Nira Whanesley took a slow, deep breath as she rotated awkwardly and stared out at the star-filled sea around her. The clink of her cable tapped lightly around her suit's harness, a reminder of the thin line between life and death that she walked everyday. One stray chunk of debris or a failed maintenance check was easily the difference between returning back to Ivoli Station or fading off into the infinite black of the universe.
Despite this, Nira had no fear for the greater unknown. She found it fascinating. As she became lost in thoughts of worlds unknown and hidden species, a harsh voice crackled into her ear.
"You keep this up and you're going to fry, little lady."
Nira blinked rapidly and regained her focus. She turned slightly to the right and saw a hedge of orange growing rapidly around the horizon. Her metallic suit shot out a hiss of air as a box popped up on her visor:
"Solar rise: 8 minutes."
Ivoli Station sat in the fissures of a small asteroid that orbited the Pocanian sun and served the explicit purpose of mining energy from the star. Life was built entirely around the trade: maintaining the solar shields, learning how to differentiate the various uses of solar energy and cycling shipments to the UIFH. Nira's family had been solar miners for decades, but she always let her focus shift to stars that wouldn't burn her alive.
She shuddered at the thought. Nira would rather be left to float in isolation than feel the horrible sear of a solar burn. She rubbed her left arm instinctively. Once was enough.
"Kid, you're in your thoughts again," the voice warned. "Get back to the station. Now."
"I'm coming, Zhan," Nira replied with a twinge of annoyance. "You know I don't like being out here to begin with."
Zhan laughed heartily on the other end of the comm. "You say that Nira but I know you like stargazing. Either way, I need you to lock in so I can reel you back"
Nira acknowledged and tapped her wrist pad to produce a holographic menu. She scrolled through her options before enabling the lock for her cable. Another hiss erupted from her suit, followed by a loud beep as the limp cable tightened into a dense line. A small tug gently pulled Nira backwards as she gazed at the expanding orange horizon.
"Hey Zhan, you think you can make this thing go any faster?" Nira asked. A warning box popped back up on her screen:
"Solar rise: 6 minutes. Station shields activating."
She took another deep breath, feeling the oxygen balloon into her chest. The line pulled a little faster.
"Nira, I got this thing going as fast as I can. You're still good, though. I got the time to station as two minutes and the solar rise at five," Zhan said in his best attempt to calm her.
Her eyes closed, Nira felt the heat around her quickly increase. She began to berate herself for getting lost in her thoughts again. Solar miners only had a four-hour window to run their maintenance checks and switch out the energy units on the panels that collected it all.
After that, the asteroid would rotate Ivoli into the sun's direction and shields had to stay up for another two hours. While it was enough to protect the dense materials of the station, the sheer amount of light and heat produced by the sun would destroy anyone unfortunate to get caught outside.
"One minute to the station," Zhan's voice echoed in her ear.
Nira put all her thoughts to the day that she would finally be far away from a blazing sun and sitting on the tropical beaches of a planet like Vensha. The nagging thoughts in the back of her mind told her that it wouldn't be anytime soon, though. She was neck-deep in an incredibly valuable research project and wouldn't get any semblance of a vacation until it was done. Still, the thoughts of crashing waves kept her at ease.
Nira opened her eyes and immediately knew something was wrong. She should have been back inside the station's airlock but was hanging in the same spot she was at just a minute ago.
"Zhan, what's going on?" Nira asked, a hint of panic in her voice.
"I'm running diagnostics but the pulley seems to have jammed," Zhan replied, his words barely distinguishable.
Nira figured the encroaching solar radiation would fry their comms completely. The machines behind her smashed together repeatedly in an attempt to pull her in. Knowing the only option was to unlock her cable and do the work herself, Nira quickly opened her wrist pad menu. The warning box popped yet again:
"Solar rise: three minutes."
"I know!" Nira yelled at her visor as she scrolled rapidly through her options again. She hated how many menus she had to get through just to find what she was looking for.
Zhan's voice screeched briefly in her ear. "Loo-"
She turned in concern and felt the hard metal of a pulley gear smash into her chest and visor. The force rattled her sideways and into the other side of her solidified cable. Nira choked and gasped, the air knocked out of her body and her vision blurred from the impact. She blinked twice to clear her eyes and analyzed the cracks on her visor's outer layer.
Her chest burning, Nira turned and watched as another gear silently shot out from the pulley and into her cable. The sheer force of impact snapped the cable and sent Nira flying into the station wall. She smashed into the side, rolling and sliding as she reached her hand out to grab something.
