The Last Frontierby Brony19ChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 1ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE. Inscription above the gate to Hell, The Inferno "Fuck my asshole!" Vinyl Scratch yelled above the shriek of metal tearing and different sirens screaming. "Choice words, Captain. You always know just what to say," A Trottingham accent commented calmly. "Fuck off, Doc!" Vinyl growled at the small holographic man. "Lyra! Get the Dis under control for fuck's sake!" Vinyl called out to her pilot, a woman with mint green and white hair hung in a rapidly-unwinding ponytail. "If you can fly this piece of shit any better than I can- which you can't -then be my fuckin' guest!" Lyra shot back over here shoulder through an Austailian accent. "Damn! Bon Bon, can we take them with us?!" Vinyl asked a woman with curly pink and blue hair who was frantically checking screens around her station on the bridge. "We've already used everything! I told you we should've restocked back on Omerta station!" The young munitions expert stated matter-of-factly to her captain. "Now's not the time, Bon Bon!" Vinyl yelled back. Her patience was well beyond worn out. What, between getting shot down and being forced to crash land, one could understand her hostility. "Tavi, anything on this rock?!" A young woman with cascading charcoal hair turned to face Vinyl, her eyes full of panic and her voice shaking like a chihuahua, "N-nothing! It's like it doesn't exist!" Octavia exclaimed frantically. "The coordinates aren't even listed as existing!" "Son of a... Doc! Systems report!" Vinyl barked at the man standing on the small podium next to her. The Doctor looked at her with an indignant expression, "Well, with that tone of voice, you should count yourself lucky I don't jettison the whole damn bridge!" He exclaimed, his spiky brown hair and trench coat impeccable in the chaos. "Just fucking do it!" Vinyl yelled at him. The Doctor brought a hand to his face and pinched the light blue bridge of his nose before sighing and hesitently listing off the many failings of the crippled ship. "Alright, here goes: Primary engine- offline, right wing engine- operating at 78 percent capacity and dropping, port wing engine- operating at 57 percent and dropping. Three decks have lost oxygen and pressure, the respecting doors having been sealed for crew safty. Main centrufuge- critically damaged. Artificial gravity will be lost in-" The four girls yelp in unison when the begin to slowly drift away from their workstations and objects otherwise not secured to the floor begin to drift aimlessly. Before any of the crew can gain a hold on something not moving, the flames licking at the edges of the main viewport become more intense, the reds and yellows dancing across the thick glass like the tongue of a giant demon waiting to swallow them whole. With flames comes atmosphere, and with atmosphere comes gravitational pull, one that sent all four women crashing into various walls of the bridge with a colective groan. "-Well, I suppose you all noticed," The Doctor finished with a satisfied smirk. "Gee, thanks for the heads-up, asshole," Vinyl growled at the small image, struggeling to get back behind the railing of the captain's stage. "Anything for you, o captain," The Doctor said, giving a twirl of his hand and a bow. "Continue with systems check," Vinyl said, now acheing as well as irritated. The Doctor cleared his throat before continueing, "Life support- critically damaged. Approxametly 24 minutes of breatable air remaining. Medical bay-" the Doctor paused to let out a surprised 'hmm', "Surprisingly intact and at full capacity." "Great, some good news," Vinyl remarked sourly, sarcasm dripping from each word. "Start impact countdown." "Very well. With any luck, my main processor will be destroyed in the crash. Impact in ten seconds," The Doctor began, making Vinyl grip the railing tighter until her knuckles shone white. "Nine," Vinyl saw Octavia strap herself into her chair with shaky hands and a look of panic tainting her lavender eyes. "Eight," Looking right, Vinyl notices Bon Bon follow suit with the navigator and she clicks the harness closed. "Seven," Looking ahead, the flames are starting to disperse. At least they made it through the thickest layer of atmosphere. "Six," Vinyl slowly backed up and hit the release button on the captain's harness in the wall behind her. "Five," She slips one arm, then the other and clicks the buckle into it's slot, the quiet click doing little to reasure her. "Four," She has trouble keeping her hands from shaking. "Three." "Brace yourselves!" Vinyl calls out. "Two." The Dis breakes through the thick, dark cloud layer to reveal a thick jungle rushing up to meet them before a giant branch colides with the viewport, smashing the glass to pieces and letting the howling wind shirek through the bridge. "One." On the first jerk forward, Vinyl gets the wind knocked out of her. When the Dis colides with the ground again, Vinyl hears stiching tear in the harness. On the third and final crash, the stiching finally gives and Vinyl feels herself flying through the air and sees in slow-motion every tiny detail as she sails through the broken viewport. Once she's clear of the ship, the utter destruction of the warped metal and fires abound her once-proud vessel is the last thing she sees before her head connects with something and the world fades to black. Vinyl Scratch was no stranger to pain. Throughout her many years of larceny and petty crime, she had seen more than her fair share of bad situations in which the only exit from was a fair amount of pain. But as consciousness slowly returned to her, the blessing in discuise that it is, she remembered that it had been quite a while since she felt pain like this. Letting out a soft groan, Vinyl began testing her limbs to see if everything was more or less working. Flexing her fingers, she felt them sink into the soft earth while moving her legs felt like they were caked in mud or something similar. She moved a hand up to her forehead, feeling something warm and sticky when it made contact. Fuck me... Vinyl thought to herself as she slowly opened her eyes to view her mud and blood-covered hand. Sitting up made her muscles groan in protest, but that was to be expected from being flung from the bridge. In all honesty, Vinyl didn't expect to survive her ejection and had mixed feelings that she had. On the one hand, she had a crew, a family to take care of. On the other, this hurt like a bitch. Opening her eyes without causing a splitting headache, Vinyl took her surroundings in properly. All around her was a massive jungle, trees with tops far above her head and rocky outcrops abundant between the thick ferns. The soft pitter-patter of rain was heard all around her, what few droplets that made it through the foliage above landing around and on her in lazy, infrequent patterns. Looking behind her, she saw what looked like a fire in the distance, the only source of light in the dark jungle. Images of flames dancing upon her ship flashing through her mind, Vinyl decided that once she felt good enough to move, it would be as good a place to start looking for the ship as any. God damn... Haven't hurt like this in a while... Vinyl thought idly. She propped herself up on her elbows, her head spinning and body screaming against her moving. Fuck! ... Not doing that for a while, Vinyl thought, scooting backwards to sit upright against one of the larger rocks. She glanced down at her body, her clothes torn and bloodied, as well as covered in a healthy dose of mud. There was a long cut spanning most of her right side, the blood mingling with dirt and leaves. That's not good, Vinyl thought sourly. She