Futuristic The Flyaway Soldier

[PopcornPie]

Nanome couldn't help but keep glancing back, even after the IDS mothership became just another nameless speck of light. She couldn't help it. There was no way she didn't tip someone off on her way out. Not with the way her engine coughed and rattled. She was used to the feeling that the rust bucket would unravel all around her, but not the feeling of being sent back to the only home she'd ever known as a human-shaped piled of char. And it wouldn't have to be by the turrets of her fellow troops, either. She'd just...left, throwing herself into a world of enemy fire and fake alliances, and for what? What may as well have been a collection of fairy tales?

Luckily, she did manage to smuggle said collection into the ship with her, and every so often she reached for it. She tried to fight her worries about being ambushed and shot down as soon as she opened it again, but it managed to win every time. So, for the final battle against her paranoia, Nanome looked out into space, every single direction she could. She couldn't hear anything but the sickly moans of her engine, both reassuring and utterly terrifying. She hardened her misty blue eyes on her radar, tapping it periodically, knowing that its sensor was long overdue for a cleaning and tended to make mistakes. Nothing showed. Both reassuring and utterly terrifying.

Suddenly, the ship backfired again, harshly enough to send the book sliding off the dashboard and onto the floor. Now Nanome had no excuse not to pick it up.

"TYLER'S DIARY". The letters shone in the ship's flickering internal light. It was covered in colorful stickers of things she couldn't even begin to describe, and the contents were even stranger. Poorly confined behind lines of blue were crude doodles of a boy's family, in turn sandwiched between sloppily written paragraphs about "mommy" and "daddy". It was a strange reality depicted in the book. Why did "Tyler" have two commanders, instead of one? Where were the other soldiers? What planet were they on? "That looks like grass..." Nanome whispered. "Maybe it's Horbaba, but the trees are all wrong...wait, are those his troops?" She lifted her thumb off a picture of several more humanoids, listed as "friends". Her lips pressed together in thought, then fell into a sympathetic frown as she tried to find the passages related to his brainwashing at the hands of this vague, frightening army. There were none. The words stopped on a passage about "sandwiches", with the final "s" having developed a long, black tail that shot up and out of the page, ending Tyler's story.

Nanome stared at the last page in defeat, only to be startled by a series of dying coughs and groans. A look outside revealed her thrusters rapidly losing power. Biting her lip and groaning a bit herself, she peered down at her dashboard, knowing exactly what the noises meant. Out of fuel.

Frantic, she set her radar to seek planets, setting her sights on the largest one marked. "Please, please please be..." She begged her guidebook as she pulled it out, flipping to "Mizuwul", letting out a loud sigh of relief. Mizuwul was inhabited at the time of the book's printing. She could only hope that it still was.

Fortunately, Nanome had become an unwilling expert on emergency landings, and her ship smoothly slid to a stop, grumbling a little more before dying completely. She rose from her canopy like a little meerkat, oxygen mask on securely, translator charged and ready. Mizuwul seemed to have had the color sucked from its surface and sky, every bit as marshy grayish-turquoise as the book described. It was the perfect backdrop for Nanome's demise, and she knew it. As if it was a deadly weapon, she clutched the fuel can close, waiting to spot a pair of yellow eyes blinking back at her. Was it a good or a bad thing that she didn't recall her squadron being sent here? Was any squadron ever sent here? As cool as it would've been to find out that she was the first IDS soldier on Mizuwul, she just wanted to find the nearest settlement, grab her fuel, and leave. The lack of rooftops in the distance made her blood run cold. At the first rock, she stopped to make sure her blaster had enough ammo to get her out of the situation alive. Whatever was out there, her entire journey depended on being able to strike it first.

Fortunate Son Here we go!