Her right hand latched onto a small antenna, the impact from stopping causing her shoulder joint to pop from its socket. Nira yelped in pain and threw her other hand, grabbing the antenna and pulling herself up to it.
"Solar rise: 1 minute. Shield protocol complete."
Nira's dark brown hair covered her eyes, let loose by her many tumbles, and beads of sweat dripped down her forehead. She could barely make out the shape of the airlock door a few meters away. The heat from the sun began to burn, her suit creaking and popping from heat expansion. Nira knew she had one shot at making it back into Ivoli alive.
She broke off a chunk of antenna and launched herself forward, angling through the cable's floating debris. As she approached the door, she tapped her wrist and activated the magnetic locks on her boots. They pulled her firmly into the station wall with a loud bang, and Nira began walking as quickly as her boots allowed. She jammed the chunk of antenna into the gap between the airlock doors and tried her hardest to pry it open.
30 seconds.
Nira's breathing turned heavy as her suit became an oven. Sharp pain rose as her back started to sear. She put her entire weight against the makeshift lever, hoping that it would snap the safety mechanism and open the doors.
It was no use. Her fear of being burned alive was close to reality.
10 seconds.
As Nira resolved herself to her fate, the doors burst open and Zhan yanked her inside the airlock. He hugged her, the only shield between her and a fiery end.
"Don't move!" He yelled before screaming in pain as the sun passed behind them.
The doors shut, an internal shade and artificial gravity kicking in as Nira and Zhan fell to the floor. Nira quickly unhooked her helmet, her breathing hard and shallow as she tossed it to the side and looked over him. Parts of his suit had melted into his skin, red and black burns marring the rest.
Zahn coughed violently behind his cracked helmet. "Sure got lucky," he managed to wheeze, his gravelly voice made worse by the burns in his lungs.
"Don't talk," Nira said, holding his hand. "Just stay alive for me. Please."
The inner doors of the airlock whirred open and a small medical team entered. Thoughts whirled around in Nira's mind as she was lifted on a MediBed and taken to the infirmary. Bright lights flashed over her eyes and shadowed figures discussed her condition.
She heard snippets of conversation - "critical", "surgeries", "lots of rest." Cold medical gel splashed over her burns, but she didn't feel any pain. Her mind was on the man who rescued her.
Zhan had, for as long as she remembered, been her father's best friend. She thought about the earliest days she could picture. Her mother passed away young from a weakened heart, so her dad and Zhan were all that she knew growing up. They taught her everything, told her stories about the unique worlds that rested beyond the station and argued often about the state of the UIFH and its impact on Ivoli. Nira gained enough engineering knowledge from her father so that she could accompany him on repairs. She never minded the odd hours or clunky suits as it gave them time to bond.
Then, on what should have been a routine check, it all went sideways. Nira had gotten lost in her thoughts and it cost her. She remembered the alarm in her ears, the panic on her father's face and the feeling of being kicked hard toward the airlock. The visual of her father spinning backwards into the black void and the fires of the burning sun remained etched into her memory.
Nira grabbed her left arm again. The crimson mark that stretched from shoulder to hand was a physical reminder of all that she lost that day. A reminder that, no matter how much she reached out the airlock, she could never rescue the man who raised her. Zhan promised that day he would take care of her and he stayed true to his word. Now it had cost him too. Nira's body shook.
She stood and unhooked the multiple cords dangling from her body. The medical staff around her tried to convince her to stay, but the mental autopilot had already kicked in. Nira ran her hand through her hair, choking back tears as she strolled through the endless gray hallways of the station with no destination in mind. As she turned into Ivoli's bleach white cafeteria, she sighed and sat at the nearest empty table. A small blue culinary drone rumbled up to Nira.
"Input required: nutritional choice," the drone barked.
Nira tapped a few icons on its holographic face before it spat her tray of food from its midsection. She took the tray, thanked the drone and looked at what she had received. Despite choosing her favorite things, it all seemed cold and unappealing in her current state. A few warm tears rolled from her face onto the food below. Nira grabbed the tray, opting to take her meal back to her lab. If anything, her project could keep her mind occupied.
Two steps from the table, Nira heard an immense boom followed by silence and a blast of heat. She flew backwards into the wall, her vision flashing white. The sound of screams and a blaring alarm slowly filled her ringing ears. Nira crawled onto her knees but struggled to stand as more explosions rocked the station. Her shaking legs gave and she tumbled back to the floor as the cafeteria's roof began to cave in.