really hated stitches, she really did. And with a cut like this, she was sure as hell going to need a few. Vinyl let out an irritated sigh before closing her eyes and letting her head lull back before it hit something with a metallic clang. Ow, God damnit! This planet fucking sucks! ... Wait, 'clang'? Vinyl thought, turning her head to see what her head had hit. Perched neatly on top of the rock Vinyl was currently using as a seat, was a red box with a white cross on the front. The first aid box... That's convenient, Vinyl thought with mild disbelief as she grabbed the box and pulled it into her lap before opening it, finding all the bandages, syringes, and other medical equipment dishelved, but otherwise intact. Vinyl sifted through the box before finding the vial marked 'Morphine- 500 mg' and an empty syringe. She pulled the cap off the needle with her teeth and spitting it out with little care where it landed, stuck the needle through the soft top of the vial and drew not so much that she would become loopy, but enough so that she wouldn't feel anything for a while. Placing the syringe in her mouth, she placed the vial back in the box before slapping her forearm a few times to raise the vain. The small tube now pressing up against her skin, Vinyl grabbed the syringe from her mouth and, with as steady a hand as she could muster, drove the needle into her vain and depressed the plunger. Alright... now I play the waiting game... Vinyl thought to herself as she removed the syringe and let it fall to the jungle floor. Oohhhhhhhhh, yeah... That's it... Vinyl thought happily as the pain slowly began to dim from 'seeing stars' to 'sore muscles the day after.' As her body stopped panicking over the pain it was suffering, Vinyl began to think more clearly. Remembering her pocket held a communicator, she reached her hand in and felt the small device. She quickly pulled it out, only finding that it had been severely damaged in her tumble, if the exposed circuitry and cracked casing meant anything. Shit, Vinyl thought sourly, throwing the small machine, So much for that. Making a move to stand up and quickly falling back on her ass due to the intense burning in her side reminded Vinyl she had a hell of a cut to deal with first. She began looking through the first aid box again, hoping to find some sort of disinfectant to at least clean her wound. While she was doing that, she heard a snap that was different from the normal sounds of the jungle. Vinyl snapped back to her upright position, wincing slightly from the pain in her side. Looking down at her side, she noticed her pistol had, somehow, remained in its holster during the crash. Vinyl quickly drew her sidearm, giving it a quick once-over before deciding that it had survived the crash and holding it at the ready as she scanned the jungle around her. After looking around for several moments, she was about to put her gun away when a bush rustled to her right. She immediately pointed her gun to the right, the barrel resting neatly between the eyes- Of her pilot, Lyra. "Bloody hell, capt'n, you're alive!" Lyra exclaimed happily, completely ignoring the gun in her face. Vinyl let out a sigh that was a cross between a happy one and an irritated one. "Jesus Lyra, you scared the shit outta me," Vinyl said, holstering her weapon. "What are you doing out here?" Vinyl asked, her curiosity getting the best of her. "Same reason you are, capt'n; right after you got tossed, I went flyin' with ya. Instead of hittin' a branch, I landed in a pond. Saw the fires over there and figured it's as good a place to start as any," Lyra explained, taking a seat on the ground next to Vinyl. "How messed up did ya get?" Lyra asked with, in Vinyl's opinion, far too much enthusiasm. Vinyl groaned before answering, "Dunno. Went out the viewport and hit somthing-" "A branch. Looked right nasty," Lyra clarified. Vinyl leveled a cold glare at her, one the pilot returned with a happy grin. Vinyl sighed before continuing, "I hit a brantch," Vinyl put heavy stress on what she hit, much to Lyra's delight, "and woke up with a massive headache and a nasty cut," Vinyl explained, motioning lazily to her right side. Lyra looked at her captain's side, seeing the cut for the first time. "Ouch. Look's like that hurts," Lyra commented casually, as though they were discussing the weather. "You don't say?" Vinyl asked, with no small amount of irritation. "I do say. Anyway, I don't know shit about wounds, but that one's a nasty bugger. Let's get you to the ship, let Bonnie fix ya up," Lyra said, slipping an arm under Vinyl's right side and hoisting her up. Vinyl groaned as black licked at the edge of her vision as they stood before her vision went back to normal once they were both upright. "Hang on," Vinyl said, closing her eyes to keep her head from spinning. I need more morphine, "Don't forget the first aid kit. The other two might have gotten banged up too." "Sure thing, capt'n," Lyra said, doing her best to reach down while balancing Vinyl upright at the same time. Once she grabbed the little red box, she handed it to Vinyl to hold in her left hand while Lyra pulled a flare out of her pocket and lit it, lighting up the dark jungle and casting menacing shadows that danced all around them. "Damn jungle looks even spookier, somehow," Lyra said, uneasiness leaking into her tone, if only slightly. "All the more reason to get the hell back to the ship. Let's go," Vinyl said, lipping along while Lyra supported her. "Don't have to tell me twice," Lyra said, helping her captain across the uneven mix of rocks and mud. The two women slowly but surely made their way towards the fires in the distance, climbing over fallen trees and rocky outcrops while avoiding the slippery earth. Lyra's flare burned with a steady hiss, casting dark shadows over whatever was near. Vinyl, while she did her best to ignore it, couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. It didn't feel like a predatory watch, it felt like something was... observing her. It, whatever it is, was studying her. Watching. Waiting. Calculating. "You feel it too, huh?" Lyra broke Vinyl's concentration. "Like somethin's watchin' us?" Vinyl didn't meet her gaze, "Yeah. It's probably nothing, let's just focus on getting back to the ship," If she had looked at Lyra, she would have noticed Vinyl's eyes didn't hold the same conviction as her voice did. "Aye aye," Lyra said, eyeing the shadows carefully. Vinyl was no stranger to lying; hell, with her job, lying was a daily requirment. But for one reason or another, she couldn't lie to her crew, her family. It felt wrong. Vinyl mentally chuckled at how being decitful only felt wrong when it was towards the ones she cared about. Vinyl may be a thief and have a lees-then-favorable attitude towards the law, but that didn't make her heartless. She rearely showed it bluntly, but she cared deeply for her crew. It felt as though they were her children, and she was duty-bound to care for them or die trying. Maybe it was because she had always wanted a family, and with her line of work, knew she never could. Maybe there really was honor among thiefs. Either way, she was going to get them off this rock, one way or another. "They've crash-landed, Commander," An underling said. "So they have," Commander Shining Armor observed more than responded. All was silent upon the bridge of the E.N.F. Virgil aside from the sounds of helmsmen working at their stations and the near-palpable intensity that radiated from the commander. No one aboard the Virgil knew exactly why the commander had such a drive to chase down these particular criminals, but they had all served under him long enough to know that when the good commander set a goal in mind, he would move the stars themselves to complete it. They also knew that, whatever these pirates had done, they had made the commander very, very upset. "What are the odds of them surviving the landing?" Shining Armor inquired, his calm somehow more unsetteling than if he had yelled it. "Uh, the odds of surviving the crash are seven-hundred and twenty-five... to one," A lieutenant responded, a mild shake to his voice. "Seven-hundred and twenty-five to one," He repeated. After a short pause, he spoke again, the same calm layering his voice, "Prepare a serch-and-destroy team to land on the planet's surface once the crash site has been located. I want to ensure that they either didn't survive, or are swiftly brought into custody. I want to make an example of these lawbreakers." Shining Armor slowly approached the viewport of the massive ship while he spoke, each step slicing through the silence like a blade. Yes, an example, The commander thought to himself, An example that the Equis Naval Forces *will** bring peace to the Frontier...