 

[Fortunate Son]

He'd been on this planet for a week now, and he just wanted this job to be over with. He'd been transporting an earth scientist around out here in the wild space regions, helping him to gather samples. He would've left it by now if it hadn't been for the solid pay. At least it was almost over. Whiel the Scientist presented his findings, he relaxed here in the Cantina with a cold drink and some hot food, his feet propped up on the table and his blaster lazily hanging at his hip. Welkin had been out of the Earth Alliance Military for a galactic standard year now after they'd left him on a battlefield, thinking him dead. With his new found freedom, he took up a new life with his new chance. He found a ship, got off-world, and started to make his way out here. He'd do almost any job that didn't involve smuggling drugs. He'd smuggled plenty of other things, but not those. He lived by his own rules, day in and day out. Despite all this, he was still only 20. He looked around the bar at all the different life forms and sighed at how dreary the planet was. "Once that old man pays me... I'm going someplace sunny with a beach." he murmured.

 

[PopcornPie]

"Eek...eek...eek..." Nanome released a series of tiny shrieks, flailing her blaster everywhere, shuffling in a straight line to the east. It was only when she saw tiny lights out of the corner of her eye that she broke into a run, laughing off her terror.
Just when she thought she was safe, there was a gurgling sound somewhere behind her. With a squeal, her head snapped around, trying to see the pair of yellow eyes she'd been dreading. "Where is it!? Where is it!? Where is-" "Ack!" She slammed against a wall, causing her to slip onto the ground. "I knew I wasn't that far off..." She mumbled happily, gently pressing her ear against it. She could hear a multitude of voices, some groggier and sicker sounding than others. It sounded like the perfect place for ambushers to come out from, so she kept her back to the wall and snuck around until she found the entrance, then crept in.
Immediately, she was ambushed. But rather than an IDS scout, it was by the heavy smell of...alcohol? It was warm, roasted, bitter, and very prevalent, nearly suffocating her. It was like the surprise party Tyler's diary described near the beginning, but with no "cake" and no smiles her way. Not wanting to cause a scene, she thought about putting away her blaster and bringing the fuel can close to her chin with both hands, hanging out by the back wall until someone figured out that she needed help. But she was a soldier, and she needed to act like one. "Excuse me, sir." She spoke to the creature behind the desk with the bravest voice she could muster. "I won't distract you for long. I'm..." It was probably a bad idea to admit she was a runaway. "...simply on a harmless patrol with my squadron. But I'm out of fuel, so if you could just point me to the nearest refilling station, the I-" Admitting that she was with the IDS was probably even worse. "Urm...my squadron will thank you greatly." Her translator was blinking and ready.

 

[Fortunate Son]

Welkin saw quite possibly the most scared looking girl ever slip into the bar. He watched her, could practically feel the nervousness rolling off her, but she had a touch of spunk to her as well. "Garadula there might be able to get you gassed, but he can't get you any gas." he stated. He stood up, a large blaster hanging from his hip, and an even bigger one was grabbed from the seat next to him and put on his back. "You aren't from around these parts, are you?" He asked her. "If you're looking for gas... I can tell you where."

The being behind the counter spoke something in his own language. "He just called you a wet sop." He said, smiling some.

 

[PopcornPie]

"Oh." Disappointed, a little distressed, and confused by the approacher's wordplay, Nanome hung her head. She did perk up, however, when he said something about knowing where to find fuel. As she was trained, she studied him carefully, immediately taking note of the nasty looking blaster on his hip, and the even meaner looking one on his back. She couldn't help but swallow. With weapons that large, not only did Nanome's blaster look like a squirt gun in comparison, but she immediately understood why she'd never heard of the place before. Come to think of it, almost everyone she could make out in the bar had a poorly concealed weapon, but they were too invested in their foul smelling drinks to care about her. "I'm Nano-" She was interrupted by the being behind the counter-Garadula, was it?-making sounds that immediately triggered her translator.

As soon as Welkin translated, the device parroted his explanation: "I've no time for patrollers. Buy something or leave, you wet slop." Her mouth hung open, ready to protest, until she remembered that she'd just trekked through who knows how many miles of marshland, and brought it in with her. Her cheeks turned a hot pink which popped out from her blue jumpsuit. She was wet slop. "My apologies, sir!" She dipped her head repeatedly before turning to face Welkin again.

