Ori and the Stranger

Chapter 28

     Ori found himself awake, tears streaming down his eyes. His body was still in incredible agony all around, and he felt as if he himself had been skewered by a million thorns. He couldn't move. He could only curl up and cry the pain away. Sein hovered over the spirit, looking down at him with pity and allowing him time to recover.

     After what felt like forever, the pain began to fade as Ori's body finally realized that it was in fact completely fine. Soon, the pain was reduced to a dull ache, then disappeared completely. Ori found the strength to wipe the tears from his eyes and get to his feet. Tatsu was right: her death was so much worse than the other spirits'. But he made it through.

     Ori felt that familiar feeling of knowing something knew. This time, it was how to climb like Tatsu. Sein hovered above him. "Are you ready to go?" Sein asked. Ori shuddered a little from the pain he had just felt, but nodded in affirmation.

     He squeezed his body through the fissure back the way he came, trying to ignore the horrible feeling he got as his body scraped along the stone where Tatsu's wounds had been. She had died so horribly, and from a simple mistake. Ori thought about all the times where a simple mistake would have spelled the same fate for him. He was lucky to be alive.

     The little spirit forced himself out of the fissure and onto the cold stone floor, quickly getting to his feet and staring at the hole in the ceiling. It was time.

     Ori leapt back onto the wall. However, instead of sliding down, instincts he didn't have before kicked in, and he unconsciously channeled energy into his paws and hooves, which stuck him to the wall. He let out a small sigh of relief despite knowing that he would be okay, and started climbing. He moved as if he had mastered the skill many years ago, and it still amazed him how he could do such a thing by simply absorbing the essence of a fallen spirit.

     Within seconds, he had climbed up and out of the whole, climbing over the lip and onto the solid ground with Tatsu's own grace. Sein floated up behind him. "Ori, I cannot describe how lucky we have been thus far," she said with a slightly grim but also grateful tone. "however, you must not become too complacent. It could spell your end."

     Ori looked back at the floating orb and nodded. However, he couldn't help but feel a great amount of confidence at his luck so far. With the help of Atsu's torch dispelling the mist, Ori strutted confidently through the Misty Woods, ready to dispel this mist with the Shrouded Lantern once and for all, and make his way into the ruins.

~~~~~~~~~~

     Tracer rounds and plasma bolts cut through the fog and whiz past Blitz's head, some impacting the hull of the ship and sending a shower of sparks onto the ground. Blitz curses again as he hears the Volks shouting in Latin as they continue to fire.

     "Dammit, Blitz..." Helm groans, clutching the metal pole in his body and groaning in pain again.

     "It's okay, boss," Blitz says, the panic in his voice betraying his intention of calming Helm down. "I'll get us out of this, I promise."

     "You'd better," Helm says after a short coughing fit, shrinking away as a bullet pings on the ground next to them. "I don't wanna die cause you messed up." Helm's tone is harsh and blunt, but with an underlying tone of worry for the both of them.

     Blitz grunts a little as a plasma bolt slams into the hull next to his head, casting the both of them in a ghastly green light for a moment before sending sparks flying over Blitz's body. Blitz draws his pistol and begins firing in the direction the bolts and bullets are coming from, only peaking his head out of cover for a moment. There are at least 30 out there, all closing in on the ship. Not good at all.

     Blitz's shots cut down a few, but his blind firing is unable to be noticeably effective. The Volks are closing in slowly but steadily, and a few manage to peak around the side of the hull, but are quickly gunned down by Blitz before they get a chance to fire a shot of their own.

     Blitz has to do something. He's running out of time. He begins looking around for something, anything that may help get them out of this mess. He spots something promising: the ship's thrusters are directly above him, meaning he's at the back end of the ship. That means both good news and bad news. The good news is that he's right next to the boarding ramp of the transport (if he knows his Volk transports as well as he thinks he does). The bad news is that the ramp is directly in the line of fire, AND Blitz will have to find the panel to open it, which is also most likely in the line of fire.

     Fine. After all, this isn't Blitz's first rodeo. Although, it is his first rodeo alone. He's not sure if he'll be able to pull this off without Vice and Metaljacket covering him, but he has to try.

     "Alright, Helm, I'm gonna do something stupid," he says to Helm, steeling his nerves and preparing himself to possibly maybe die.

     "And?" Helm responds with a pain laugh. Blitz chuckles as well, but the brief morale boost is quickly cut down by another flurry of Volk fire.

     Blitz stands as close to the edge of his improvised cover as he can, taking in deep breaths. Then, without giving himself time to think or hesitate, he leaps out into the line of fire, raising his heavily armored left arm as he finds the control panel and begins punching random buttons and switches. He feels the force of numerous rounds hitting his arm and leg, but feeling no pain as his armor maintains its integrity.

     Finally, after nearly breaking the panel punching buttons and switches, he hears a hiss and sees steam billow out from the outline of the boarding ramp as it opens slowly. He listens as the Volks begin shouting more and more. Finally, he dashes back into cover, his armor smoking and covered in scorch marks and fresh dents. He rounds the corner, and quickly picks Helm up. He then dashes back around the side of the transport's hull and leaps into the transport bay through the still-opening boarding ramp. He drops Helm and quickly punches in more buttons into the interior panel until the boarding ramp starts slowly closing. Several plasma bolts and bullets whiz through the opening and into the bay, pinging on the far wall and sending more sparks showering onto the ground. Some Volks run up to the ramp and try to climb in themselves, but Blitz manages to stop them with quick pot-shots with his pistol.

     At long last, the ramp fully closes, but the sounds of plasma and lead impacting the ship's hull ring and echo throughout the ship. Blitz runs into the cockpit, quickly firing up the ship's engines. Luckily, the dashboard and control panels have the same universal layout as MWSC ships, albeit with Latin labels. Using his little knowledge of piloting, Blitz manages to get the transport airborne and fires up the pulse drive to launch the transport into space. The artificial atmosphere doesn't have enough time to form, so there's a brief period of intense G-force as the ship is launched out of atmosphere at the speed of sound. The Gs lessen and disappear, as do the sounds of shots hitting the transport as the ship leaves Granj's atmosphere. The endless gray fog of war quickly gives way to the familiar sight of stars and endless space. The whirring of the ship's drive quiets down as the artificial atmosphere kicks in, and Blitz feels the brief feeling of weightlessness disappear as gravity returns.

     Blitz stops. His shaking hands let go of the controls and he leans back into the pilot's chair, letting out a breath. He sat in silence for several moments, panting and trying to process what happened. He slowly began running his hands over his body, checking to make sure that his adrenaline wasn't hiding any fresh wounds. He felt nothing new. He let out another sigh, and suddenly grew extremely light-headed. The ship darkened as Blitz nearly blacked out, but he managed to stay conscious. A dull headache slowly made itself known as the lightheadedness dissipated.

     But Blitz couldn't let himself rest just yet. He quickly shot up out of the pilot's chair, and ran back into the transport bay to check on Helm. Everything inside the transport bay that hadn't been tied or nailed down had been flung amock due to the lack of an artificial atmosphere as the ship exited Granj's atmosphere. This included Helm. Blitz quickly ran over to Helm's side, shaking Helm. "Boss, you alright?" Blitz asked, now feeling worried as he turned over Helm to look at his face.

     A massive, gaping, smoking hole in the middle of Helm's visor stared back at Blitz.