Astrophysical (completed)

Chapter 7

The warmth of the beating suns was enjoyable. The two that were shining down against the rocky landscape felt just like a summer morning from home. Everyone else seemed to be dragging through the heat as they scrounged for extra canteens, and she sympathized with them only because all this extra armour padding was making her sweat like crazy. She couldn't complain all too much though since she was finally off the ship, and she was enjoying it.

Once things had stabilized on ship and things went back to normal, Cassie had found out about the previous job. She heard everything about the girl who had set it up and how she put a small mechanism full of electrodes and bacteria onto Ash's chest all because he wouldn't willingly take her job. To the crew's surprise she still paid them, but it turned out the money was fraudulent and so this led to their new adventure. Luckily Cassie got to take part in it and that was thanks to Dean although Ash had been right about him being upset with her.

The first week she went back to training was torture. Dean pushed her and worked her harder than before and since she had taken time off, she was hurting more than usual. After that and to her surprise, Dean had decided that she had learned enough basic combat to work out with the crew. She had been excited by the prospect, but after only the second day they went back to solo training much to her dismay. It hadn't even been her fault.

Not surprisingly, the rest of the guys had a hard time taking her seriously. It became very apparent she was being treated differently when they began practicing takedowns and Cassie had managed to take down every single guy with little to no problems. This was particularly a problem because Cassie had only learned it that day and the rest had been learning it for some time prior to this.

Dean was annoyed and decided to try something else which ended up being a private training session with just Ash. He usually trained with Dean privately because the two were developing newer strategies since they both had plenty of fighting backgrounds behind them. This idea was worse though because Ash's feelings were more out in the open since their last intimate talk. He at first seemed focused but as soon as they had gotten too close, she found she could easily overpower him which infuriated Dean.

So, to her dismay and Dean's, they went back to training her solo style, but she also felt like she was advancing further because of it. It paid off as they decided to enter this tournament here on Aditya. The rules of the tournament were simple enough once Matt broke it down to her.

"All you have to do is shoot everyone else who is not on the ship which is easy because we are the only humans. Don't get shot yourself or you'll be teleported back to our base point. Oh, and don't lose your armour because then you can get hurt or possibly killed. Got it?" he told her.

With that in mind, all Cassie had to do was picture being in a giant game of laser tag that lasted all day instead of just a couple of thirty-minute rounds. The total tournament lasted three days and as they had entered the second day they were ahead. In the late afternoon, there was where some wear and tear starting to take effect among some of the crew and about a third of them had been sent back to the base.

The rest were currently caught in a crossfire between them and some giant eyeball aliens. Dean and Ash were on the advance making their way through the large stone pillars that were separating the playing field between the two forces. A few of the men followed behind them as back up though they were being heavily slowed by flying boulders the enemies were flinging with their octopus-like arms.

Cassie on the other hand had tagged along with Matt curiously trying to figure out what he was up to. When they had come across this place, neither side seemed to be very focused on the cliff sides surrounding them that were creating boundaries. Matt had decided to make his way towards these cliffs and Cassie could only guess he was trying to get higher ground and take advantage of the field. She had followed behind him quietly, but by the way he paused at certain moments she knew he was waiting for her to catch up with him.