 

[Fortunate Son]

Welkin chuckled some, "Well, aren't you polite." He said, scratching the touch of stubble he had. He was tall, but not overly so, and was lightly muscled as well. His hair was the color of copper, as was his beard, and lively green eyes looked to her. He also bore a scar on one cheek. He couldn't have been much older than her, maybe by a few years. "So what's a cute girl like you doing out on a backwater like this?" He asked, eyeing her uniform. He had a feeling he knew what she was and what she was doing, but he wasn't calling it just yet. "What do you say we go get you some fuel. I'm guessing you walked a good ways, I can give you a lift back to your ship in mind if you'd like."

 

[PopcornPie]

"I have to be." Nanome chimed. "My comm-" Her years of being yelled at for letting her tongue slip had taught her to catch herself. "...Comrades and I agree that it's the best thing to be respectful to everyone!" Ugh, that sounded cheesy, but plausible. "And it also means that we have to push ourselves when it's needed, so, yes, I did walk a long way..." She, once again, looked down shyly at the glop she'd tracked in, hoping that her courageous words would make up for her frightened appearance. "I was interrupted. My name is Nanome. I think I walked in a straight line, so my ship should be off to the southeast." She was a bit worried by Welkin's expression, seemingly probing and even a bit uneasy. If she told him that she was alone as a runaway, that would help, right?

 

[Fortunate Son]

He nodded some and motioned for her to follow him. Once they got outside to a quiet space, he called her. "You can cut the bull..." He said. "I know that's an IDS uniform." His voice was low, quiet, calm. "Because I once wore the opposite sides uniform." He added in. "And something tells me that you aren't eager to link back up with your 'comrades'. If you were, you wouldn't have come to this town. You would've activated your ships emergency beacon, hunkered into a defensive position, and waited for rescue." He said.

Looking ahead of them, he grinned some, but not with joy. "Ah, Doc! I was wondering when you'd get back! Who's the friend?" He said cheerfully, but she might notice that he unsnapped the holster for his blaster, making it ready to be drawn. "If we can, I'll just collect my pay and be going now." He said.

"No, you won't be Mr. Sharp. See, I learned something quite interesting. It would seem that there is a bounty for you." He said. "And my 'friend' here is looking to collect and offered me payment for bringing him to you."

Collin sighed some, "So Drayfuse is still after my hide for that mishap..." He paused. The bounty hunter grunted something out, and before the Bounty Hunter could draw, Collin ripped his blaster from its holster and fired twice, the force of the blast enough to knock the bounty hunter back with a hole in his chest. He turned it on the doc. "You'll be leaving my money right here on the ground. My price just increased. 50 percent."

 

[PopcornPie]

"No, I'm really not..." Nanome said quietly, loyally following him. "I won't hurt you. Just pretend I'm not wearing this. I'll refuel and then leave this planet alone." "But the IDS probably won't once they find out I can ended up here." She gulped. Just how much trouble did she bring? As they spoke, her squadron was probably using exhaust trackers to follow her. Hopefully the refuelling station wasn't too far off. It would hurt to know that her squadron was turning Mizuwul upside down while she was flying away, but still being free would mitigate it.

But they didn't stop at a fuel station. There was someone ahead, and he sure as she was born didn't look like a station attendant. She stayed quiet as the exchange took place. Mishap? What mishap? So Collin there was a bounty hunter, presumably one in just as much trouble as she was. That fact was made clear by the sudden shootout that had her bristling, reaching for her own pistol, ready to shoot someone and run.

 

[Fortunate Son]

The man went wide-eyed and scrambled, throwing a coin purse on the ground before running away as fast as he could. Collin sighed, "Bastard... selling me out like that after I gave him a low rate." He said. "I'm no criminal." He told her. "Just pissed off the wrong people." He reholstered his own blaster, and then took up both the money left on the ground and the money that the ohter bounty hunter had had. He then looked to her.

