cursing the commander's panicked self-preservation reaction. Even the off-station Navy Orbital Command, the parent organization of the ODN, was unhappy about the decision, but they were powerless to do anything. Nobody, not even the Parliament Chairman, could countermand an order given by a platform commander in real-time.

Sora and Kairi, however, reported directly to General Harris when on a mission for the military. While they were on an ODN platform, their mission was under the jurisdiction of the Air Force. Harris, who had heard of the commander's poor choice, immediately contacted the pair of Keybearers.

While marching victoriously back to the command center, they both heard Harris come over the radio.

"Sora, Kairi, do you copy?"

They looked at each other in confusion. Neither of them had been expecting any contact from Harris until they landed back on the surface. Kairi nodded to Sora, who activated his own microphone to respond.

"We copy, General."

"You are hereby ordered to sweep the station for Heartless until further notice. Priority is the Outer Ring hallway."

Now Sora was truly confused. Harris had said that he wouldn't be giving any orders once they were on the station.

"Uh, copy that, General. Why are you giving the orders, though?"

"The platform commander has ordered all reinforcing Marines to shore up defenses around the command center. ODN Command and the Navy aren't happy. They've sent four SEALS squads to conduct sweeps. They're inbound now, ETA two hours. Until then, you will start the search as Air Force personnel aboard the station."

"Roger, General. Starting sweep."

Sora turned off the radio and considered what the general had told him. The station commander had angered the Navy enough that they had sent four squads of SEALS aboard. The SEALS – which was an acronym for SEa-Air-Land-Space – were the most mobile troops the Navy had. They could get anywhere, anytime – and quietly. If the Navy played its cards right, the commander might not even know they were there.

Not only were they mobile and stealthy, but they were lethal when undetected. One team was more than enough to conduct a sweep. Four was absolute overkill. What was so special about this station that it merited such an overwhelming response from both the Marine Corps and the Navy?

Neither Sora nor Kairi had an answer as they began making their way to the station's outer ring. Their motions were awkward and clunky; their strides were long and sloppy. They had both grown used to weightlessness, and the newfound mass of their suits threw off their balance. Platform crews used the pun 'space-walk' to describe it.

The pair of Keyblade masters walked through a set of automatic doors and entered the Outer Ring. Unlike the stark metal corridors of the station's innards, the outer ring was designed for the leisure and comfort of the crew. Instead of milled steel floors and smooth alloy walls, the outer ring was a stone path surrounded by vegetation and large windows. Some sections were meant to be coniferous forests, others were grasslands, and some were rainforests. While the crew enjoyed escaping the metal tubes of the rest of their world, the plants served another purpose: they reprocessed some of the carbon dioxide the crew exhaled into oxygen.

Normally, each segment of the hallway was sealed off from the others to prevent the flora and necessary insects and birds from finding their way into other environments. Each area also had its own lighting levels, achieved by putting more or less shielding on the outside of the windows. Now, however, each door was open and emergency floodlights were on. Sora and Kairi now found themselves in a tropical rainforest with blazing white lights overhead. The strange amount of light in what should normally have been a dark, shadowy environment made both of them light-headed and dizzy.

As they stumbled along the path, they found themselves on a worldwide safari: one minute they were deep in the jungle, the next they were in a savannah, the next they were in a deciduous forest. Though they checked everywhere in every area, there was no sign of the Heartless. The closest thing they had to finding a Heartless was something that might have been a claw mark on a bench in the 'residential park' area.

After they passed through a swamp filled with mangroves and water lilies, they found themselves in a dense bamboo forest. Sora tried to look through the tall stalks, but he couldn't ever see more than a foot past the path. He tried to bend the plants back, but their rigid stems wouldn't bend. He became frustrated quickly.

"How are we supposed to check this place? The plants are like rock!"

Kairi, who had continued slightly farther down the path, answered for him.

"We don't need to look anymore."

Intrigued, Sora walked down the path until he stood next to Kairi. What he saw made chills run up his spine.

