Aurora cycle shorts

Unfinished Business Pt.3

I am back, I'm so sorry it's been this long, I have had the worst writers block.
Here's part 3... hope you enjoy :)
Tylers perspective

After powering down the engines and cloaking the longbow, I gather the squad in the equipments room where we're suiting up in our envirosuits.
The air is thick with fear and tension of what is to come.
My squads palpable silence isn't helping to alleviate any of it, but I can't bring myself to break it.
We've already been through so much and I know their hearts are aching with old memories from when we were last here.
I know this because mine is too.
The thought that we might see Cat down there on Octavia is causing my stomach to churn like the icy depths of a black hole.
To see the echoes of her face marred by the bloom of the Ra'haam, and worse, to hear her voice as its always been parrot its message is going to be unimaginably hard. The times I saw her a few years ago wrecked my heart. For I felt that she was still in there, some small part of her. Like she could be saved, brought back into her own mind. I now recognise that as hope fuelled denial, a feeling I'm all too familiar with.

I look around at my squad, in their navy envirosuits, looking almost the same as that day on Octavia, although wearing a few more scars.
"Okay Squad, prepare for landing".
They each nod, silence still presiding as they move out of the equipment room to their seats.
Zila takes up the controls again, flicking the engines back to life.
"Once we land on Octavia's desert, we will perform tests on the region and scope where the Starslayer has established, so we can gain more information on how to... quell this".
Everyone clips their belts in, and we begin to sail towards Octavia III's desert where we will land. I check the radar to see the couple of dozen aurora legion ships behind us. Back up... which we are sure to need.
I look around to see Scar and Finian linking arms, Kal and Auri giving each other a soft sad smile that feels like they're saying goodbye to one another, and then Saedii...
She's staring at me, her eyes fierce and determined, the Warbreed glyth on her forehead gleaming with promise. For a moment I let myself feel at ease. We will have a long future ahead, this is not our end. We will not become another ghost in the sky. Not today.
I touch my tattooed finger to my heart and give her a wink. Then I peel my eyes away to the controls, scanning the radar.
Just in time to see a red dot blinking in on the edges of our coverage.
Its moving quickly, within a few seconds its moved hundreds of kilometres.

"Zila... what is that?", I question hesitantly.
She doesn't answer until she's examined in properly, bringing up a reading.
Fin leans over Zila's shoulder peering at the radar through his black contact lenses.
"It's a ship", he says matter of factly. "A rather fast one".
"No shit", says Scar with a laugh. Not a humour filled one.
Zila glares at Fin, before correcting, "It has no signal, but a ship of that speed is unlike any possessed by the Aurora Legion or any others currently".
"Nerida", Aurora whispers prophetically.
My eyes go wide, and I glance at Zila to see if she thinks the same.
"That unfortunately fits the description", she says, a slither of hesitance in her voice.
A few groans escape out from my squad.
The dot on the radar grows closer to us and the other aurora legion ships, racing through the ink faster than anything borne from this time.

"Ready the missiles", I say not only to my squad, but to the dozens of Aurora Legion ships flanking us.
I look over to Zila, her face now creased with age is lit up by the various flashing lights warning us of the incoming ship.
A notice a trickle of ink black blood drip from her ear, sliding past her signature golden hoop earrings. The effects of bending through time are catching up to her. We don't have long now till she needs to get back to the past.

Before I can bring it up the ship pulls into eyesight.
And it's not the Nerida, like Auri and Zila predicted.
But instead it is fragments of Eshvaren crystals, stuck to the outside of a cylindrical ship. Like a disco ball, something I only know from one of Auri's memories of old Terra.
The ship slows as it reaches Octavia and as it passes us reflects beams of light so stark I have to look away.

A beep sounds, and I look down to see the ship is flagging us.
"Whoever is in there wants to talk", I say, accepting the request.
A blue hologram flickers to life.
A person with flowers for eyes and a slightly grown out faux hawk smiles down at us with her once trademarked grin.
"Cat", Scar says, sucking in a jagged breath.
"Hey roomie", Cat replies with another toothy smile.
I can see the hope in Scarletts eyes, that this is Cat talking. The real cat. Not the Ra'haam, who now possess Cats memories.
I try to keep the pain that's clawing up my throat pushed down. I need to keep my head level.
Cause this feels awfully familiar. Awfully like a trap.

"I see you have settled in to your new lives quite nicely", she speaks with the same voice as before, perhaps a bit husky with disuse, but the same ring. She glances down to me, to the band tattooed around my finger, then to the identical one on Saedii's. She trying to get me to crack. To feel the guilt I felt for years that I survived and she did not.
"What do you want?", I speak firmly, trying to keep my emotions out of it. To not let her rattle me.
"Oh nothing much", she says with practiced nonchalance, peering at her no doubt moss covered fingernails. "Just a small favour".
"Which is?", I press, not caring for dramatics.
"Help us destroy the Starslayer", she says easily.
"And why would we help you with that?", says Auri.
"Yeah I can't say that the Ra'haam has been on our side", Fin chimes in.
"The Starslayer wishes to destroy Octavia, then Terra, and Trask, and other planets, many of which are Ra'haam home planets, therefore destroying us, all of us".
"If he wished to destroy you, then why would he wake you first?" I ask, trying to catch the Ra'haam out.
"We were not awoken by Caersen, so much as disturbed by him. He had made an attempt at our Octavian sun, a feeble one, that drained him of power after years of disuse. He squats on our planet fixing his ship, and rotting the ground beneath his feet. He is almost ready, and we are too weak to stop him. We need your help".
"How can we take your word that you will not betray us for helping you. That you will not take our kindness for granted?", Kal asks.
"The Ra'haam promises that we will remain on our planets. We will cause no more harm. Our minds have been shaped after we were nearly destroyed. We wish to survive, we have nor the means nor way to colonise. Let us be of help. We can work together, not as one, but as the Ra'haam and Aurora Legion", Cat finishes, and something in my gut feels a flicker of truth. But I still have the sense that there is a trap gaping wide in front of us.

"I must return to my home planet. Flag this ship again if you wish to aid us. We will be forever in your debt Squad 312".
The hologram flickers out and Cat and her disco ball ship hurtle towards Octavia.

I can see the plan flicker in my mind as the rest of my squad look at me with looks of disbelief.
I flag the ship, "We're in", I say quickly before disconnecting.
Who would have thought this, the Aurora Legion working with the Ra'haam.
"Tyler, do you know what you're doing?", says Saedii into my mind, in a tone she reserves only for me- worry.
"I sure hope so", I answer softly back to her.

There is likely going to be 4-5 parts in this story, so lets hope my writers block clears and I can get them here soon!
Part 2 and 3 have been a bit more chill, but I promise some action is coming lol
Thank you so much for reading!!! ❤️