"You know they'll hunt you right? They can probably track your personal ship." He said.

 

[PopcornPie]

Nanome needed a couple moments to process everything. Okay, Welkin was a bounty hunter. He just killed another bounty hunter. Talk about a cutthroat market. Since Nanome wasn't a bounty hunter, she wouldn't end up like Doc there, right? She wasn't sure. For a second there, she thought she was the one going to be sold. As for the personal ship tracking thing... "I probably already am." She explained sheepishly. "My commander...let's just say I'm probably the only soldier in years who had the guts to desert." She looked to the sky, nervous, wondering if her former squadron had already broken through the atmosphere. Collin was right, they both were pretty much in the same place.

 

[Fortunate Son]

Collin sighed, "Then... and I really... really shouldn't do this." He said. "We get you some civilian clothes... we get whatever you need from your ship... and we get out of here." He said. "Because they will be coming... and they might leave this planet alone if you're gone from it." He said. "I don't ahve to worry, because the EAM thinks I'm dead... you however, they knew you ran." He sighed some.

 

[PopcornPie]

"Exactly." Nanome nodded slowly. "That's my plan. I'm gonna need to make a lot of repairs...but I need to make them as quickly as possible, get across the galaxy as quickly as my engines are able, before anyone gets hurt, until I find who I need." Her eyes locked on to Collin, hoping he'd understand. Civilian clothes sounded good to her, but it wouldn't be enough. As long as she could remember, her hair was a distinct, lovely silver that was the standard look for IDS soldiers. She didn't know why. Maybe circumstances on wherever they were rescued from were that rotten.

 

[Fortunate Son]

Welkin shook his head, "No, you don't quite get it. I'm saying you might want to destroy or leave your ship behind. I don't know how they can track it... but it is possible that they could. They'll be able to follow you if you keep using one of their ships." He told her. "Follow me, we can get you some clothes, then the fuel."

 

[PopcornPie]

Nanome's eyes widened. "That's true...I was thinking I could just deactivate the tracker on the front. It'd be easy, just disconnect a couple wires. But all it would take is a spy to recognize my fighter, and I'd be dragged back." Of course, if Welkin was in her situation for longer, he'd know better how to evade his pursuers! She held her hand over her eyes, wondering if she could spot the fueling station in the distance.

 

[Fortunate Son]

She would spot it, it was up on a hill of sorts, a large landing facility with a few ships already at it, all of them either civilian ships or ships of the local planetary defense force. Welkin nodded some, "It's best to abandon it." He said. "One less thing to trace you back to them." He told her. He pointed out a clothes shop. "I'll offer to buy your clothes, but you'll owe me." he said. "If you don't have any credits that is."

(Sorry, today was a busy day of work around the house and being out with friends lol)

 

[PopcornPie]

(That's okay, I was unusually tired all day)

Nanome hid misty eyes between silver locks that had been blown across her face. She just wanted her fuel, to take care of that crappy old ship as much as she could...and she was leaving it behind. All the times it managed to get itself running just in time to escape an explosion, all the quiet time spent in the hangar as she duct taped its pipes, all those enemies she blasted to bits...it was all going to end with her up and leaving it. It was just going to sit there, collecting weeds, until it was so bogged down the ignition couldn't even turn. Not at all a deserved end for such a loyal bucket of bolts. Nanome closed her heavy eyelids and sighed. Welkin was right, it was for the greater good. But she had an opportunity to say goodbye. "I left my wallet behind in the ship." She explained softly. "Should I go back for it now, or should I after we get fuel?"

 

[Fortunate Son]

Welkin sighed, "You know we can take some memento of your ship with you if you don't want to entirely leave it. Or you could at least remove it from whatever swamp you crashed in." He added. "It's your choice. And we could go now if you'd like, my ship is nearby." He offered.

