Unknown location - Origination of distress signal...

Onboard the Privately owned Starship 'Harbinger'




"Reversion in ten seconds..."

Saladin gripped the handrail running along the command deck and braced himself. With a subtle lurch, the 'Harbinger' reverted into real-space , and into a massive cloud of superheated gases and debris. The entire ship seemed to shudder, and alarms from seemingly all stations all shrilled in unison...

"SHIELDS! DAMNIT SHIELDS!" Roared Saladin as the vessel took another thunderous course of buffeting...

He swung around to the scanning station manned by a scared shitless looking Devoronian...

"REPORT! what the hell did we just fly into?" He demanded angrily, his intense gaze focused entirely on the hapless scanning officer. The Devoronian's eyes and fingers raced across the console reading and absorbing information as fast as it came in, anxious and uncomfortably aware he was the centre of attention, he reeled slightly as he realised what the data was revealing...

"Sensors report that all indications point to the remnant of a solar flare my Lord, a big one at that-- "What?" Saladin interrupted the officer "Solar flares don't cause this much mess! If I have to come over there and take correct readings myself you'll find yourself floating home!" The anger evident in Saladin's voice was all too palpable for the Devoronian officer...

"With respect my Lord, there is a great deal of interference, but the readings are correct, the debris field we've just flown into matches the position of what should be two planetary bodies, a planet and it's moon, all evidence indicates one is... " His words hung in the air as he double checked his findings... "Gone" He added simply...

Saladin growled, and swung around to the view screen.. "Scan the nearest star in this area, I want to know what's happening, Mastor, do we have a fix on that transmission?"

"Yes my Lord" Mastor's reply was instant...

"On screen"

The control deck was suddenly lit up in the blue glow of a planet, and as Saladin's eyes settled upon it, he could just about make out the swirl's and eddies of cloud and weather formations held within its atmosphere, his eyes narrowed in reaction...

"The planet is not listed on any known star charts we have , my Lord"

"All sensor readings indicate....life readings...its highly populated" Continued the Devoronian as if on cue...

"What kind of life?" Saladin asked slowly, his voice calm and calculated...

"Many low level , but mostly...human" The scanning officer reported dutifully, and watched as this information seemed to spark something off within his Commander....

"Tactical, report! " Saladin shouted and stepped closer to the planet in view, his eyes studying it intensely...

"No threat imminent, scans indicate no defensive batteries, no shields, no orbital stations, the only thing I am reading is very low level tech capabilities, whoever is down there, they're living in the dark ages, my Lord..."

The tactical officer could barely hide his eagerness to report the welcome news...

Saladin allowed himself a faint smile at this information, this was it, what he had been looking for! He turned to address his crew...

"Good job men! There'll be an extra bonus for each crewman , it looks like we've hit the jackpot!"

All at once there was a huge cheer from around the control deck...

But there was one , who didn't... "My lord" Stammered the Devoronian over the noise, causing Saladin to face him once again... " readings report the nearest star is collapsing, sensor's traced the solar flare to the main sun in this sector, all indications confirm, its...unstable..."

Saladin frowned... "Elaborate on ...unstable" He asked guardedly...

"Its expanding, my Lord, the flare was, just the beginning..." There was a short sharp intake of breath from around the deck...

"Its going supernova"

Saladin pursed his lips at the sobering news... "How long?"

The deck seemed to go silent as the Devoronian ran through some quick calculations... "its hard to say, I can run through some simulations, but it'll take a while, best guess with the current information we have, it could be days, or even hours..."

Saladin's top lip snarled in reaction to this, every operation had its risks, but this was different, some dangers could be counter-balanced or even worked around, but there was no working around a supernova. His eyes glided to the blue and white orb floating in front of them, as he weighed up the dangers...

Life was all about risks, he had learned this quickly as a youngling , but where there were high risks, there were also high gains...

This could be the one to set him up for life, if done right...

He made his decision.

"Helm take us into orbit, prepare the ground crews, we're going in" He turned back to the scanning station "You, Devoronian, I want those simulations run now, and the results first thing!" The officer acknowledged and set about his task...

No more scrounging for scraps off the outer reaches of space...not now....not ever!

"This is madness! if another Solar flare hits, we won't stand a chance!" Mastor's voice was only mere moments away from panic...

Saladin held his palm up to silence his underling...

"Which is why we act fast , take what we came for, and leave.."

