Survivors

Defenders

After a nap, I wake up from talking. I get dressed into my flight armour and walk out into the hall.

"Took you long enough, sleeping beauty." Smirks Xavier. In one hand is his sword, and his helmet's under his other arm. Even Regeit is wearing armour. No colours, though. Just black and silver. He hands me my bow and what looks like some sort of gun.

"This is a standard Astralis blaster. Just in case." He informs me.

"Oh. Great. I've always wanted a weird alien gun." I say sarcastically, putting it in a designated holster on the side of the uniform.

"Hey. Fleet Forty-Nine here, red cadet Valia Etrtsi." Someone says over the PA. "As soon as you're ready, we need backup."

"Can I?" Asks Maggie. Regeit nods. "Fleet Thirteen, green cadet Magri Xeles. We'll be on our way." She says. "I've always wanted to do that!" She whispers to me afterwards. We head to our ships.

"PAs on. Weapons ready. Trust other cadets only." Regeit tells us. I flip down my helmet's visor and prepare to release from the mothership.

"Release." Regeit tells us. I blast off, and take in my surroundings. There's three ships that look exactly like mine. Countless others in a uniform black metal, an emblem on their sides. I'm guessing that's who I attack. I move forward just as a green ship gets shot down.

Unlike all previous experiences, these people seem a bit more... experienced.

"Astralis cadets. It would be highly suggested that surrender the planet Sinnet." Someone says. The PA is soon filled with cries of protest. I'm tempted to shut it off to save my ears, but I remember what Regeit said.

"Everyone SHUT UP!" Someone yells.

"Yes, Valia." A few voices who must be from her fleet say.

"Who was the green that went down?" Questions someone else.

"Dirond Galtea." Someone else replies. These people seem so much more experienced than me, even more than Maggie.

"Rest in peace." That was definitely Xavier.

I start to shoot at one of the black ships. It seems a lot tougher than the previous enemies, too. In the window I can see people linking left and right, and occasionally a ship will go down. I can't even tell my fleet from the others. But I actually have no time to be scared right now. Not that I really know any of them that well.

"They're breaking through to the surface!" Someone screams. "Land!" I descend to the surface, stepping out of the ship. I can feel a few hard impacts that must be bullets, and I take out my bow. It shakes, and the unusual beam of light against the string seems unlikely to hurt anyone. But it does. And so that's okay. I guess. Some other people have similar weapons, and they seem far better with them. I can see Maggie, Xavier, and Jade. It has to be one of the most traumatic things I've ever experienced. A rainbow river of blood flowing across the ground as bodies drop. Someone of Orvain's race drops dead, yellow splattering my armour. My heart is pounding when a voice rings out.

"Retreat, cadets! The planet will detonate in a minute!" It all happens so fast. In the chaos, I manage to reach my ship and take off.

Well that was hell.

I dock onto the mothership again and let out a deep sigh. I have no idea what I was doing out there.

"You guys alive?" I ask. There's a few replies, but I can't recognize the voices. I get out of the ship and run down the hall, still in flight armour, to find Regeit.

"They're fine." He assures me, pointing to a screen. There's a large white thing with four dots. The red one is connected to the ship, and the others are nearly there. Blue docks next. I head over to Jade's door.

"Holy hell, I sucked." She groans. Her glasses are fogged up and her bangs are sticking to her forehead with sweat. "That was video-game level intense. Which is not a good thing in real life. At least the armour's not as heavy as it looks, though." She pokes at her white armour. The parts conjoining the plates of armour are made of bright blue material that's probably super-fine chain mail or something. Mine is grey and red. And so dirt shows up on mine less. It's a darker grey than Xavier's grey and yellow armour. Maggie's is black and green.

"Just because I can move doesn't mean I won't sweat to death." I state.

"Eh, I'd be sweating in my normal clothes anyways." She shrugs. We head to the control room and are soon joined by Xavier and Maggie.

"It was good for your first mission." Regeit assures us.

"Yeah, but we lost." Maggie looks down.

"You didn't die, though. And that's an accomplishment in my opinion." He attempts to cheer her up.

"Yeah, well, I could die by walking out my door every day. So what?" Xavier sighs.

"Look. This was higher stakes. It's difficult to survive everyday life." Regeit pauses. "When I was eight of your Earth years old, my brother's lungs popped while he was preparing to blow out a candle." Everyone looks a little more disturbed after he says that. "You're survivors. All of you."

"On a lighter note, Regeit and I made one of your Earth cheesecakes!" Wessa says.

"Oh, man! I love cheesecake!" Xavier smiles. Wessa cuts us each a slice of the cheesecake. Jade and Xavier each take a bite, then spit it out.

"Is this a wheel of cheese covered in frosting?" Jade asks, disgusted.

"That's not what a cheesecake is?" Regeit raises an eyebrow.

"Sorry, guys. But this sucks. Nice try, though." Xavier says, running to throw up his "cheesecake".

I never even tried the stuff, I notice.

I will NOT be one-upped by Xavier!

I grab a forkful of the stuff and shove it into my mouth, forcing myself to swallow it.

It's disgusting.

I have no idea why I decided to do that. And I curse my past self for ever fathoming the action. I feel sick from it.

I shove Xavier aside and throw up in the sink as well.

"Um, maybe we should ask you about your recipes?" Wessa suggests.

"I'll do that." Jade smiles.

"I'm going to bed." I state. Xavier hands me the honey.

"Just keep that." He tells me.

"Thanks." I nod, taking a spoonful of honey and going to my room to sleep.