Survivors

Varvea

I wake up the next day feeling slightly lighter. I head out for breakfast and Regeit talks to me.

"We are now on Varvea. It has slightly less gravity than Earth and the ship, which may feel a bit weird. After breakfast, you can go."

"Quick question: do you have any toothbrushes?" I ask. Wessa gives me a toothbrush. I stuff it into my pocket and drink the coffee substitute with a fried egg, then leave to get dressed and brush my teeth. Once that's done, I head out near the door where everyone except for Wessa is waiting. She quickly arrives with her hair done fancily.

"Sorry that took so long. My hair really wasn't cooperating." She apologizes.

"It's fine." Regeit assures her. "We'll have to stay in a group. None of you have been on Varvea before, and I don't want you to get lost."

We go into a store. Near the front, there's some of the glowing onion things Maggie likes. Regeit picks one up and puts it in the cart.

"Do any of you others want one?" He asks. "Magri likes them, so I buy one every time we go shopping." We shake our heads to decline the offer. We head to the food aisle. It seems like a store where you buy stuff in bulk. He takes two bottles of something that looks like iced coffee, linked by a plastic piece. We follow him through the store in boredom as Regeit picks up a ton of stuff and puts it in his cart. We're all almost asleep by the time we reach the checkout.

"What else can you do on this planet?" Asks Wessa.

"Well, you're allowed to go to the funland, seeing how you have adult supervision." He says.

"You need adult supervision to go in?" Jade raises an eyebrow.

"How old even are you?" Xavier asks.

"Three." Regeit answers. My jaw pops open.

"How does that make you an adult?"

"Oh, sorry. That's roughly twenty-one in your Earth years." Regeit elaborates.

"Thank god." Jade lets out a sigh of relief.

"I'm fine with not going to funland." Shrugs Maggie.

"Okay. What do you want to do while we're on this planet?" Regeit asks.

"I dunno, seek vengeance?" Someone says from behind us.

It's Peapyd.

"Dammit! I thought I lost you guys!" Xavier groans.

"We just happened to be here for ship repairs when we ran into you." She glares at us.

"You're gonna pay for that!" Orvain shouts. One of his eyes has a long scratch along it, oozing yellow blood.

"What? The ship?" Xavier raises an eyebrow.

"MY EYE, YOU DIMWIT! ARE YOU BLIND?"

"No." He smirks. "But you're halfway there." Orvain hisses and pulls out his pistols.

"Stop." Peapyd says, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Alive, remember? I don't wanna deal with Gorfon." Orvain nods reluctantly.

"Tell you what. Hand over the heir or heiress, or we shoot everyone except you." Orvain gives the smile of a true maniac.

"Ooh! I like the way you think!" Peapyd smirks, pulling out a knife.

"Abort! Abort! To the ship!" Screams Jade. Orvain swears, then spits blood at my face. I am disgusted, but I can't worry about that right now, so I just run away. It seems like a worthwhile idea, seeing how Orvain starts shooting at us madly while Peapyd tries to calm him down.

I get into the mothership and run down the hall, not even bothering to get into the flight armour. I pull out the bow.

Time to give this another shot.

That was not meant to be a pun.

I head out to the door and pull back the string.

I then notice I didn't take any arrows.

However, a streak of light appears against the bowstring. I aim it straight at Orvain, who is running towards the ship at an alarming speed.

Xavier has his sword. Maggie has some sort of unrecognizable alien weapon, and Jade has a rifle.

"Wait!" Wessa says. She runs over to Orvain.

"Well, that may or may not be the dumbest thing I've ever seen anyone do in my life." Xavier sighs.

"Shoot him!" Jade shakes me. And her shaking causes me to misfire. Wessa and Orvain are talking. I hear small snippets of the conversation about rumours and paid hospital fees. Wessa hands Peapyd a wad of cash and walks back over to us.

"Nice one, Nerit." Xavier smirks.

"Did he just call you..." Peapyd looks at me.

"You screwed up real bad." Whispers Jade.

Regeit closes the door and starts up the engines with us all screaming.

"Why would you do that? Why?" Maggie groans as we stare out the window at Orvain and Peapyd. Orvain scratches at his face, and yellow blood runs down his cheek.

The ship takes off unceremoniously. I collapse against a wall.

"They should be less angry, though." Wessa smiles. Regeit nods solemnly.

"Yes, but they're sure to want to follow us."

"We've got a head start, you know. Their ship's broken. Ours isn't." I offer.

"I'm still not sure if their ship can travel faster, though. But Peapyd's Foremic, and Orvain's Amascian. They need more sleep than I do, and I doubt they have autopilot. Autopilot still needs maintenance, of course. That means we need three-hour breaks, in Earth time for your convenience, as I need less sleep than they do." Regeit says.

"They're bounty hunters. It's not their grudge against us." Jade points out.

"It's their grudge now that we made Orvain lose his eye." Maggie shakes her head. "Besides, they work for Gorfon."

"What's Gorfon?" Asks Xavier.

"Gorfon is a large and prospering planet. Their Emperor, Polois, keeps destroying planets, taking over others. The other ones he keeps from fighting back by giving them materials they need. And also being undoubtedly more powerful than most planets." Wessa tells us.

"What about us?" I ask.

"All groups of Cadets exist to keep them at bay, keeping as many planets as possible safe." Regeit explains.

"There's other groups?" Xavier raises an eyebrow.

"They've been dropping like flies. There's not many others left." Maggie sighs.

"Wait, do you mean that you've basically given us a death sentence?" Jade asks.

"You would have died anyways if we didn't take you from Earth." Regeit looks down. "I'm sorry that you had to he thrown into this. There's normally a ten-month training camp."

"Did Maggie go?" I ask.

"Nope." She purses her lips.

"Okay. Is there anywhere relatively safe we can go?" Jade inquires.

"Yes." Regeit says slowly. "But we can't go."

"Why not?" Groans Xavier.

"Because we need to defend a planet." Regeit answers.