"but, but....the star!" Mastor could only stammer, before being interjected...

"We won't be here! don't you get it Mastor! We've been given the perfect opportunity! We take what we need, and leave before the star goes supernova, we only need mere hours, and we can all be rich beyond belief!"

"What if we're not the only ones who got the message!" Mastor returned...

"You don't think I have thought of that!" Snapped Saladin, his impatience at being argued with beginning to show...

Mastor trembled slightly at hearing the edge in his master's voice...

"Think! Mastor! there are no ships around to threaten us, and by the time there are , we'll be long gone! and do you know what the best bit about this is?"

Mastor shook his head fearful of the whole idea as Saladin leaned forward, his canine-like grin showing his fangs...

"Once that star goes supernova, all evidence of us being here will be gone" He pointed to the sun glowing in the distance on the view screen, and his terrible smile grew larger as the genius of what had occurred to him sunk in...

"No one will ever know we and this planet, were even here"

Reflections of the past...

* * *

I know I am from another world, another life.

So long ago , I can barely remember what it looks like.

Memories, perhaps, more feelings.

I think they were happy feelings, but it all seems like a dream now.

Perhaps it was.

For I no longer feel anything.


I was found, broken and scarred, shivering amongst the smouldering ruins of my previous incarnation.

The pain the only thing reminding me I was still alive.

I know now , that I wasn't.


Everything I had been, everyone I knew, I lost in a terrible blaze of fury from the sky.


I know now, it was where I was reborn , kicking and screaming , choking and coughing, stumbling through the wilderness. Only to rise from the cinders of my past life, like a phoenix from the flames...


My own baptism of fire.



The one I had known, the one I thought I was, died that day.


And I took her place.

Approximately twenty-four hours prior to emergency distress signal…
Camp Bravo...



"What is it?" Snapped Novak , as he felt the presence of someone linger beside him, and became aware of all eyes of the makeshift command station suddenly upon him...

He felt what little hope left within him evaporate even more in anticipation...
"I'm sorry for the interruption General, but, you ordered me to update you if any new developments happen.." The young officer's voice trailed off...

"I'm waiting" The General growled, without shifting his gaze from the reports of the dead and missing, it had still only been a matter of days since the destructive events had caused utter chaos.With scores of people dead, whole towns and villages had vanished in what seemed like the blink of an eye. The dust was still settling, but the General knew this moment of calm was mere illusion.

"Its the scientists General, they have finished their preliminary reports"

Novak stiffened slightly, and a grim expression began to spread across his face, as he gestured for the folder the young officer was holding…

Since the disaster, what was left of the scientific community has been tasked with obtaining the closest thing anyone had to both an explanation and if possible, a solution, to hear back from them this quickly, despite it being requested, was not a good sign.
As he started to read the first part of the report he became aware the officer was still present, he looked up from the papers as he spoke to young man… "that will be all"

The officer nodded in acknowledgement, but seemed reluctant to leave, as if on the cusp of asking something important, but then seemed to think better of it, saluted and exited, leaving the General alone to digest the information he had just been handed.

When he did , his heart sank, further.

He sat down and wiped his face with his hands, as if trying to erase both the words written in front of him, and the memories of what had transpired so far. With a loud sigh he placed the folder upon the desk in front of him...

A voice broke through his thoughts...

"I take it the situation does not look good" It was not a voice the General was familiar with.

Novak looked up to see a suited stranger standing next to him, he narrowed his eyes as he studied the face and found it to be one he did not recognize, the frown dug deeper. 

"Do I know you?" He asked pointedly

"No, but I know you General, my name is Mr Fisk, International Security Agency, and I have something to show you" Fisk answered, flipping his wallet open to reveal his identity card...

The General tilted his head slightly before rising to his feet to inspect it closely.. "I hardly think this is the time, Mr... Fisk..." Novak began, as he handed the agents wallet back to him...

"On the contrary" Fisk said flatly " Now, would be the perfect time"

Novak stared at the man for a long moment... "How about you just tell me what is so important"

"I'm afraid I cannot, its too sensitive" Replied Fisk perfectly serious.

The General controlled his temper admirably "I don't have time for your agency bantha-shit right now Mr Fisk, in fact in case you hadn't noticed none of us have much time at all, period. So how about you tell me now or I have you forcibly removed... come to think of it, how the hell did you get in here?" With that Novak called out for one of the guards on sentry...

Fisk, realising his time was now quickly running out, started talking , fast.

