Humanity Endures

Part 6 - The Cesspit | Chapter 5

Yelazar, the icy presence of MECS chilling his veins and freeing his heart from the shackles of sorrow, was nearly thrown from his feet by the quaking ground; the thunderous roar of detonating warships and collapsing skypiercers dominating the air around him, he began to become truly unsure as to whether or not it was just the building around him that was threatening to come apart, or if the planet itself threatened to give way. Merely a few minutes ago, Yelazar's escape pod had gone rather wayward; rather than landing with the majority of the Nemesis's crew, he — and Illtera — had crashed straight into one of the first few subterranean levels within the same building, their violent impact trapping them underneath a fair amount of rubble the moment after they had arrived. Yelazar had only managed to clamber out of his pod, confirm the good health of his companion, and realize the true depth of the loss his ship had just suffered, before the building above began to threaten collapse.

With the metallic ceiling above him quaking and warping under the force of repeated impacts, Yelazar shot a fearful glance towards this quavering ceiling, though as he did so a wayward chunk of metal slammed into his head and cracked the visor of his helmet, sending the stunned Yelazar crashing to the floor. It became clear in that moment that even if the ceiling did not come down on his head, the debris from the ceiling's near collapse would likely kill him anyway if he did not find shelter, and quickly. Stumbling to his feet as the floor threatened to break open beneath him, Yelazar realized that, as the first thing he had done since getting out of his own escape pod was to check on Illtera, his own escape pod was on the other end of the rather vast, perilous room; improvising, Yelazar sprinted over to Illtera's escape pod — which happened to be decidedly closer — and, as she was securing herself within, he leapt into the protective device himself, sealing him and Illtera inside with one fluid motion. As a hail of debris rattled and shook the claustrophobic device, originally intended for but a single occupant, Yelazar, stuck in a rather awkward position atop his compatriot by circumstance, said, "I only jumped into your pod because mine was too far away — you know that, right?"

As Yelazar said this, he felt urges as unwelcome as they were natural return to his mind; friends of his had been butchered by the dozen, and with such grief he had been unwilling to so much as think of such matters, even though that grief was now temporarily gone with his injection of MECS...

Illtera smirked, her tone soft and angelic, in stark contrast to the chaotic cacophony surrounding the pair's pod.

"I, honestly, wouldn't mind either way" she replied.

Yelazar was surprised — even he had refrained from making advances in life-or-death situations before, and he had never so much as spoken to Illtera before this!

"Are you... But we haven't even talked yet! Once!" Yelazar said, half-protesting, half-excited.

"Far be it from me" Illtera said, using what little room she had within the pod to remove her helmet as coquettishly as she could with the space she had, "to become the only female amongst this crew that you haven't slept with — I know a lot about you, but I think it's time you learn something about me; I abhor waiting."

Yelazar chuckled, struggling removing his cracked helmet as well.

"I see my reputation exists across the fleet, then — and I must say, I've always been an opportunist."

The rain of debris continued to assail the escape pod and its blissfully oblivious occupants to no avail; while the rest of the surviving Nemesis crew cowered within their comparatively spacious pods, hoping to outlast the seemingly unending storm of debris Yelazar and Illtera silently wished that the rain of debris would continue forever. No doubt Velan would attempt to reunite his crew and march on the nearby military garrison site rather soon, but as Yelazar's part of the building was in the process of threatening to implode and as debris was likely to take some time to remove, Yelazar was in no rush at all.