Miraculous Ladybug - Starfighter/Sci-Fi/Star Wars-ish AU

Chapter 8

She had felt him move out from under her, possibly minutes or even hours ago she wasn't sure as she drifted back into a deep slumber. She wasn't happy in the moment, but there wasn't much resistance an asleep girl could give. He had tucked her back in with her backpack filling the comforting void between her and the tree that Ren had provided all evening.

The harsh reflection of the morning sun off the bleached snow tickled her eyes open. In her haze, she saw Ren reading a small padd near near the fire, his back almost to her. The fire was low, almost just coals but Ren had fashioned some sort of camp stove out of some rocks that was in the process of heating a nutritional ration pack while he ate another.

Mari tried to move, but the emergency blanket she was encased in, that made her look like an old Earth burrito, kept her pinned to the ground. It also made enough noise to alert Ren.

"Mari, you are awake." He said softly, but with much delight. He placed the padd on the log he was sitting on and dashed over to her, placing a tender hand on her. "How do you feel?"

Mari's voice was raspy, and took a moment to escape her lips. "I'm not dead, so there's that."

Ren smiled and reached around to unlock her helmet, then began to delicately unwrap her like a gift.

"Anything broken?" He asked folding up the foil blanket into a neat square.

"Not that I can feel, mostly just feel like shit." Mari responded, repositioning herself against the tree.

"Well, take it easy, we might be here for a little bit more."

She looked at him. "What? What do you mean?"

"A ship might come tonight, or tomorrow night."

"A ship? Who? From where?"

Ren walked over to the fire and retrieved the meal packet. "There's much that I should probably tell you."

Mari looked confused. If she hadn't known something, it was a well kept secret.

Ren came back over to her, handing her the packet and pulled over a log. "Don't feel bad, I only found out a few weeks ago."

She opened the warm packet of nutritional goo, it was the consistency of chunky wet cereal and tasted like how she imagined carbon scoring on an armour panel to taste, but she ate it. Squeezing it slowly as Ren filled her in.

"We got word a month ago that an attack may be imminent. A fleet was massing, and it looked like trouble was headed out our way. After what happened to the capital all those year ago, we needed to take some preemptive measures. While we bulked up our defences around the colonies, we knew that it still wouldn't be enough, so each one sent out a few ships to scout nearby systems for a place to make a small enough base that it wouldn't draw attention from scans. Somewhere that wasn't exactly the most likely candidate for there to be any colony anyway. I found this place and over the last few weeks we've been sending a supply shuttle out here, covertly to build a small base of operations."

"Is that why you were gone the other day? I asked around and nobody knew where you were, you weren't on the duty roster or out on patrol." Mari asked, squeezing the last remaining goo out of the pouch.

"Exactly, it's a need to know operation, we couldn't have anyone leak the location." He bit his knuckles in distress. "The attack came a few days earlier than we had anticipated. We were supposed to start sending civilians out here, but just didn't get the chance. There's a few personnel here, some of their family, but...."

Mari reached her hand out and put it on Ren's knee. "It's not your fault. I'm sure you all did your best, you had to keep it all secret."

"I know. I just feel somehow responsible. What remained of our fleet was supposed to rendezvous at the London colony, we should all be there, not here."