"Did you mean what you said before, by wanting to know about every option, no matter how crazy?"

Novak stopped and turned his attention back to the suited stranger... 

"Yes, why" he said curtly...

Fisk's eyes widened, and the faint whisper of a smile toyed at the edges of his lips as he replied "Because what I have to show you, only a crazy person could dream of"

"I don't have time for this" Novak answered dismissively, but Fisk's response was quick..

"It seems to me like you"--Fisk paused before correcting himself pointedly--"we, do not have the luxury of dismissing any option at this moment in time, wouldn't you agree?"

Novak stared at the agent standing next to him and grunted, reluctantly agreeing…

"Very well, Agent Fisk, you have my attention, what option do you have in mind?"

"Its better, and more…." Fisk trailed off for a moment as if looking for the correct word… "...expedient, if you were to see for yourself"

Something within Fisk's eyes told Novak he was telling the truth, and the General suddenly felt the creeping sensation, that things were about to get a lot more complicated.

"Alright, Agent Fisk, but this better not turn out to be a waste of my time, or you will come to regret it" Novak said , his tone deadly serious…

"I can assure you General, it is not" the agent replied with a thin smile.





 *  *  *








ISA Hangar - Undisclosed location…



"What the hell is it?" Novak asked warily, not removing his gaze...

"That General, is the question we've been asking ourselves for a long time…" Came Fisk's rather annoyingly ambiguous reply...

"Stop speaking in riddles man what is it?" The General barked out angrily...

The man named only as Fisk, seemed to shift his weight to one side of his body to the other as he coughed nervously...

"The remains of an Alien spacecraft that crashed onto our planet about ten years ago…" He answered, flatly.

Novak, for a moment, found he could not process the words he had just heard, and a heavy awkward silence seemed to permeate the room as if he considering his next words carefully...

"This is some kind of demented joke , right?" He replied eventually, his tone also flat, but with an edge one knew came as a warning to the eruption of anger that lay just below it's surface...

"I assure you General I am deadly serious, as real as the craft you see before you"  Came Fisk's measured response, finding it hard to hold the intense stare the General now fixed him with.

"Why were we not told? This is…" The General broke off mid-sentence, clearly at a loss of words...

"Astounding, yes General, and so would have been its repercussions, thus the decision at the time to keep it from the general public.
But there is more…"

"More?" Novak repeated in disbelief...

He followed Fisk into a medical chamber of some description, where a large tube filled with liquid sat upright upon the chamber floor. Inside the tube, the figure of a naked man standing upright...

"…What the!…"

"This encumbent, was one of the bodies we recovered from the wreckage, as well as a large green humanoid creature.
both died on impact"

Fisk paused for a moment, to let the General digest this information, before continuing...

"The man you see, is from what we can tell, human, but his, ah, companion, is something else entirely…"

Novak could only stare at the two figures, evidently at a loss for words…Fisk, took this as his cue to elborate more...

"This technology is light years ahead, a quantum leap from what anybody has now.
There is no other explanation. There must be more where they came from, a culture far more advanced than ours...."

The General glanced up quickly as he realised the implications of these revelations, and perhaps, the reason why Fisk had bought him here in the first place...

"You think they can help us?" He blurted out, incredulous...

"Yes" Fisk stated firmly.

Novak stared at the agency man in disbelief, and laughed out loud...

"Forgive my outburst Fisk, but, as amazing as this is, to call this a long shot, would be stretching it"

The General had a sudden urgent need of a drink, something strong and alcoholic, preferably. He held his hands up in defeat... 

"Alright Fisk, let's say you are right for a moment" He held a finger up in the air to underline his point as he continued "And I am not saying you are, even if they could, how in the hell would we contact them? Assuming they are still around,  how do we know they would even care enough to try" 

Fisk smiled again for the second time since the General had met him, and Novak had the distinct impression he was enjoying all of this...

"What is it? "Novak asked , warily...

"We are....not.....entirely sure, but we believe it to be a communications relay of some description, it was damaged from the wreck, we believe we can use it to contact ...them"

The General turned his full attention towards the man next to him, his expression once more incredulous.
The enormity of both this unseen and somewhat left-field revelation and the predicament they were all in was beginning to dawn upon him...

"Let me get this straight, you are proposing, we use this" He waved his hand towards the alien equipment before him brusqely..."whatever the hell it is to contact ....whoever the hell it belongs to ...for help?..."