Through the next doorway, he could see the ravaged remains of a desert oasis. Instead of palms and desert blooms, however, there were only what looked like mangled black leaves the size of a person. The oasis had disappeared, replaced by a bulbous purple dome, pulsing and throbbing as though it were alive. Though the Heartless were nowhere to be seen, neither Sora nor Kairi had any doubt as to the creators of this monstrosity.

The pair of them walked into the desert sands, Keyblades drawn but lowered. The purple blob, if it was alive, was unaware of their presence, as it continued to pulsate as it had before. As they approached it, the size of the dome became more apparent. It was taller than both Keybearers combined and at least twice as wide as it was tall. It extended nearly all the way from the inner wall to the outer window, blocking passage through the section. The only way around it would be to access the roof catwalks.

Kairi kept her distance, hesitant to approach the dome. "What is it, Sora? Have you ever seen anything like this before?"

Sora, who had ventured closer to examine the blob, shook his head as he stared into the cloudy depths. "No. Well, not this big, at least. And not since I was fourteen. Smaller versions of this were all over Oogie Boogie before I defeated him in Halloween Town. He was drawing power from them… Maybe this is how the Heartless are still able to spawn on this station. This… power-node… thing…" He hesitantly poked the blob, sending miniature ripples through the gel. "It doesn't seem to be alive, so maybe it's just some kind of magical anchor."

He prodded the dome again, this time with more force. The ripples spread wider, causing light to bend and refract strangely, but there were no other effects. While Sora had become much more tactically intelligent over the past few years, his first instinct was still to destroy the blob without thinking of the potential consequences.

Sora drew the Keyblade back around his left side, preparing to slash the purple dome with all his strength. The pattern was burned into his memory by now: draw the blade back, twist torso for extra force. Step forward with right foot and rotate hips so that back is almost facing target. Tighten wrist and snap arm forward while twisting hips to face forward. Spin on right foot and transfer momentum to left leg by swinging it forward and absorbing shock with knee.

The Kingdom Key glinted as it whistled through the air. It met the purple substance and encountered little resistance as it quickly passed through. The dome split open, a gaping wound in its side. The cut began to issue a thin black smoke, which quickly enveloped the entire structure. Sora, startled, retreated back to Kairi. Within seconds, the dome was gone, consumed by the black smoke. The Keyblade wielders looked around, waiting for the Heartless to avenge their loss.

Nothing happened. No black forms lurked in the shadows. No claws could be heard scraping on metal. There wasn't as much as a creak in the station's superstructure. Sora shook his head in puzzlement. What was going on? Nothing was playing out as it should. Normally, the Heartless would have swarmed to reclaim their lost property, or at the very least, avenge themselves. But nothing had been 'normal' since the Heartless had gotten onto the station.

The Keyblade disappeared on Sora's command. Kairi followed suit, her flowery blade vanishing into motes of quickly fading light. They both turned to exit the Outer Ring when they heard a very familiar sound behind them: the organic, bubbly sound made by an appearing Heartless.

Both of them whipped around, weapons drawn. There, in the center of the ravaged oasis, was a single Darkball. It hovered there, shuddering and convulsing, seemingly unaware of the two incredibly powerful humans nearby. Kairi moved forward to destroy the unwelcome visitor. The spheroid Heartless didn't react to her advance. She readied her blade, technique perfect. Then the floor erupted.

Heartless began pouring out of the ground by the thousands. The entire oasis was filled with black creatures, filling the gap between the two Keybearers. Sora tried to cut through the horde, but they were too thick. Whenever he cut one down, three more took its place. It was like trying to slash through water. No matter what he did, he couldn't make any forward progress. He began to panic. They set a trap! They separated us!

He had to get to Kairi. His mind was focused on finding a way to get through to help her. Drawing the Keyblade to his side, Sora concentrated on his reserve of magical energy.

"Fire!"

Giant fireballs ignited in midair, clearing the area around him long enough for him to jump over the horde and get closer to Kairi, who was struggling to hold her own. She was a capable warrior, but not invincible. Even with her advanced armor, she'd eventually fail if Sora couldn't get there.

