Children of The Spheres

Chapter 29: Pursuit

Keira and I climb steadily, the rocky terrain making each step a little more laborious. The ridge ahead rises against the horizon, jagged and uneven, but we're almost at the top. The wind whistles through the cracks, carrying the scent of dry earth. My breath comes steady, measured, as we crest the ridge. And that's when I see it—the escape pod.

The same one from the video, sitting in the small valley beyond. My heart skips, and before I can think, we're both moving, breaking into a run down the ridge. My feet hit the uneven ground with force, the rocks sliding beneath me as I push forward.

The pod sits tilted on its side, the hatch wide open. It's the first thing I notice—the gaping entrance exposing the interior to the environment. Why would they leave it like this?

Keira slows her pace, approaching the pod more cautiously. She stops at the edge, her eyes narrowing as she peers inside. "Even if they left for some reason, why leave the hatch open? It's not like them to expose the pod like this."

I scan the surroundings, my VividArrays giving me access to spectrums beyond the visible color range. The terrain around us is barren, rocky with patches of sand stretching out like a wasteland. Nothing moves. No signs of life.

While Keira checks the pod's inside, I widen my scan, focusing on anything out of place. Nothing unusual at first—just rocks, cracks in the earth, the same endless monotony we've been seeing for days. But then something catches my eye, far off in the distance. Small, metallic objects lying on the ground. I zoom in further, the clarity sharpening, and I see them: rifle casings. Eon Warfare Engineering, engraved in tiny text.

My stomach tightens.

"Keira," I call out, not taking my eyes off the casings. "The emergency pods—do they come with Eon weapons?"

There's a brief pause before she answers. "No. We only keep Havok Armories gear." Her voice shifts, suddenly concerned. "Why?"

I zoom in further, counting the casings—there's more than one, scattered loosely in a rough pattern. A firefight. "There are rifle casings on the ground. They don't belong to the pod. Nora and Kassian were attacked."

Keira steps out, her expression darkening as she looks toward where I'm staring. "Scavengers?"

I nod. "Probably. There's not much governance on Zephyra IX," I reply, recalling the sparse settlements on this planet. It's one of the reasons Evander chose it—remote, lawless, the kind of place you can stay invisible. But that same isolation comes with its own dangers.

My processor kicks in, running an analysis. I plot the vector between the casings and the pod, projecting a straight line across my retinal overlay. If the others were attacked, they'd have run in the opposite direction, away from the shooters. I trace the path past the pod, following the invisible line across the rocky landscape into the open desert beyond.

"They would've ran," I murmur, eyes locked on the direction. "We can follow their likely path."

Keira nods, and without another word, we move. The rocky terrain gives way to sand once again as we press forward. The wind shifts, carrying fine grains of sand across our path, making it hard to keep a sense of direction. I glance down at the ground, but there's no sign of footprints. The shifting sands would have covered any tracks by now. The fact that the rifle casings were still there meant the attack happened recently, which gives me hope.

Not that I'm very worried in the first place. Assuming they weren't hurt in the crash, Nora and Kassian were trained to perfection. Even unarmed, they're deadly.

The sandstorm builds over the hour, the wind whipping around us in violent gusts. Grains of sand scratch at my armor, stinging at any exposed skin. The desert is swallowed by a wall of dust, the horizon vanishing in the chaos. Even with my optics, the world is reduced to a murky blur—just barely more than a hundred meters of clarity in any direction. Keira and I move carefully, the storm threatening to throw us off our course.