The man nodded simply, as if it were the most simple thing in the world.
He suddenly found himself struggling to keep his composure as a sudden feeling of anger welled up inside of him...

Things were hard enough to process as they were...

His family gone.

The world as they knew it was evidently falling apart around them..

...and now this?

His head ached with grief, and the knowledge that he was powerless to do anything.

The General's sudden sullen silence, prompted the agent to venture further..

"Shall I proceed with operating it"


Novak stared coldly at the man with an expression the agent could not read...

"General?" The agent asked , puzzled...

How was someone supposed to process all of this?

"Sir?"

Novak looked up at the agent and smiled faintly, as he nodded..

"What do we have to lose?" He muttered...

And as he turned to take his leave from what he had just seen, and from Fisk, he spoke once more...

"Do it"


 

The Present.



The moment she knew she was still alive was the instant she felt the pain searing through her. Bringing her to her senses with a cruel jolt.

Excruciating.

So absolute, Molenka attempted to scream aloud in pain, but could not catch her breath to do so, rendering her mute.
In hindsight, it was probably nothing but mere seconds, but in that moment, it seemed to last a lifetime.

So painful she felt herself start to lurch into obscurity once more, and at this point Molenka no longer had any concept of just how long she had been laying where she now found herself.

On her back, choking and suffocating under an unbearable heat.

A moment of lucidity struck her and it all began flooding back, and Molenka sat up in reaction, for a fraction of a second forgetting her pain.

Molenka finally screamed, but her cries were soon stifled by the thick smoke that surrounded her, and she began to cough violently.

The young girl reached up with her right hand to touch her face and saw the bloodied mess her right arm had become. Panic, anguish, horror and sheer terror all threatened to overwhelm her once more.

Molenka had been severely burned, all across the right side, which if the pain was anything to go by, included her face as well as her arm and body.

And yet, she was alive. Barely.

Molenka looked around in panic as she began to realise she was alone, surrounded by a burning forest.

No sign of her brother to be found. Molenka instantly thought the worst.

"TARIK!" She shouted as loud as she could muster, only to find it pathetically drowned out by the roaring of the flames and destruction around her, and she began to sob and shake uncontrollably.

Perhaps it was some evolutionary survival imperative, or just sheer will, but somehow Molenka staggered to her feet.

Shielding herself against the searing heat as best she could, Molenka began to stagger in the direction she thought she could be safe, only to be beaten back by the flames that raged and spat all around her.

Maybe it was just her state of mind, but Molenka felt she could sense their malevolence, encircling her from all sides, and in painful frustration she closed her eyes and screamed out in anger.

With no warning, an almighty crack and a surge of hot air rushed past her, and as Molenka opened her eyes to see what was happening a shockwave pulsated out from in front her.

Molenka watched in an uncomprehending daze, as the wall of fire and trees, were levelled flat in front of her.

Confused, and scared beyond words, Molenka shuffled forwards through the new path of smoking cinders and ash that lay in front of her, wiith only one thought left in her mind, calling to her, like a beacon.


Home.



 

Above...



The ship lurched out of Hyperspace with a bone-shattering shudder, which almost threw Natalya out of her seat,  and she swore under her breath as she struggled to both strap herself in properly and grip the controls. Almost immediately the collision detection alarm began to sound off its shrill warning.

KO-BE1 her R2 unit, joined in with it's own squawks of concern.

They had been hit, and pulled out from hyperspace prematurely, at this point Nat couldn't tell whether it was down to design or by accident. The young Jedi apprentice took in the various information from the instrumentation in front of her, and glanced outside the cockpit, and the reason why became self-evident pretty damn quickly.

Her ship had reverted close to a planet, and into what only could be described as a scene of total devastation, as what appeared to be the remains of a moon loomed closely in front of her, rapidly. It's shadow darkening the cockpit ominously.

Natalya's eyes widened in alarm, and she thrust the control stick forwards in an emergency action to avoid the massive crippled lunar body, the ship's hull creaked and moaned in response to her harsh treatment.

As the ship dived from its original course, it shook and reverberated as it became peppered with asteroids and debris, KO-BE began chatting wildly as it took over controls of the turrets and began shooting at the larger pieces.

It took all of the young Jedi's concentration to manoeuvre her vessel through the asteroid field she now found herself in, but it would not be enough, as another alarm began to sound off.

No!…not the engines! Nat thought to herself desperately, resisting the urge to panic...