 

[PopcornPie]

Naome sighed, smiling gratefully. "Not only that..." She grumbled, tapping her chin. "But if the IDS were to come and find my ship, they'd probably freak out. Well, more than they're probably already freaking out. You'd be surprised how heavily guarded the mothership is." She really was lucky it was such a big battle the day before she left. Even the toughest commanders were wiped out, leaving the hangar completely empty, locked up unless you knew the code. In other words, for once, having almanacs worth of information stuffed in her head consistently came in handy; she found the code in her commander's office, memorized it at a moment's notice, and the door opened smoothly and silently for her. Had the stupid engine not backfired, she probably would've escaped detection free. Even so, after escaping the blaring sirens in the hangar, soaring off into space all alone...it felt like a heavy collar had been removed from her neck. Like some kind of harness had up and disintegrated, letting her fly away to find some information on her own. Once her heart slowed back to its normal pace, it took a look at its surroundings and froze; with no enemy fire to scar it, space was a beautiful, untouched meadow of planets and stardust, flawless and bright like the face of a woman in her prime.

Looking back on her escape, she realized just what memento she could take off. There was an antenna on the side of a fighter's canopy designed to be trackable from long distances. It was primarily meant for rescuing a soldier who was shot down. It was perfectly intact, meaning that it would do its job whether or not Nanome wanted to be rescued. If she could get it off, then get her ship out of dodge before the IDS came, there'd be no need to say goodbye. "So we'd better hurry. Let's go!"

 

[Fortunate Son]

He smiled some, "Well, sounds like you have a good plan there." He said. "Alright alright. We'll go, but we have to be quick." He said, resettling his blaster as he started leading her to his ship. The ship itself was simple enough, a light freighter with some defensive weapons. "The Edelweiss, I've modified her to make her nice and maneuverable for when I need it. And her hyperdrive is one of the fastest available. Nothings faster." he grinned with pride.

 

[PopcornPie]

"Ooh, I do need fast..." Nanome cooed, looking for the way in. "Actually, an IDS fighter can be pretty fast, able to cross a typically sized galaxy in an hour." A Yuxorg hour, anyway, which to an earthling was about three hours. "And we'll have to keep hour eyes open for a refuelling station, too." "Because if I'm able to remove the antenna in time, I want to be able to fuel up. This is gonna go perfectly, I can feel it!"

To be blunt, it wasn't.

"This is Fighter O-4." A worried female called to her squadron. "I think I see O-7's ship down there! Oh, thank God, this nightmare's almost over...Nanome, are you all right?...Oh, don't tell me she broke down again and went alone for help!" She was the fastest to land by the ship, only to have a small heart attack when she noticed Nanome wasn't in the cockpit. "It's just as I thought!" She wailed into her communicator. "She's somewhere on this planet, all alone!"

"Stay calm, Meleiko." O-6, aka Tirides, came forward. "Nanome's energetic, but the most cowardly of all of us. She couldn't have had the guts to go far."

"Even if she did, we can track her! Look!" Soldier O-3, Mawzey, pointed to the deep imprints the lost soldier's boots had left in the wet grass.

"Oh, thank God! Good eye, Mawzey!" After helping Mawzey, the smallest of the group, down from her cockpit, the girls dashed down the trail. Tirides, however, stayed behind. "Guys, wait!" He thumbed to the remaining ships. "We should...well, I'll wait for the others..."