As Sora landed, he had a flash of déjà vu. This scene was familiar, he had been here before. Where? He racked his mind as best he could while blocking the attacks of a swarm of Shadows. He had a flash of memory: Heartless in a ring of fire. Riku was surrounded. Sora tried to force his way through the attacking mob, but to no avail. Riku was tiring. The Heartless were attacking him wherever his back was turned, like a pack of wolves surrounding a trapped deer. He was falling.

No. I can't lose Kairi the way I lost Riku. No!

Summoning up his deepest reserves of energy, Sora changed his grip on the Keyblade. He drew it back, much farther back than any slash required. Lunging forward, he put every ounce of his strength into one colossal motion and hurled the Keyblade forward. It spun end over end, devouring the Heartless in its path. It flew straight and true, through dozens of Heartless, all the way to the bay window next to Kairi. Sora's aim was perfect; it missed her by a fraction of an inch, sticking into the glass.

Sora lunged forward, hoping to reach Kairi before the gap he had created closed. It never did. Instead, every being in the room, human or not, was staring at the enormous window that the Kingdom Key was stuck in. The glass cracked slightly, sending a minute spiderweb pattern through a small area of glass. The full implications of it took an extra second for Sora to process.

It cracked the glass? But… that's the only thing between us and space. And it's cracked. Our only barrier. Cracked.

Sora swore under his breath.

The pressure in the room continued to push on the window, taking advantage of this new weak point. Cracks began to reach all the way to the edge of the panel and to the overhead support beams. Very soon, it would fail. Sora keyed his radio and quickly stated "Kairi, I hope your suit is sealed."

The glass creaked under the stress one last time before shattering out into the vacuum beyond. With nothing to hold on to, every being in the room was swept away by the departing atmosphere into the blackness of space. The sand was lifted away as well, creating a blinding cloud as it rushed out of the station. Sora and Kairi felt themselves tumbling sickeningly through the void, colliding with Heartless and sharp pieces of glass. Both of them had lost their grip on the Keyblade, and neither was thinking clearly enough to summon it again. They couldn't reorient themselves to anything. All they could do was tumble through the blackness.

Warnings blared in Kairi's helmet. She could hardly concentrate on anything, and the shrill tones only exacerbated the situation. Quickly, she tried to remember how to shut off the alarms. Concentrating with all her mental ability, she slowly shut down every warning: External Pressure Loss, Visual Targeting Overload, Gyroscopic Instability, Loss of Local Communications… the list went on and on.

Once the alarms were silenced, she was able to activate the suit's limited zero-G maneuvering suite. It was an emergency system designed for recovering from a sudden spin-out precisely like the one Kairi was in now. Small chemical thrusters stopped the gyrations and held the suit in a stable position until it could be recovered. It was for emergencies only, however, so wearers couldn't use it to navigate zero-gravity hallways on space stations.

Stable again, she looked around for her husband, whom she couldn't see. Though she was slightly worried about that, she hadn't truly expected to see him. More likely than not he had been blasted on an entirely different vector and was now out of sight. She tried a general radio broadcast. Nothing. Now she was panicking. The range on the suit was more than enough to reach him, wherever he was. Was he alive? Was his suit sealed, or did the decompression kill him? Could the Heartless have gotten a lucky strike in the chaos of the moment? Thoughts raced through her head.

Her helmet speakers crackled, and she heard General Harris's voice come over the radio.

"…for you now. Hold your position unless absolutely necessary. Activate your emergency recovery system and wait for their arrival. This message will repeat until further notice. General Harris broadcasting to Sora and Kairi. If you can hear this, there is an Air Force Search and Rescue team looking for you now…"

So there was a team looking for her and Sora. Maybe they had already found Sora? Was he out of his suit? No, the team would have caught the transmission and told her they hadn't found him yet. Was Sora lost in space? Kairi tried the radio one last time.

"Sora, where are you?"

A/N: Wow, super-long update time for an average-sized update. But it was pretty essential to the plot, as the next chapter will make evident. Where is Sora? Is he dead or worse? Only time will tell…

I deleted Into the Dust because of a surprise job offer that is sucking up time along with school. I can only work on two at a time now, and updates will probably be less frequent. However, I may repost it at a later date. Who knows?

Please review, even if it's just "Like it/H8 IT!!1!1!!1".