Realising she had little choice, Nat veered off towards the planet below her, quickly assessing her scanners for a viable destination, and gritted her teeth, as the craft began to break through into the upper atmosphere. Shaking and buffeting the ship violently.

Gripping the controls tightly, Nat battled to stay on course.

"Hold on KO-BE!, this is going to get rough!" she shouted out to her Droid who simply murmured in response…

As the ship descended, she began to see landmass and did her best to fly towards it.
They were coming in fast, too fast, and as the Jedi began to try to compensate, one of her engines gave out, and the ship began to drop altitude even more.

Nat squinted out of her cockpit just able to catch sight of trees and woodland below her and tried her best to get her craft to straighten up, they were now only tens of metres away from the surface, and as if to confirm this, she began to feel the forest canopy start to scrape and brush against the hull.

"Brace yourself!" She yelled, just as the vessel struck the ground hard, sending debris and dirt flying everywhere, as it carved a path through the forest floor before finally coming to an abrupt stop.



 

Meanwhile...

Onboard the "Victory"...




"All personnel accounted for, fleet is on standby and at a safe distance, V-Tech crew report they are ready to go whenever you give the order Executor"

Vinda turned to face the young officer who had just spoken and grunted an affirmative. He looked around the bridge at the expectant faces, and bit down hard on the end of his cigarra…

…This had better work… 

This project had been a long time in coming, and was the culmination of a lot of time and money.They had tested various prototypes all with hugely varying results, and while everyone was highly confident of success, one never really knew for sure until crunch-time.

The Corporate mogul turned politician glanced up towards his Admiral beside him, and nodded "Give the order Admiral"
Omar nodded in response and turned to face the bridge crew himself...

"We are go, tell the V-Tech crew to initialise on countdown"

As the message was relayed, the tension on the bridge became almost palpable.
The V-Tech crew's feed came through live on various monitors and systems, and as Vinda listened to the countdown, he found himself gripping the guard rail which ran along the edge of the bridge tightly.

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…


"Initialising…"

There was a strange eerie moment, where nothing seemed to happen, and just as Vinda thought they had to go back to the drawing board, an outburst of audible gasps swept across the bridge.

Vinda's eyes widened as he saw with his own eyes as the huge shipyard appeared to distort as if folding in on itself.

For a horrific instant, he thought the entire facility was destroyed.

He blinked as the entire structure disappeared before his eyes, leaving nothing but empty black vaccuum in it's place, and his eyes darted to the banks of monitors and feeds in reaction...

Dead.

…and his heart sank.


"Report!" Commanded Omar loudly, as the bridge erupted into a flurry of activity…

"Nothing on local scanners, Sir, it's …just gone!…" The technician replied visibly flustered…

"Wait, I'm picking up a large gravitic distortion…" Another started in alarm...

Vinda turned to face the source of the voice, and raised his eyebrows as he began to speak..."Where?" but before he could finish his sentence, another round of surprised shouts made him swing back round to face the bridge's window before him…

A bright flash of light spilled out from what had been nothing but empty space before, fading almost as instantly as it had appeared, and it's place, the huge floating structure of the drive yards once more filled the empty gap, as if had been there all the time.

There was a surge of static as the banks of live feeds came back online…

Vinda's eyes swept across the facility's structure, trying to determine if it had taken any damage, but he could not see anything from this far out…

"This is V-tech crew Beta-twelve, calling Victory Alpha, Victory Alpha , please respond…"

"This is Victory Alpha, welcome back, please report current status"

Vinda held his breath for a moment as he listened to Omar speak to the crew onboard the facility….

"Status green, all systems nominal, drive systems good, we lost you there for a moment as we had a power overload burn out a communications relay, but easily fixed. Mission success!"

There was a loud cheer as the crew heard the good news, even though they were not wholly sure at what had actually transpired, though some had clearly guessed. Omar glanced up at Vinda and smiled as he spoke… "I don't know what you have on that thing, but it works…"

Vinda took a deep drag on his cigarra and grinned broadly, sending plumes of blue smoke furling upwards…

"Come Admiral, let's wrap this up, and I'll take you on a tour if you like?" he replied...
Laiden raised his eyebrows and laughed slightly as he replied "Oh I like! I like a lot!" Causing the old man to chuckle in response.


 

Onboard the 'Nova Runner'…




"Look! there!" Keyes pointed out abruptly...

