His head felt light as a feather as he wrestled with the mech's emergency hatch release. He could feel his strength evaporating into the air as the cold began to chill his bones. The hardsuit had been leaking the heat exchange medium, a dark brown liquid that carried heat over his quickly cooling body. The heads up display in his helmet was flickering on and off ; it seemed the electronuclear battery had been damaged in the drop as well. All the while he continued to hear his team coughing and wheezing as they attempted to regain some semblance of control.

One last pull on the hatch release lever sapped most of the remaining stamina he had. The door popped open enough for him to push the heavy frame out. Outside he could see the remnants of the armory as flaming wreckage piled high. The crab-like cybernetic creatures were nowhere to be seen and more worrisome was the lack of presence of the strider mech that caused the mayhem.

He coughed as he tried to breath in deeply. A sign of fluid buildup in his lungs. Plugging his ears allowed him to hear the bubbling fluid with every breath he took. Breathing to become more difficult. Pneumonia. Of all the things to come down with, pneumonia was the worst. All the fighting and hunger had left his body too weak to fend off sickness. He imagined the others had caught the same infection and were suffering as he was.

He closed the hatch, seeing as there was little he could do outside. With his body rapidly cooling, staying inside the armored hull of the mech was the smartest thing today. He depressed the broadcast button on his comm panel , making sure to select the widest range of frequencies possible to make sure everyone could hear him.

"Here's the plan. We are running short on time. We're all getting too tired to fight anymore. The ship's reactors are still online and the quakes we are feeling are most likely being caused by the engine exhaust melting through the ice. We find a way to the bridge and pilot this infested ship off this planet" , he said while holding back his cough.

"Anyone see a landmark we can use to orient ourselves? Anything unique? My inertial guidance system is completely ruined" Ryuki radioed. He had scanned the area and saw only a few points of interest that could be used as guide posts. The one thing that caught his eye was a spire like object jutting out over the wreckage that had impaled a support beam , turning into a looming T.

"Can anyone see something that looks like a T" he radioed again. His radio clicked with a response from Ross. "Yeah, I see it. Looks like a beam got pierced through by this tall, skinny spike. Is that what you're seeing?" he replied.

"I see it too" replied Barry. Dizzy replied she had seen the same landmark. "Alright, who can get there?" he asked as he waited for the automated diagnostics to show him what was beyond repair.

"Im in a thinktank right now with Wasp" Dizzy radioed. "It still works, surprisingly. Banged up a bit but I think we can get to that T" she said. "Im in a mech along with Reaper. Dear god, this man is insane" Barry radioed in. "I can move too but it looks like I lost my shoulder mounted weapons".

Karin was the last to check in. "Our mech seems to be holding up fine. We're both doing ok considering what's happened. Sir, I suggest we get to our rations once we meet up. We might as well finish it off before we head to the bridge" she radioed.

The climb over the field of metal carcasses was long and precarious. Footing was temporary and nothing seemed to hold under the weight of the mechs. Shifting piles of wreckage slipped under their metal feet , keeping everyone intensely aware of the unstable ground beneath them. What would have been a thirty minute ascent took nearly two hours to complete. And above them, the gaping hole that the spider-tank had left still burned hot from its plasma beam. Globs of molten steel plopped down from the wound and with each drop came bursts of flame as fuel and munitions ignited from the intense heat.

Ryuki's mech had a claw-hook that was still operational, giving him a bit more support as he ascended. While his mech rested on its knees, its head looking straight down due to damage to the neck actuators, he lifted the claw up and used auxiliary sensors to aim it for the top of the heap. The forearm panels opened up to reveal four thrusters, one on each side of the rectangular arm. Another panel opened up at the elbow revealing the booster mounted at the joint. The clenched claw opened up its four claws once the boosters primed. He fired off the tethered arm to fifty meters above him. Plumes of white smoke and yellow flames pumped out from the arm, turning it into an impromptu fireworks spectacle

The claw smashed into an upright metal beam that had dug into the chest of a large artillery mech. He retracted the tether to see how strong the grasp was until he was content with its stability. The motor began to retract the tether slowly as Ryuki actuated the arms and legs to climb up the heap.

Wasp and Dizzy made their way up inside their mech, using a pair of torso mounted grappling hooks to make their way up. Fluid from the right leg actuators were trickling out like blood from a cut , slowly making the leg lose power as they ascended. They hurried their pace so that they would not be stuck on the side of the mountain of debris once the leg became useless.

Care needed to be taken not to burn out the winches as their remaining limbs had become damaged in the fall. Without the grappling hooks they would have no other way to get to the base of the T . The head was still able to look up and use its laser range finder, giving Dizzy a distance of thirty meters to what she assumed was the flat top at the peak of the pile.