Nira braced herself as chunks of concrete and steel rained down around her. Other members of the station ran into the halls for safety, screaming each other's names and trying to avoid a crushing death. Nira begged for help as the rubble above her compiled, the weight of it all pressing down on her organs. No one came.
Nira closed her eyes and tuned out the world around her. She was tired - tired of feeling helpless, tired of feeling lost. Her body braced as the weight above her continued to compress.
She had come close to death too many times. Nira thought of Zahn and her father. The feeling of reaching out, just wanting to save him. It first manifested in that moment and, even now, using It was more akin to flexing a muscle than riding a Sike.
Energy began to creep from Nira's core into her arms as her breathing slowed. Static popped and crackled as It began to physically manifest, a vibrant wave of yellow particles rising from her skin. A familiar sense of power filled her veins. The yellow energy constricted around her arms then exploded into a field of sparks that sent the debris above her flying.
Nira refused to die.
As she swept off the remaining debris, thick neon bands clasped her arms and hands. Kanushins took different forms, colors and styles but Nira's was exactly what she needed. She rubbed her hands together to spark an electric current then shot the band from her right arm towards a nearby chunk of debris. As it wrapped around, energy rippled down the length and into the concrete. It snapped and crunched, cracks of light bursting through before exploding the debris into hundreds of pieces.
Darkness enveloped the cafeteria as the lights of the station shut off. Nira's arms illuminated the area around her before the emergency generators bathed the station in a cherry red glow. More explosions rocked the station.
Knowing she had to hurry, Nira made her way into the halls, whipping rubble aside and picking up speed.
'I need to get to Zhan in the med center. From there we can cut through the engineering deck to get to the escape shuttles,' She thought as she turned the corner. The stationed shuddered and groaned from constant bombardment.
Suddenly, the wall in front of Nira shattered as a large mechanical pod smashed through it. The smooth black surface hummed loudly, white lights flashing intermittently down the side. Caught off guard, Nira stepped back as the pod whined then popped open.
A clawed gray hand clasped the side, rock-like scales and dark crystal protrusions covering its skin. A bulky armored creature pulled itself out and growled at Nira behind a featureless mask.
"Human," It uttered in a metallic, scraping voice, "surrender or die."
Nira knew that the Kunar didn't believe in the concept of mercy. As the Kunar soldier reached for the plasma rifle hooked into its back, she leapt to the side and wrapped a band around its arm. She tugged, yanking the rifle out of its hand before sending a powerful current into the alien's body. The Kunar's armor sparked as it short-circuited and the alien collapsed to the floor.
'This is bad,' Nira thought. 'The Kunar are banned from being within the quadrant.'
She bent down and ran her hand over the soldier's flush armor. Kunar bio-locked their equipment to prevent other species from stealing it and this was no different. There was something slightly off, though. Nira had seen a fair share of holo-vids from the Ancestral War and other events where the Kunar decided to violently enforce their might as a species.
'These aren't regular soldiers, they're Reclaiments. Kunar special forces,' She concluded.
The violent pulse of plasma rifle fire echoed down the halls. The Kunar were invading Ivoli in full force.
Nira hopped over the open pod and rushed down the corridor until she reached the medical center. It was too late. Lifeless bodies were strewn in the fiery wake of a Kunar attack and the doors had been blown off from a breach. Nira navigated the mess, careful to avoid stepping on the dead.
"Zhan!" She called, the glow of her Kanushin serving as a flashlight in the dimly lit room.
The crackle of the nearby flames gave life to the otherwise silent interior. Nira came across Zhan's nameplate hanging crooked along a scorch-marked wall. As she entered the room, a light cry escaped her pursed lips.
Zhan sat crumpled in the corner of the room, a Kunar blade broken off into his side.
Furniture littered the floor as signs of a scuffle. Nearby, the Reclaiment assailant crawled across the floor to its rifle. Incensed, Nira rushed behind it and wrapped both bands around its neck.
The Reclaiment reached up, claws grasping as the indestructible ribbons constricted its airway. Nira let out a guttural scream before sending the full electrifying force of her Kanushin into her captive. She slipped backward, catching herself on her arms before turning and crawling to Zhan's lifeless body.
Nira slowly placed her hand on Zhan's chest. As she stared at her caretaker's worn and craggy face, tears filled her eyes.
"I'm sorry, Zhan," She sobbed. "I'm so sorry."