* ...At *any** cost.* Chapter 2In the middle of the journy of our life I found myself within a dark woods where the straight way was lost. -Dante Alighieri, The Inferno "So, capt'n," Lyra began, pulling Vinyl atop the small rock ledge they needed to vault, "What made ya come to this backwater planet anyway?" Vinyl grunted as she was lifted up, panting slightly as Lyra hooked her arm under hers again and they resumed their hobble through the dark jungle. "Well," Vinyl began through labored breaths, "It was either crash land here and maybe survive, or die in space. I'm no colonist, but I took my chances with the planet." Lyra noticed how her captain didn't so much as glance at her during her explenation, but decided to make nothing of it. "And how's that choice workin' out for ya?" Vinyl chuckled before coughing lightly, "Peachy." Lyra smiled to herself, "That's the spirit!" Lyra smiled wider at the sight of her captain smiling, if only a small one. The two women continued on in silence, the pitter-patter of rain increasing in frequency and noise above. A few times, they had to stop so that Lyra could re-light the flare after a large drop somehow managed to fall right on the flame. Both of them knew that it was already bad they were in a jungle at night- they didn't want to be in a jungle at night in the middle of a rain storm. As they trudged on, they noticed the drops, while decreasing in size, became much more commonplace. Looking up, they noticed that branches on several of the trees above had snapped off. They could see a clear trail of debris go in a mostly straight line and noticed the light from the flair was glinting off something. As they approached it, they noticed it was a large piece of glass, most likely from the viewport as the ship had traveled through the foliage above. "Least we're headed the right way," Lyra said, discarding the finally burnt-out flair and pulling the last one she had from her pocket and lighting it. "Where'd you get these, anyway?" Vinyl asked, motioning towards the flair. "Found 'em near where I landed, much like you found the first aid. Guess we both have some good luck," Lyra said, squinting in the contrast of red light and pitch-blackness. "We'll be lucky when we get back to the ship... what's left of it," Vinyl said. She held a special place in her heart for the Dis. Her and that ship had been through more than most people spend with their best friend. She remebered the day she stole it, fresh out of the shipbreaking yard, like it was yesterday. It was when she and Octavia were just barely adults, begining their life of crime in the only way any respectable pirate did: by stealing their vessel. For months the two had planned their attack, waiting patiently for the right opprotunity to present itself. They had managed to overhear two technicians on the street talking about a project they were working on, a prototype ship that would be run almost exclusively by an on-borad A.I. unit. Both girls knew that that ship was their ticket out of the underbelly of Equis. After they followed the two workers back to the shipbreaking yard, they had the location and the time. The ship was on-scedule as far as build time and takeoff were concerned. Once they had expansively scouted the sight, all they had to do was wait. When the night came and the workers left, Vinyl and Octavia snuck onto the ship, powered it up, and flew it out before the reaserch team even knew what happened. The feeling Vinyl had as she stood upon the captain's stage- her stage -finally leaving all the mess that they had grown up with... It was a feeling she would never forget. Once the two had hobbled to the edge of the small cliff, as Vinyl laid her eyes upon the flaming, smoking, warped mess that her proud ship now was, she felt another feeling she would never forget. "Bloody hell..." Lyra breathed, "It's wreaked. It'd need a whole crew just to get it back on it's feet." Vinyl said nothing. The utter loss of her ship had struck a deep pain in her heart, one akin to finding out that a family member had passed away. She let a lone tear stroll down her face as she scanned the wreakage, happy memories of larceny, ambushes and escapes playing through her mind. It's gone... bounced around in her empty head. It was almost too much to take in. Almost. As her sad thoughts faded, they gave way to thoughts of anger, rage, and most powerful of them all, vengance. She swore she would, one day, have her revenge for what those E.N.F. bastards had done to her beautiful ship, if it was the last thing she did. But for now, she put a lid on it; there was nothing she could do for the time being, and she still had a family to take care of. Glorious vengance would have to wait. "Let's get down there. We've still got to make sure Tavi and Bon Bon are okay," Vinyl said, having collected herself. Lyra was confused at her captain's calm. "Aren't ya mad for what's become'a the ship?" "Oh, I'm very mad," Vinyl replied in the same calm, "And the day I meet the sorry sonofa bitch that shot down my ship, I'm going to tear him a new asshole so wide, he could fit the whole goddamn E.N.F. navy up it. But until that day, I've got a crew to take care of. Let's go," Vinyl said, motioning for Lyra to head down the hill a few dozen yards to the right. "Aye aye, capt'n," Lyra said as they made their way for the hill. "Hope Bonnie's all right..." Vinyl heard Lyra mutter under her breath. You and me both, Vinyl thought to herself, knowing that Lyra didn't intend for her to hear that. Once they reached the bottom of the hill, not without nearly slipping and falling down it, the two outlaws faced a new challenge: finding a way inside the ship. "Let's see..." Vinyl thought out loud as she scanned the wreakage of the ship, "There should be an airlock nearby. Hopefully, the backup generators are online," Vinyl concluded, pointing towards a nearby part of the ship. "And if they ain't?" Lyra asked, guiding Vinyl to the spot she pointed at. "Then we're fucked," Vinyl said flatly. "Ah." The two began their final march when they heard a snap followed by a growl behind them. They both froze before sharing a look and slowly turning around. "Uh... capt'n?" "Yeah?" "What the bloody fuck is that?" "I don't know." The two were looking into the glowing yellow eyes of a wolf of some kind, only rather than flesh and blood and fur, they were made entirely of sticks and leaves, the soft clinks of their paws rising only just above the steadily growing sound of rain. There were five of these creatures slowly forming a semicircle around the two, baring their sharp, wooden teeth and growling softly while their pircing yellow eyes never left them. Vinyl, never one to go down easily, dropped the