Palmer squinted at the display, and rubbed his stubble covered jaw in thought as he watched the blip on the screen descend far too quickly for it's own good, and grunted in response…

"That can't be good…" murmured the Captain, perplexed at what had just transpired…

So far, the suspected pirate attack , had not materialised, and whilst this was , indeed, a good thing all round, it only served to make Palmer even more suspicious.

They had detected a very large cruiser like vessel on the other side of the planet, and had carefully kept an equidistant course away from it, and had been on silent running all this time while they made the relevant repairs to the hyperdrive.

So far it appeared, their presence had gone undetected, and Palmer was about to give the order to leave when another craft, considerably smaller , a freighter of some kind, had suddenly dropped out of hyperspace, and appeared to be in trouble.

"Well , whoever it is, clearly needs help" Keyes said, looking up at the Captain expectantly…

Palmer eyed him warily "we don't know the situation down there, for all we know, it could be a war-zone, besides I have this ship, and your sorry arses to think about, not to mention my own"

"We might be able to get parts down there" came a voice from behind, and Palmer knew without turning around that Juno had entered the compact bridge… "I thought it was just a wiring issue?" Palmer replied, as he turned around to face not just Juno but, Booth, and Chenko also…

Inwardly he groaned, he already knew where this was going…

"Yeah, well, that was before I found the burnt-out actuator" Chenko piped up… Causing Juno to follow up with "Yeah, maybe whoever it is has spare parts we can use" 

"Or some decent cargo?" Keyes joined in...

Booth simply remained silent, his huge presence speaking for him.

Palmer rolled his eyes… Great! getting ganged up by a soppy engineer , a mute and a talking monkey…

"Alright already!" He blurted out, already irritated "I can see where this is going…We'll check on the pilot, but then we are leaving, this system is clearly not safe…everyone happy?"

Chenko grinned, or at least strange approximation of one, Palmer just found it creepy.

"I swear if this turns out to be a mistake, I'm leaving you all on that hunk of rock" He added.

With that Keyes nodded and began punching in co-ordinates, but then froze midway…

"What?" Came Palmer's wary response…

"The cruiser" Keyes started, his tone ominous… "What about it?" Palmer said anxiously as he strained over his pilot's shoulder to see what had caused the man's consternation… "It's just begun a descent to the surface" Keyes replied.

"Maybe they've gone to help?" Offered Juno, and Palmer narrowed his eyes as he checked the data on the scanner…

"No.." Keyes muttered "Nowhere near it, they're headed somewhere else entirely, according to their trajectory at least"

"Where are they heading?" Asked the Captain cautiously

"Not sure, but if they carry on as they are, a different region by the looks of it, high concentration of life…population centre, a city maybe?" Keyes ventured..

Palmer grunted again, before speaking "Right, we do this fast and sly, drop down while they are descending themselves, they won't be scanning while they are breaking the atmosphere, and even if they do, chances are they won't be able to pick us up. Then we're in and out, Bish-Bash-Bosh! and that's the last I wanna hear about it…unless anyone has a problem with that?"

The crew murmured in agreement…

"Sounds like a plan Boss" Chenko replied, and saluted with his tiny yet freakishly human-looking hands. The action under other circumstances might even have appeared cute, but at this point in time only irritated Palmer further.. "Good" he responded not bothering to hide it "Now go, fix my damned hyperdrive"

As the others left to prepare, Palmer narrowed his eyes as the planet began to grow bigger, filling the bridge window. 

"Whoever it is" The Captain muttered under his breath… "better be bloody worth it" 




 

Elsewhere...



Molenka stared in dumb horror at the large smouldering crater that used to be her home, now all that remained was burning wood and rubble. 

No sign of her parents, or her brother…

No sign of life anywhere.


Finally the pain and fatigue from Molenka's injuries along with her grief threatened to overcome her, and she collapsed where she stood. It was no small feat that the injured girl had made it this far in the first place.

Slowly Molenka began to give into the weariness, and wept bitterly, or at least tried to, for it hurt her burned skin to do so. Coughing and spluttering as she wept Molenka's hands involuntarily gripped handfuls of soil in frustration as she found her hopes dashed, cruelly.

The burnt and ragged young girl did not know how long she remained there, shuddering in the cold morning air, and she only became dimly aware of a sound from behind her…

An engine?… 

She wanted to turn and look, but was so exhausted, she could only open her eyes, albeit painfully.