One by one, the remaining soldiers hopped out of their cockpits, took a second to register what they were doing, then gave their own comment about the situation. "Well, would you look at that. She barely went an hour before breaking down." Said Tikodo, soldier O-8, landing smoothly on his feet with a slight grin of amusement on his face. In contrast, O-9, Fieriba, pounced the ground, growling. "With her rust bucket?! It's a wonder she can leave the hangar! Such an idiot, that girl..." She mumbled, watching O-4, Vixiva, climb down. "Easy, now...Nanome's just hurt. Commander was pretty harsh." She smoothly walked after the other two, followed closely by Daminigo, O-1, who flailed his pistol about. "Maybe we should consider that we could fall into the same trouble she's in?" O-2, Sugino, agreed, quickly positioning herself behind her brother. The last one to come out was O-5, Hecca, who paused to look out to the horizon, his eyes clouded with worry. "Let's just find her before Commander does...then we'll have time to think of a cover story that might make Commander less likely to kill her." He shook his head. "What the hell was she thinking." Within minutes, the six silver-haired soldiers regrouped and stormed Mizuwul, their blasters out, in a perfect line.

 

[Fortunate Son]

Welkin had been getting her to his ship and letting her onboard the slightly larger small freighter. It was spacious, for hauling cargo or people, but the engines were clearly powerful. "So, care to guide me to where your ship is located at Nanome?" He asked her, heading into the cockpit, which was meant to include a co-pilot, as he started up the ship to prepare for takeoff.

 

[Fortunate Son]

(Sorry for the late reply, things got hectic)

 

[PopcornPie]

"Of course...um, this is your coordinates device, right?" Not wanting to screw anything up, Nanome simply rattled off her coordinates the last time she'd checked them. "If my ship isn't there, it's around that area." She explained confidently, keeping her cheek pressed to the canopy. "I promise you, as soon as I'm up and running again, I'll be out of your hair. If any IDS come down and ask you, just say you didn't see me. They can't keep up a search forever!"

"All right, I've informed the rest of the O-Row soldiers." Tirides said proudly, keeping a steady pace. "We'll have a total search party on this planet in no time, unless we find her before they make it here, in which case...well, they can help us protect her."

"And us, right?" Daminigo inquired, still nervous. "Or maybe we're kind of selling her short, don't you think? What if she's already making it back to her ship on her own? Somebody's gotta stay behind just in case, right?"

The entire line stopped, and Tirides gave O-1 an empathetic glance. "All right, Daminigo." He sighed. "You can stay by the ships...probably should've thought of that before..." He uttered, pointing his pistol to the others. "Okay, Mawzey, you want to go with him?"

"Hm...yeah, maybe." Mawzey rubbed her tiny chin. "But then again, they could have some cool technology we could copy...might want to keep going ahead so I can check it all out. It'll benefit us later, I just know it." She poked Fieriba with her pistol. "You?"

"Absolutely not!" Fieriba slapped Mawzey's gun away with hers. "I want to be right there to yell at her for being a bigger dumbass than usual! I guess it's the same for you, right?" She pointed to Meleiko with her blaster.

"Oh, no, no, no." Meleiko shook her head wildly. "I mean, yes, but no, I mean..." She gulped back the words. "If Nanome's in trouble, I want to be there to help her! But I want to be there to meet her if she comes back..."

Vixiva laid her hand on her shoulder. "No, you're fine. Go ahead." She smiled. "I'll take the job. My legs have been killing me anyway."

"I'd better stick around the ships, too." Hecca laid his arm across Daminigo's shoulder. "Even if Nanome doesn't return to her ship, we'd better make sure no crooks make off with ours."

"I'll stay, too." Sugino stammered. "I mean, we are siblings and siblings stay together, right?" O-1 and O-2 nodded at each other.

"Oh, you know what, I'll stay back here, too!" Meleiko wailed. "I know it's cowardly, I just can't bear to think of her in danger!"

"I think we're settled, Tirides!" Tikido called.

"Okay, does that mean we're out of distractions?" Tirides sighed. "Alright then, let's keep moving!"

//You're good!

 

[Fortunate Son]

Welkin nodded and got them in the air. "It is, and alright, I'm sure we can find it." he said. With the coordinates in and everything ready, he powered hte ship off and got it airborne, before long they were headed towards her ship. "So, are you sure no one came after you?" he asked her as he kept an eye out. Then he started to see people in the distance, and other ships. "Because that sure doesn't look like no one came after you!"