first aid kit with a clang, drew her sidearm, pointed it at the nearest one, and fired. The revolver let out a loud bang as the hammer struck the bullet and sent it clean into the forehead of the strange wolf, the sudden noise causing the other wolves to retreat a few steps. The wolf collapsed into a pile of sticks, the yellow eyes simply vanising. "Well..." Vinyl began, leveling the next shot, "That wasn't so hard." Vinyl was aiming at the next wolf and was just about to pull the trigger when she heard the ratteling of sticks. She looked around for the source of the noise when she saw the pile of the one she just shot was moving. She could only look on as the pile went from a lifeless heap of wood to wolf again, slowly rebuilding from the paws up, the top of the skull, if it could be called that, being the last piece to settle into place again, a neat hole in the center. Once the yellow eyes had reapeared as well, it began to growl once more and slowly approach, quickly followed by the other four. "... Shit," Vinyl said, letting her arm fall lamely to her side again. As the five wolves slowly closed in, Vinyl and Lyra shared a look, knowing that while they weren't going to go down without a fight, this may very well be the last time they enter the fray. "Lyra, it's been an honor," Vinyl solomly said, placing her revolver in its holster and drawing her combat knife. "... I'm secretly a lesbian!" Lyra said quickly. "I know," Vinyl said calmly, eyes moving from one wolf to the next. "... Really?" Lyra asked awkwardly, picking up a large rock. "Trust me, it wasn't that hard to figure out," Vinyl said, slashing at a wolf that got too close, casuing it to back away a few steps. "... Really?" Lyra asked again, this time in embarrassment. The pack almost upon them now, the two braced for the coming attack, Vinyl gripping her knife and Lyra raising the rock above her head. One of the wolves, the alpha by the looks of it, crouched down, ready to leap forward and begin the attack. Both girls tensed for the inevitable... When a flame flew from behind them, landing on the wolf and shattering, engulfing the creature in flames. The wolf began yelping as it fruitlessly ran in panic, pawing at its head and body in a vain attempt to quell the flames. For several seconds, the wolf ran like this before collapsing to the ground, rolling and pawing at itself. After a few seconds, the wolf stopped moving altogether, simply lieing on the muddy ground as the wood crackled and popped in the flames. "... The fuck?" Vinyl let out in confusion. The two looked behind them to see a woman with curly peach and blue hair, wielding a molotov in her hand, standing atop the ship with a cocky grin. "Thought you could use some help, captain!" Bon Bon called out playfully before tossing the flamming bottle of alcohol, landing on the back of another wolf, dooming it to the same fate as the first. The other wolves, understanding that the tables had quickly turned against them, decided that perhaps this prey was a bit too much for them. The remaining three wolves turned tail and ran back into the darkness and safety of the jungle, wimpering slightly all the while. Both pirates let out a breath they didn't know they were holding. Vinyl turned back to look at Bon Bon, a happy grin plastered to her features, "Thanks for the help, Bon Bon!" Bon Bon gave her captain a salute, "Anytime, captain!" After a rather... displeasurable dealing with the airlock door, Lyra and Vinyl managed to get aboard the ship, much to Octavia's delight and relief. Said delight and relief proceeded to go right out the window when Octavia noticed the large cut on Vinyl's side. "Vinyl! Your side!" Octavia yelped in panic, her lavender eyes full of worry. "Yup. Noticed," Vinyl grunted, the adrenalin and morphine shot from earlier wearing off quickly. "We need to get you to the medical bay!" Octavia said, taking Lyra's place at Vinyl's side and leading the now-limping captain towards the medical bay. "We're gonna need to get the power on first," Bon Bon interjected. "The backup got all but destroyed in the crash and the main is offline." "Then what are we going to do?!" Octavia screamed, panic fueling her rage. "How destoryed is the backup?" Lyra asked, looking towards Bon Bon. "I don't know... I couldn't get it to turn on," Bon Bon said slowly, embarrassed at her lack of mechinal knowledge. "If the backup and main generators aren't too banged-up, I could fix one of 'em... or, at least, get one to work," Lyra said, running through different solutions in her head. "Alright, here's the plan," Vinyl said, not without some difficulty, "Lyra, Bon Bon, you two head for the- fuck, this hurts -head for the generators. Tavi, calm the fuck down, and we'll head to the med bay and do what we can 'till the power's back on." "Aye aye, capt'n!" Lyra gave a quick salute before heading down the hallway to the back of the crippled ship. "We'll be back soon!" Bon Bon called out as she followed the pilot. Octavia helped Vinyl the opposite way down the hall, the clanks of their shoes echoing around the metal walls. "What happened to you?" Octavia asked, this time with her inside voice, but not without her paniced tone. "Can't talk, much pain," Vinyl grunted, "Wow, very sucks." "Oh...o-okay," Octavia stammered, deciding that silence was the best choice for now. "What happened... *grunt* to you?" Vinyl asked. While she wasn't exactly prime for conversation at the moment, she always hated the quiet. Quiet always set her on edge. "Oh... uh, Bon Bon and I were both knocked out in the crash. She woke up first and then woke me up. We weren't hurt aside from some cuts and bruises. Once we figured out that you and Lyra weren't on the ship, we decided to wait until morning to go out and look for you..." Octavia's voice died out at the end, her eyes avoiding Vinyl. Vinyl knew she wanted to say more, but the stars dancing back and forth across her vision weren't allowing words to form. She saw Octavia's lips move, but didn't hear what she said. That was partly because Octavia muttured it, partly because there was a slight ringing in her ears. "What was that?" She managed to almost choke out. "I'm sorry..." Octavia was just above a whisper and not facing Vinyl. "Tavi, speak up," Vinyl grunted with a bit of irritation. "I'm sorry!" Octavia yelled, turning to tightly hug Vinyl, much to her surprise and discomfort. "I'm sorry we were going to wait! It's a jungle, and raining, and night, and we didn't know what was out there! It was cowerdly of us! And I-I-I was so scared you might have... might've..." Octavia sobbed into the slightly taller woman's shoulder, almost crushing her with her hug. The stars in Vinyl's vision suddenly burned much brighter and it took a fair amount of willpower not to pass out when Octavia hugged her. "Tavi! Side!" Vinyl croaked out in protest, gasping when Octavia went back to only supporting her. Octavia sniffiled as a few stray tears continued to roll down her cheeks, "S-sorry..." She mumbled. "S'okay," Vinyl breathed out. Today was simply not her day. Octavia carefully leaned Vinyl against the wall, her cut facing the empty hallway. "C-can you stand?" Octavia asked with a shakey voice. When Vinyl only nodded in response, Octavia slowly pulled her arm out from behind Vinyl and manually pulled the medical bay's door up after throwing the pressure release lever on it. When the door slid up and settled with a click at the top of the doorway, Octavia took Vinyl with her arm once more and helped her to the table when the autosurgon hung limp above. Octavia helped Vinyl ease her way onto her back before taking the first aid box from Vinyl. "Morphine..." Vinyl groaned. her eyes shut and head spinning. "Hmm? Oh! Uh, just a