"MOLENKA!"

She heard her father's voice, and for a moment, she thought she was hearing things, some kind of twisted trick her mind was playing upon her. until of course, she heard it again…

"Molenka! By the Guild's it's really you!"

It wasn't a trick!

With this realisation, Molenka felt a sudden surge of hope course through her, and somehow found the strength to lift her head up to see her father running towards her with handful of other people she did not recognise, beside herself, Molenka cried out in reaction.

"By the god's look at the state of you! what happened? where's Tarik? I need help over here! she's badly burned!" Her Father's voice was drenched with worry, yet laced with relief…

"it's all my fault….Tarik... I…I lost him…" Molenka muttered between hoarse breaths…

My fault...

The young girl could only stammer as she felt her Father's strong arms pick her up gently from the ground, Molenka could sense a flurry of activity around her as her Father carried her to a waiting car. The badly injured girl felt it's idling engine vibrating all around her as she was carefully placed within it, and she clung on to him as tightly as she could, reluctant to let him go.

Molenka was only faintly conscious of people inspecting her injuries, and she heard another voice break through the haze, , it was not one she recognised…

"Calvin, we need to leave now, we can't stay here any longer, it's going to take a day's drive just to get to the camp…I'm sorry, about your wife and your son, truly I am, but we've already spent too long here as it is. It's nothing short of a miracle that we found your daughter, but that won't mean anything if we don't get her medical attention now…"

Calvin's response was swift "you can't just expect me to leave! My son is still out there!"

"We'll leave a message here and directions should he find his way back…" The other voice started, before it was shouted down by Calvin "No! I can't just leave!"
The other voice was sympathetic but insistent "Calvin, you have to think about Molenka now, if we don't get her medical attention soon, there's a good chance you'll lose her too, the camp we heard about has medical facilities, they can treat her and the others, the moment we get there we'll get them to send help, find your son, Hell! I'll come back with you"

Calvin, hung his head, as he made probably the most difficult decision he had ever had to make in his entire life…and assented with a final nod of the head… "Alright" his voice was heavy with sadness.

The engine fired up in response, and Molenka began to feel the sensation of movement.

After a while, the young girl looked up to meet her Father's eyes, and he smiled bravely in spite of everything "I thought I had lost you too" Calvin said softly, as he did his best to clean her wounds.. "Mum?" she asked weakly…already sensing she knew the answer.. Calvin seemed to visibly wince as he shook his head… "She was in the house when….it happened" His voice trailed off…

Molenka could only nod weakly in response, perhaps it was down to shock, but she felt almost numb… and a heavy silence fell upon the two as her Father concentrated on cleaning her burns.

"Where are we going?…." Molenka murmured, before she too trailed off, fatigue finally getting the better of her , she was only vaguely aware of her father's reply…

"…Somewhere safe"

 

Out in the forest...




"Did you see THAT!…"

Brannigan strained his neck to look upwards through the windscreen of his Jeep, and abruptly, yet deftly adjusted his steering to account for the fact they had nearly swerved off the dirt track which evidently constituted a road in these parts.

Tarik nodded in reply as he peered out through the dirty and weathered windshield himself. His eyes followed the trail of black smoke that now hung over them in the sky. Truth be told he wasn't sure what he had seen, it had shot past so fast. Whatever it was it had been big enough to cast a shadow over them in the brief moment it had passed overhead.

"That was no meteor" Tarik heard Brannigan mutter under his breath as he pulled over, and with the engine still running, cautiously got out of the vehicle. Tarik moved as if to do the same, but the Ranger turned to him and gestured with his palm out-stretched indicating that the boy should remain in the jeep. "Stay put" The grizzled man said firmly, it was said in a tone that did not invite argument.

Tarik said nothing, for he knew the Ranger was merely thinking about his safety, so he watched quietly instead, leaning forward to gain a better view.

The Ranger, now outside, reached back inside the jeep to the glove compartment, and retrieved a pair of binoculars in order to better pin-point where whatever-the-hell-it-was had just crashed, it was clear that the term 'landed' was in this case far too optimistic description to describe what had just transpired.

Brannigan carefully clambered up onto the roof of the Jeep to try to see above the thinning canopy of the forest, luckily they were at the point on the track where the road dipped into a kind of small valley, which meant he could get a fairly broad view of the area. Despite the still smouldering fires still in existence in parts of the forest all adding to the general haze of the unusually reddish morning sky , it did not take him long to trace the plumes of oily smoke to where the 'craft' had ditched. 