Nira said her last goodbyes and then forced herself up. She needed to push through. As she made her way back out of the medical center, her gaze turned to the large viewing window and the mass of Kunar ships lingering in the space around Ivoli. Waves of emergency shuttles launched desperately from the station's side only to violently explode. Nira punched the wall in frustration.
"What are you here for?" She screamed. Suddenly, the light went off in her mind.
Nira darted out of the medical bay doors and back into the maze of hallways, doing her best to avoid the Reclaiments making their way through the station and its unfortunate occupants. Tension filled every part of her body and her active Kanushin began to sap away at her energy. She could feel her movement getting sluggish and her mind fogging, the yellow particles of her bands starting to dissipate. As she reached her personal lab, she crumpled to the floor in exhaustion.
Nira's body stopped but her mind kept spinning. She looked around, knowing she needed to buy as much time as she could, and sent a band up and around the exposed ceiling frame. She grabbed it and channeled the last of her energy into a final burst powerful enough to bring the framework down in front of the doors. A barricade successfully created, Nira turned her attention to her workstation. She tapped and typed rapidly, moving over any code and data she possibly could.
It wasn't long before Nira heard the Reclaiments shouting at each other on the other side of the barricade. Sweat dotting her forehead and fire burning brightly around her, she knew there was only one thing left to do. Nira put the final touches on her research and started the final export. It was out of her hands now. She fumbled through her drawers, grabbed a solar pistol, and hopped over her desk to face the barricade.
As the Reclaiments broke through, Nira immediately started blasting. One down, then two more. Solar bolts cut cleanly through the Kunar armor as only they could.
A harsh burn tried to claim her attention. The first rifle blast had hit her in the left shoulder and the second in her right hip. Nira kept firing. Through gritted teeth and immense pain, she would take out as many as she could. For Ivoli and its people. For Zhan.
The firefight suddenly ceased and the Reclaiments moved back into the hall. Nira stood in silence, pistol aimed at the door. Her shoulder and side felt like hot knives had just run through them.
Her heavy breathing filled the silence until it was joined by the rhythmic thud of metal boots down the hall. She aimed her pistol at the opening once more and shot the Kunar that appeared squarely in the chest.
*****
Ravig didn't flinch as the bullets pinged off of his armor. As head of the Reclaiments and Kunar military, he was more than prepared to take fire from any weapon. A small human female stood in the center of the burning room and fired more to no avail.
"All this mess from one human female?" Ravig asked. His voice was deep and strong, a layer of ice underneath every word he spoke.
He moved closer, the three crystalline spikes on his head protruding from his blood red mask and catching flickers of the fire around them. The Human studied him, pistol aimed, unsure of how to respond.
Kunar were usually six or seven feet and bulky from the rock-like physicality of their bodies. Ravig, on the other hand, was a gaunt eight feet that somehow made him even more imposing. Gold and red accents adorned the spiked pauldrons on his shoulders and the chestpiece of his armor. Long red lines ran down his arms into matching gloves with sharp silver claws.
"You're a survivor, aren't you?" He continued. "A fighter that doesn't know when to stop."
The Human stepped backward as Ravig ripped up the desk between them and chunked it to the side. A look of panic grew on her face. She waved her arm and formed a partial Kanushin on her right hand, lashing out and wrapping the sputtering band around Ravig's arm.
Ravig laughed as the band started to dissipate, yellow flecks filling the air. The Human was barely able to fight back. A sense of superiority filled Ravig as he thought about how easily the humans had been defeated.
"It seems you're all drawn out," He said snarkily. "I'll show you mine instead."
*****
Nira didn't realize she had been backed into a corner. The Kunar leader reached across with ease and dug his claws into her shoulder as he lifted her up. She pounded her fists against his arm and kicked with all her might, but her Kanushin had already used up her energy.
The leader held the struggling Nira high, putting her face level with his. Soft red particles formed a rippling wave of ethereal matter that spilled up from his arm to his hand and across Nira's neck. As it began to engulf her body, a single tear rolled down her left cheek.
Nira pictured herself outside of Ivoli, floating around and staring at the stars with her father and Zhan. As the station turned and the sun began to rise, she wasn't afraid. She grabbed their hands and felt the warmth slowly wash across her.
*****
Ravig's Kanushin enveloped the human in a pulsing red bubble. Another insect crushed. He often relished watching the pain of his captives as his Kanushin charred them alive, but something unexpected caught his attention.
The human was smiling. Calm. At peace.
Furious, he unleashed a final spark of energy and said the last word she would ever hear:
"Burn.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTFBk3dMLCR
and then Add to home screen.