moment," Octavia said, opening the small case and digging around for the vial. After her search, she found the vial. After another quick search for a syringe, she pierced the soft top of the vial and drew enough to keep Vinyl's pain at bay, but not enough to make her loopy. See softly slapped at Vinyl's forearm to raise the vain and once the small tube pressed against Vinyl's pale white skin, she gently pressed the needle in and depressed the plunger, sending the painkiller to do its work. Octavia placed the needle in a nearby trash bin and looked back at Vinyl. She was still tense and her breaths were labored, but she slowly began to relax as the morphine coarsed through her, her breathing becoming steady and easily. Octavia let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. The same breath was caught in her throat at the sight of the long gash in Vinyl's side. "Vinyl... sh-should I help your side?" Octavia tentatively asked. "Yeah... that would be a good idea." Vinyl said, her voice sounding distant. "O-okay," Octavia said, still shaken by the thought of Vinyl's possible demise in the jungle. She was well beyond relived that she was fine and well, all things considered, but the prospect that, at the moment, had been very real was quite a blow to the young navigator. She had been with Vinyl since they were little; she couldn't imagine a life without her. "Hey, Tavi?" Vinyl asked, a tired tint to her words. "Yes?" Octavia responded quietly. She had just gotten to cleaning the large cut, gently wiping the mud and leaves away. "Remember when we were kids, and we'd watch the ships at the port come and go, thinking about the day we'd finally have our own?" Vinyl asked, her voice full of happy reminiscing. "Yeah. You'd always point at one and say what class it was, even after I could tell for myself." Octavia couldn't help but smile at the happy memories of the giddy little girl Vinyl had once been. "Did you ever once think we'd be in a mess like this?" Vinyl asked, her playful tone returning once more. Octavia giggled a little, "Not at first. But after we grew up and started... doing what we do, I sort of braced for something like this to happen. Eventually," Octavia gave Vinyl a playful smirk, one that caused Vinyl to chuckle softly. "You always were my voice of reason, Tavi," Vinyl said, laying her head back down on the table. "Given our current predicament, I must not be doing my job very well," Octavia said playfully. She was glad Vinyl was talking to her like this; she always knew how to calm her down. "To be fair, it is me we're talking about," Vinyl chuckled. "Yes, it is," Octavia said, a happy smile on her face, despite the nasty wound she was cleaning, "And I wouldn't want it to be anyone else." Vinyl chuckled, "I love you, little sis." Octavia smiled warmly, "I love you too, big sis." Despite what the two call each other, they aren't actually sisters. Octavia was always amused that they called one another that. She remembered their childhood, the rough experience it had been. They both were orphaned for one reason or another; neither woman ever knew the exact reason, nor did they enjoy discussing it. When they were just little girls, they had found each other- even with their sometimes radical differences in personally and tastes, they gravitated towards one another. Vinyl was the brave, adventurous one while Octavia was the calm, rational one. Octavia (usually) kept Vinyl from getting into something she couldn't get out of, and Vinyl gave Octavia the exciting life they had only dreamed of as children. While Vinyl did get in over her head on occasion and Octavia thought their life sometimes was a bit too exciting, both woman knew they wouldn't want it any other way. Octavia had removed the final leaf and was about to get to work on what was left the mud that was quickly beginning to harden when the lights turned on, slightly startling Octavia. The autosurgeon that was hanging limp over Vinyl suddenly snapped back up, ready to preform whatever was needed. "Guess Lyra got the power back on," Vinyl said, a sleepy tone entering her voice. Octavia knew that sleepiness couldn't mean anything good with a wound of this caliber. "I guess she did. Let's get the autosurgeon on and get you healthy again," Octavia said, walking over to the interface for the autosurgeon on a nearby wall. After checking to make sure the system was powered up and working without a problem, she engaged the system's virtual intelligence. "Beginning examination," A monotone voice spoke from the autosurgeon as it scanned over Vinyl, highlighting various wounds over her body with holographic outlines. As more and more outlines appears over her body, Octavia gave a silent prayer that Lyra had gotten the power back on when she did; Vinyl had suffered serious wounds in her ejection, wounds well beyond Octavia's healing abilities. Vinyl had the large cut in her side, a fractured skull, several broken or fractured ribs, and more smaller cuts all over her body than Octavia cared to count. The readout on the interface also showed that in addition to losing quite a bit of blood, the wounds were beginning to grow infected with, thankfully, known bacteria and small parasites which could quickly be killed and sanitized. All in all, Vinyl would be fine. "Examination complete. Beginning treatment. All persons are required to leave the room while treatment is administered," The monotone voice instructed, the various arms lowering to begin their work. Chapter 3But the stars that marked our starting fall away. We must go deeper into greater pain, for it is not permitted that we stay. -Dante Alighieri, The Inferno As blackness and nothing gave way to feeling, Vinyl soon found herself wishing it hadn't. Her everything was sore, specifically her side and head. She let out a soft groan and tested her limbs, arms and fingers responsive as well as legs and toes. So far, so good, now just to open her eyes. The sight above her was not an unfamiliar one, but not a welcome one either. Above her as she lay on her back was the autosurgeon, in it's standby position, and undoubtably sterilized from her blood and who-knows-what else. Whatever was fixed aside, it was time to test if she was good to go or if she still needed a bit. A nice start would be proping herself on her elbows, as she slowly did. Aside from a dull throb in her side and slight head rush from sitting up, she was fine. Alright... slow and steady, Vinyl thought, easing her way to a full sitting position and swinging her legs slowly over the side of the table, resting steadily with either hand on the table. Okay... I haven't passed out yet, so I guess I'm good to go, Vinyl thought to herself as she slowly tested her newly-healed body's limits. I wish the damn thing didn't rip your clothes off before every operation, but whatever. "Vinyl? Are you- okay! Sorry!" Octavia said quickly, covering her eyes and starting to back out of the room. "Come on, Tavi, it's nothing you haven't seen before," Vinyl called out to Octavia who seemed to go over the idea in her head for a few moments before slowly re-entering the room, looking anywhere but Vinyl. Octavia shuffled awkwardly, her pale face tinted red from embarrassment. Vinyl just rolled her eyes, "Tavi, my eyes aren't on the floor," Octavia's gaze shifted, "Or the walls," Octavia diverted her eyes again, "Or the ceiling," Octavia closed her eyes before she sighed and finally opened her eyes, her gaze meeting Vinyl's. "That wasn't so hard, now was it?" Vinyl asked, maybe a bit more smug than she should have. "Are you feeling okay?" Octavia asked, not bothering to give Vinyl the satisfaction of answering her. Vinyl stretched her arms above her head, just a bit longer than really