Judicious use of the remaining booster fuel and firm manipulator grasps were enough to save the winches from tearing themselves apart. The climb, though, took longer than expected. For a peak no taller than the rolling hills back home, the ascent took ages. Any sudden movements would have meant that the footholds would break apart under the strain of supporting such a huge moment formed by the five meter long legs their mechs sported.

It took nearly thirty minutes to get to the peak. One would have thought some kind of celebration was in order after nearly falling down into a pit of razor sharp spikes but there was only a circle of dirty, worn mechs with splotches of battery fluids and slicks of fuel covering the deep slashes and scorch marks that covered their armor plates. In the middle of the circle, a weakly wavering fire burned on a pile of trashed containers. Shivering bodies sat near it, still in their hardsuits , waiting for their ready to eat meals to warm up while they freeze from the deep cold.

Ryuki stood at the foot of the fire with the palm of his hands facing towards the flames. Drips of working fluid dropped from the joints of his armor; it was only a matter of time before the armor would seize up completely if he didn't repair it. But he stood there, soaking up the heat, seemingly with nothing else on his mind. His bones shook from the shivering cold, his skin crawled with the freezing drops of sweat that ran down his sides. All he could think of was the fire, his eyes drawn to it , unblinking and concentrated on the plumes of smoke that rose from the fire.

No one seemed in the mood to talk. The food was in the form of liquid packages of nutrients flavored to taste like familiar foods. Their canny resemblance to real meals were just close enough to taste terrible yet filling, like a poorly made piece of fast food mystery meat.

"So this is all we've got left huh?" Barry muttered to himself. The protein slurries they consumed had to be piped into their suits lest the freezing atmosphere froze them solid if they opened their helmets up. It felt much like what a hospital patient would feel, consuming nourishment from out of a bag full of fluid.

All the solid food had long since been eaten or destroyed and the only items that survived were the powdered variety. Water was plentiful though, at least they wouldn't dehydrate to death. The cramped spaces inside the pilots deck were claustrophobic , making the ruined landscape a seemingly better alternative to sitting inside a tin can like preserved tuna.

The pneumonia became thicker, with each cough came yellow and green phlegm and the unmistakable gurgling crawling up through the bronchial tubes. Ryuki could feel the bubbles fermenting and the sickly popping that followed. Ross coughed incessantly while Ryuki tried to control himself. When he turned away from the others , Ryuki knew that Ross had begun to cough up blood.

There had to be medicine somewhere, anywhere. They sat atop a mountain of filled containers and trunks , there had to be one with supplies. " We need to find medicine" he said to his listless crew. For awhile, he said nothing else. He hoped an idea would pop up, but his body and soul were completely exhausted. Pushing himself would only sap away what stamina he had left.

"Anything with the caduceus on it would be medical related" Karin spoke up, one of the few not coughing up a storm. They sat there scanning around them, looking for anything that had a pair of coiled snakes. Of course it wouldn't be so easy. Nothing's been simple the entire time they had been on this frozen over planet.

"How do we normally find things that we need?" Reaper asked with a resounding cough. Thats right, Ryuki thought. There was always a way to find something. "They have to be tagged right?", Reaper asked.

Without the frequency of the radio tags, though, finding the containers would still be difficult. Scanning for one would take time and effort and it wasn't guaranteed that the right frequency would be picked up. The best that they could do was to find the closest signals and hope that they find what they're looking for. Time was running short along with their supplies . With sickness and hunger setting in, it would only be a matter of time that their will to survive would die out completely.

"Guys, Im coughing up blood man, what the hell" Wasp complained. It was getting worse and time was short. Ryuki walked as fast as he could, his belly hurting from the fluid collecting in his lungs. Breathing became laborious as each breath felt as if a heavy weight was compressing his chest. His lungs felt like they were burning and his pounded with an incessant headache.

He climbed up with genuine pain shooting up through his chest. Sitting didn't help much as his shallow breaths followed up with him. He pulled down a monitor and began tapping at the keys arrayed around the dual joysticks on the pilots seat. His fingers tapped at lightning speed, even with his mind and body tiring quickly from the incessant coughing.

He began scanning on the wide band, pumping all the power into the transceiver. The multiple antennae of the Lionheart were specific to command units , thus allowing him to scan multiple bands at once. His muscles ached as his body slumped on his seat. His heart palpitated hard enough to feel like it was trying to escape his body.

The scanner began to chirp steadily as multiple signals were found. "We need to triangulate these signals" he radioed to Karin. She began to trudge towards the other mechs, hoping her muscles would make the last few feet. Just as she approached her mech, the ground began to to shake.