It was a craft alright... 

The experienced ranger knew an engine when he heard one, but during the briefest of glimpses he had managed to see of it as it careered over them, it was clearly unlike any aircraft he'd ever seen or heard of.

Some new experimental aeroplane maybe...?

Brannigan lowered his binoculars as he located it's crash site, he did a quick calculation in his head, gauging the distance by experience, and determined it to be roughly two or three miles away. Not far, and despite the rough track, would not take long in the Jeep.

The grizzled Ranger grunted to himself as he considered his options. Before this they had been on their way to a location they had learned about at the Ranger station. While the station itself had been abandoned, his comrades had left him a repeating message indicating they had been recalled to some refugee camp, about a day's drive away. Camp Bravo, they called it.

At least his fellow Rangers had left him supplies, fuel, food, basic medical supplies, even some ammunition for his shotgun, more than enough to cover the journey.

Something at least….

Whoever had been in that thing when it had crashed might need help, they weren't too far away, and he couldn't just leave them out here to fend for themselves, the rest of the world had gone to shit, but he was still a Ranger, and he could still help, right?

Brannigan clambered back down, and narrowed his eyes at the smoke rising from the crash site in the distance, he threw a glance towards Tarik, and appeared to make his mind up.

"Right strap in, we're taking a look" he said gruffly.

And with that the Jeep set off down the track towards the billowing black smoke in the distance.

Camp Bravo…




The journey back to the Camp was a long one, too long for the Military man.

Too much time to reflect on all that had happened, too much time to reflect on what he had lost.

Annika… Janna

Time they, he didn't have to waste.

Everything Fisk had shown him had come so far out of left field he was starting to wonder if he had imagined the whole damn thing.

So what if it was all true?

Really, what difference did it make at this point? What did any of this mean?

The answer was It made no real difference, it didn't change anything, didn't improve their situation, and if by some miracle Fisk had managed to raise anyone on that alien contraption of his, what then?

Who was going to come to their rescue?

Novak looked out of the passenger window of the Military Jeep they were travelling in and looked at the weary faces of the refugees that lined the road steadily making their way to the Camp.

The General felt his resolve strengthen, they had been through a lot as a people, and together they would find a way of getting through this crisis. How, he did not know, yet, and as a practical man used to finding practical solutions, this was not an easy thing to face. 
As a Military leader, it grated him beyond measure to even think of asking for outside help, regardless of how crazy , the very fact he'd even considered the idea was a testament to how dire the situation really was.

It was at this point he heard Anni's voice break through his thoughts…

"Where there's life, there's hope…"

He allowed himself to smile faintly at this, his wife was always fond of the saying…

And Janna…

How he wished he had told her how proud he was of her, he regretted that. 
His daughter had followed her own path, joined the Navy, it was only a few months ago she had gained her first commission as a Captain onboard a frigate. She had grown into a strong woman, and had earned the respect of her peers.

He missed them both already.

Novak had learnt since, that Toron city had been hit by a Tsunami, it had virtually wiped the city off the map. He had prayed that their deaths had been quick, and they had not suffered.

Hardly a consolation, but with no bodies to bury, no service, it was all he had to cling onto under the circumstances.

"We're here sir" The young private who had been his driver declared brightly, stirring the General from his melancholic thoughts. He pushed them to the back of his mind, now was not the time to mourn, that was a luxury that would have to wait until later.

Novak looked out at the many faces of the camp, both young and old, right now it was time to worry about the living.

As Carl gathered himself and exited the Jeep, another veered into the compound yard and came screeching to an abrupt halt sending people scurrying to get out of it's path.  A flurry of soldiers raised their weapons and ordered the driver out of the vehicle. Two men jumped out and while one raised his hands in compliance, the other ignored everybody and lifted a bedraggled figure of a young girl out of the rear.

Novak strode over, and only had to look at the man's face and eyes to know instantly he was her Father, Carl winced as he saw the young girl's wounds, she had been burned badly.

The Father began to explain, his anguish plain for all to see, and Novak held his hand up to forestall him, turning instead to the soldiers who had gathered around the car, "Get these people to the infirmary, and quick" The men obeyed instantly, and Novak watched the soldiers escort them all to the Camp's Medics, with the Father carrying his daughter the entire way, as if reluctant to let her out of his sight.

Novak's heart went out to them both.