needed, while she answered, "Well, everything is sore and I'm sure I've got some more scars to add to my collection, but other than that, I'm fine," Vinyl's stomach rumbled loudly after she said that, "And maybe a little hungry," Sh added casually. "So I heard," Octavia giggled, despite her embarrassment. "We still have a little food left in the mess hall. Try not to eat too much." "I'll make no promises," Vinyl said as she hopped off the table and started walking the direction of the mess hall. After the door slid up, Vinyl was relieved that the lights had come back on, meaning that Lyra had gotten one of the generators to work. While she was walking down the short hall, she saw Lyra come out of the small crew quarters, her eyes widening at the sight of the nude captain. "Sup, Lyra?" Vinyl asked casually, strolling by without missing a beat. Lyra, deciding that the cat was as out of the bag as it was going to get, gave a near slack-jawed stare after Vinyl walked by. Hey, when you had an ass like a Vinyl's, it was only normal for people to stare. It was also normal that people may become offended by said staring. "What do you think you're doing?!" An angry-sounding Octavia demanded, making Lyra jump from the sudden voice. "Oh, hey Octavia. How ya doin'?" Lyra asked casually, even if she was smirking a bit. "What. Were. You. Doing?" Octavia asked again, stressing every word with a poke at the taller woman's chest, the effect lost due to how much shorter Octavia was than Lyra. "Staring at the capt'n's fantastic ass," Lyra said while (quite literally) holding Octavia at arm's length as she gave fruitless attempts to hit the pilot. "Knock it off you sick... perverted... horny... Lesbian?" Octavia had quite a fair amount of steam until the realization of what Lyra was doing fully impacted her. Octavia was, at times, what some would call 'dense.' "Yup! I'm gayer than Elton John skipping down the streets of San Prancisco while waving a rainbow flag," Lyra explained, taking pride in her newly out-of-the-closet sexuality. "... Who?" Lyra simply sighed before shaking her head, "Forget it." Now that Vinyl had gotten clothed and some food in her system- as close as dehydrated meals could get to food -she was feeling a lot better. However, aside from vengeance for her ship, she still had the problem of being, for the foreseeable future, stuck on a planet that apparently wasn't listed as exsisting. However, Vinyl knew more than she was letting on about this rock. Making sure the door to her quarters was closed, Vinyl approached the ornate wooden desk sitting neatly in the corner of the room. Perhaps Vinyl had a romantic view of pirates from before the age of space exploration, but she felt no self-respecting pirate captain was complete without a desk for them to spend their time planning their next move. Either way, she walked around before setteling into her equally ornate wooden chair and simply enjoying the feeling of being in her own ship, current state aside. But feeling good isn't what she was in her for. She was in here for the cube. Open the bottom right drawer, she pulled out a small cube, measurments four inches by four inches by four inches exactly. Normally, that wouldn't be even remotely important, but what was held in the sixteen cubic inches of the cube was. The cube was crystal clear showing what looked like a small cloud within it, the cloud revealing the edges of the cube. It seemed to drift slowly, endlessly, with no discernable source, beginning, or end. On occasion, Vinyl could swear she saw symbols flash momentairly in the dark cloud, but could never be sure. Also unproven, she thought that the cloud seemed to move just a little faster while she held it. Vinyl had stumbled upon this on the last raid on an E.N.F. outpost, with the goal of resupplying. Of course, there were far easier ways to go about resupplying, but a raid was more fun, and saved a lot more money. While searching for a supply room, Vinyl discovered what looked like a labratory. Thinking that whatever was in said labratory was very important to the E.N.F., Vinyl did what any good criminal would do, and stole the object and all the data the reaserchers had gathered on it, leaving nothing behind for them to salvage. After the raid, Vinyl decided to read up on what she had just stolen. To put it simply, Vinyl was gobsmacked. The cube she had stolen had a far greater purpose than Vinyl originally thought. When she saw it, she assumed it was some kind of energy source or weapon that the E.N.F. was developing. As she read the files she had stolen, she found herself constantly re-reading the files, not believing what her eyes were seeing. This cube was proof that intelligent life had, at some point, existed. After the E.N.F. had discovered odd readings on a planet that was under consideration for colonization, they sent a reasearch team to investigate. The team found the cube in some ruins that were just below the planet's surface. With the upmost secrecy, they transported it to a remote outpost where the E.N.F. thought no one would ever stumble upon. From there, they spent nearly every moment studying the alien device, learning as much as they could about it. Progress was slow, but being made nonetheless. After months of tinkering with the cube, the reaserchers had discovered that it was a data storage unit, well beyond human capabilities. While none of the team had a confirmed number, they estimated that the cube, which they had named The Library, contained dozens of tarabytes worth of information, possibly hundreds. Carbon dating revealed that the Library was not only comprised of organic material, but was also tens of millions of years old, predating the formation of Equis itself, and possibly documenting the creation of the universe. However, that was all but theory. Unfortunately for the research team, they had no way of accessing the vast ammounts of data stored within the Library. Whatever had built it was decades ahead human technology, despite its ancient origens. And with that, the documents ended. The personal notes of some of the reaserchers supposed that there might be some way to access the information on the Library's home planet, but none of them knew for sure how to proceed from that point. Once Vinyl had finished reading all the files she stole, she read them again. And again. And again. Each time revealed the same thing, and suddenly, Vinyl was in possetion of an object of extreme importance... ... And value. Vinyl's initial plan was to find a buyer. The Library itself would be near-priceless simply because it was physical evidence that alien life had existed, despite whatever it may contain. Vinyl was well aware of a few collecters that were interested in buying goods that were less-than-honestly obtained, and also knew that they would all want an alien artifact to call their own. She was just going to give it to whoever gave her the amount with the most zeros in it, when she thought of a much better plan. The E.N.F. had, undoubtably, learned of the Library's theft shortly afterword. The Library was surely of unfathomable importance to not only the E.N.F., but to humanity as a whole. Combine those two facts, and you had someone who wanted the Library back rather sorely. The same person whom would be able to say that money was no object. Vinyl almost drooled at simply picturing the amount of zeros the E.N.F.'s price would contain. Then she realized that the E.N.F. would be far less concerned with paying for the Library's safe return when they could simply kill her and take it back, so that plan was quickly discarded. That is, until she thought of an ace in the hole that the E.N.F. would choose payment over force. If Vinyl could get to the Library's home planet, unlock the secrets it held, she could save the E.N.F. decades worth of study. But more importantly, if she could have a sure-fire way of destroying the Library and all the information gathered about it should she wish to, she could send the E.N.F. directly to jail without passing Go, nor collecting two-hundred dollars. And with that kind of leverage, the E.N.F. would be far more inclined to ensure the safe return of the Library rather than risk its destruction. And thus, Vinyl found herself in her current predicament. So they were shot down. So they were stranded. So they were hunted by the very people who would being making them all rich beyond their wildest dreams in the near future. Every plan had its bumps and rough patches, and this one was no different. All things considered, this wasn't even the worst spot Vinyl had found herself in. Granted, it was up there, but not the worst. They were on the planet. They had the coordnates of the find site. The plan was still on. Placing the Library back in its drawer, Vinyl had just closed it when her door hissed open and Octavia stepped in. "Hey, Tavi. Sup?" Vinyl asked nonchalant, leaning back into her chair. Octavia sat down in a chair just in front of the massive desk before adressing Vinyl with a somewhat worried tone. "Vinyl, what's the plan here? We're stranded without the means to repair our ship, and I doubt the E.N.F. are going to let sleeping dogs lie," Octavia had suddenly become interested in the floor before her voice picked back up in a whisper, "Are we going to die here?" Vinyl could feel her heart break at the sight of her beloved 'little sister' being so hopeless. She stood up and motioned for Octavia to do the same. When she did, she enveloped the shorter woman in a tight embrace, one Octavia returned like a lost child finding thier mother again. "We are not going to die here. I promise," Octavia held onto Vinyl slightly tighter, "I found some files on the last raid. The E.N.F.'s been mining raw materials here, not too far from here. Odds are, we'll find what we need to fix the Dis, maybe even a ship to get off this rock. Soon as this storm breaks, we'll go there. Okay?" All throughout her explination, Vinyl kept her voice low and comferting, feeling Octavia nod her head into her shoulder. Well, that's not the truth, but not really a lie, either, Vinyl thought to herself, unable to shake the feeling of guilt. "God damnit, sonofa bitch!" Lyra swore, half under the main generator towards the aft of the ship. "Are you okay?" Bon Bon asked with worry. "Bloody, wanker, piece-of-shit wrench!" Lyra spat as the clanking of said wrench was heard towards the back of the small room from Lyra throwing it in anger. "Are you okay?" Bon Bon asked again. Lyra dragged herself out from under the generator, covered in stains of varing colors. "I'm fine. Fucking wrench slipped and I slammed my hand, s'all," Lyra said, sitting up and flexing her hand and wincing slightly as she made a fist. "Here, let me see it," Bon Bon instructed, holding her own hand out. Lyra looked at Bon Bon's outstreached hand and back at her own injured one before slowly offering it to her. Bon Bon gave her a soft smile before holding Lyra's hand closer to her face to examine it. "Be gentle, eh?" Lyra said quietly. "... Please?" She added hesitently. Bon Bon gave her an amused smirk, "Why, Lyra, did you just use the word 'please'? I didn't know you even knew that word." Had Bon Bon been looking at Lyra's face, she would have seen the blush that shone against the pale skin, "There's a lot ya don't know about me." Bon Bon simply giggled, "I'm sure. Well, your hand's fine, just a little bruised. Not broken bones or strains." Lyra, for one reason or another, had a sudden rush of confidence, and before she could think otherwise, her mouth formed the words, "Well, can ya kiss it better?" She immediately began kicking herself before Bon Bon caught her off-guard. Bon Bon lifted Lyra's hand to her face and gave it a simple peck before smirking at the pilot. "All better, you big crybaby? Or does something else hurt?" Lyra thought it over for a moment before pointing with her free hand at the other side of the hand Bon Bon still held and said, "Kinda hurts right here..." Bon Bon simply smiled at her before kissing the spot Lyra pointed out to her in the same way she did the previous spot. "Anywhere else?" Lyra could feel the blush on her cheeks, but didn't really care. "It hurts a little here, too..." She mumbled while pointing at her forehead. Bon Bon, while still holding Lyra's hand, leaned forward and planted a kiss on her forehead, lingering for just a second longer than needed. When she pulled back, she was just inches from Lyra's face. Her heart beating a million miles an hour, Lyra pointed a finger at her lips and all but whispered, "Here..." Both girls leaned forward slowly, eyes indecisive between looking at one another's or closing. After what felt like an eternity, Lyra felt Bon Bon's breath tickle her lips, centimeters away from one another- "Heartstrings!" Vinyl announced loudly as the door slid up. Lyra jumped at the sudden appearance of her captain. "Jesus, shit!" Lyra exclaimed before her head connected with something hard and metalic with a loud *clang*, "Ah! Fuck!" She spat. "Why?!" She asked more to the universe than Vinyl as she held her actually-hurting forehead. "Because your captain needs you!" Vinyl playfully said, her everpresent grin spreading ear to ear. "Fuck you," Lyra groaned, eyes shut and hands to her forehead. Bon Bon was torn between being angry at Vinly for her uncanny timing and stiffeling her giggles at Lyra's expense. "In all seriousness," Vinyl began, closing the short distance bewteen her and her crew, "How's the generator comin' along?" Vinyl asked, her voice losing its lighthearted tone. After letting out a cross between an irritated and pained groan, Lyra responded, "Not good. I'm makin' progress, but without a few replacements, our dear genny has taken its last shit. I can keep her goin' for a little while, three, four days, tops. After that, I hope ya packed candles and don't mind cold dinners." Vinyl let out a small 'hmm' as she began planning their next move. "Hope for the full four days?" Vinyl asked Lyra. "Ray Finkle would make a field goal sooner," Lyra stated simply. "My forehead red?" She asked, letting Bon Bon inspect and simply nod. "That bad, huh?" Vinyl asked, not expecting an answer. "Doesn't give us much time." "What's the plan, anyway? We're rather fucked as it stands," Lyra said, looking to her captain for answers. "There's a mining op, not too far from where we find ourselves currently. Once the rain clears, we'll make our way down there and politely ask if we can borrow some of their parts," Vinyl said, rising and making her way for the door. "And by 'politely' you mean 'at gunpoint', right?" Bon Bon called after her. As the door slid up, Vinyl turned and smiled at her, "You know me so well," And the door slid shut. Lyra and Bon Bon sat in silence for a few moments before Lyra asked, "So! Wanna finsh what we started?" Lyra gave her best casual smile. Bon Bon smiled coyly before standing up herself, "Maybe some other time. I've got some things of my own to attend to." "Oh. Uh, y-yeah. I got loads left to do on this hunk of shit," Lyra slapped the side of the generator. "Later then, yeah?" Bon Bon gave the same smile as the door closed. "Maybe." Once the door clicked shut, Lyra sighed. "So close..." Lyra sat in the silence for a moment. "Fuck."
Chapter 1ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE. Inscription above the gate to Hell, The Inferno "Fuck my asshole!" Vinyl Scratch yelled above the shriek of metal tearing and different sirens screaming. "Choice words, Captain. You always know just what to say," A Trottingham accent commented calmly. "Fuck off, Doc!" Vinyl growled at the small holographic man. "Lyra! Get the Dis under control for fuck's sake!" Vinyl called out to her pilot, a woman with mint green and white hair hung in a rapidly-unwinding ponytail. "If you can fly this piece of shit any better than I can- which you can't -then be my fuckin' guest!" Lyra shot back over here shoulder through an Austailian accent. "Damn! Bon Bon, can we take them with us?!" Vinyl asked a woman with curly pink and blue hair who was frantically checking screens around her station on the bridge. "We've already used everything! I told you we should've restocked back on Omerta station!" The young munitions expert stated matter-of-factly to her captain. "Now's not the time, Bon Bon!" Vinyl yelled back. Her patience was well beyond worn out. What, between getting shot down and being forced to crash land, one could understand her hostility. "Tavi, anything on this rock?!" A young woman with cascading charcoal hair turned to face Vinyl, her eyes full of panic and her voice shaking like a chihuahua, "N-nothing! It's like it doesn't exist!" Octavia exclaimed frantically. "The coordinates aren't even listed as existing!" "Son of a... Doc! Systems report!" Vinyl barked at the man standing on the small podium next to her. The Doctor looked at her with an indignant expression, "Well, with that tone of voice, you should count yourself lucky I don't jettison the whole damn bridge!" He exclaimed, his spiky brown hair and trench coat impeccable in the chaos. "Just fucking do it!" Vinyl yelled at him. The Doctor brought a hand to his face and pinched the light blue bridge of his nose before sighing and hesitently listing off the many failings of the crippled ship. "Alright, here goes: Primary engine- offline, right wing engine- operating at 78 percent capacity and dropping, port wing engine- operating at 57 percent and dropping. Three decks have lost oxygen and pressure, the respecting doors having been sealed for crew safty. Main centrufuge- critically damaged. Artificial gravity will be lost in-" The four girls yelp in unison when the begin to slowly drift away from their workstations and objects otherwise not secured to the floor begin to drift aimlessly. Before any of the crew can gain a hold on something not moving, the flames licking at the edges of the main viewport become more intense, the reds and yellows dancing across the thick glass like the tongue of a giant demon waiting to swallow them whole. With flames comes atmosphere, and with atmosphere comes gravitational pull, one that sent all four women crashing into various walls of the bridge with a colective groan. "-Well, I suppose you all noticed," The Doctor finished with a satisfied smirk. "Gee, thanks for the heads-up, asshole," Vinyl growled at the small image, struggeling to get back behind the railing of the captain's stage. "Anything for you, o captain," The Doctor said, giving a twirl of his hand and a bow. "Continue with systems check," Vinyl said, now acheing as well as irritated. The Doctor cleared his throat before continueing, "Life support- critically damaged. Approxametly 24 minutes of breatable air remaining. Medical bay-" the Doctor paused to let out a surprised 'hmm', "Surprisingly intact and at full capacity." "Great, some good news," Vinyl remarked sourly, sarcasm dripping from each word. "Start impact countdown." "Very well. With any luck, my main processor will be destroyed in the crash. Impact in ten seconds," The Doctor began, making Vinyl grip the railing tighter until her knuckles shone white. "Nine," Vinyl saw Octavia strap herself into her chair with shaky hands and a look of panic tainting her lavender eyes. "Eight," Looking right, Vinyl notices Bon Bon follow suit with the navigator and she clicks the harness closed. "Seven," Looking ahead, the flames are starting to disperse. At least they made it through the thickest layer of atmosphere. "Six," Vinyl slowly backed up and hit the release button on the captain's harness in the wall behind her. "Five," She slips one arm, then the other and clicks the buckle into it's slot, the quiet click doing little to reasure her. "Four," She has trouble keeping her hands from shaking. "Three." "Brace yourselves!" Vinyl calls out. "Two." The Dis breakes through the thick, dark cloud layer to reveal a thick jungle rushing up to meet them before a giant branch colides with the viewport, smashing the glass to pieces and letting the howling wind shirek through the bridge. "One." On the first jerk forward, Vinyl gets the wind knocked out of her. When the Dis colides with the ground again, Vinyl hears stiching tear in the harness. On the third and final crash, the stiching finally gives and Vinyl feels herself flying through the air and sees in slow-motion every tiny detail as she sails through the broken viewport. Once she's clear of the ship, the utter destruction of the warped metal and fires abound her once-proud vessel is the last thing she sees before her head connects with something and the world fades to black. Vinyl Scratch was no stranger to pain. Throughout her many years of larceny and petty crime, she had seen more than her fair share of bad situations in which the only exit from was a fair amount of pain. But as consciousness slowly returned to her, the blessing in discuise that it is, she remembered that it had been quite a while since she felt pain like this. Letting out a soft groan, Vinyl began testing her limbs to see if everything was more or less working. Flexing her fingers, she felt them sink into the soft earth while moving her legs felt like they were caked in mud or something similar. She moved a hand up to her forehead, feeling something warm and sticky when it made contact. Fuck me... Vinyl thought to herself as she slowly opened her eyes to view her mud and blood-covered hand. Sitting up made her muscles groan in protest, but that was to be expected from being flung from the bridge. In all honesty, Vinyl didn't expect to survive her ejection and had mixed feelings that she had. On the one hand, she had a crew, a family to take care of. On the other, this hurt like a bitch. Opening her eyes without causing a splitting headache, Vinyl took her surroundings in properly. All around her was a massive jungle, trees with tops far above her head and rocky outcrops abundant between the thick ferns. The soft pitter-patter of rain was heard all around her, what few droplets that made it through the foliage above landing around and on her in lazy, infrequent patterns. Looking behind her, she saw what looked like a fire in the distance, the only source of light in the dark jungle. Images of flames dancing upon her ship flashing through her mind, Vinyl decided that once she felt good enough to move, it would be as good a place to start looking for the ship as any. God damn... Haven't hurt like this in a while... Vinyl thought idly. She propped herself up on her elbows, her head spinning and body screaming against her moving. Fuck! ... Not doing that for a while, Vinyl thought, scooting backwards to sit upright against one of the larger rocks. She glanced down at her body, her clothes torn and bloodied, as well as covered in a healthy dose of mud. There was a long cut spanning most of her right side, the blood mingling with dirt and leaves. That's not good, Vinyl thought sourly. She really hated stitches, she really did. And with a cut like this, she was sure as hell going to need a few. Vinyl let out an irritated sigh before closing her eyes and letting her head lull back before it hit something with a metallic clang. Ow, God damnit! This planet fucking sucks! ... Wait, 'clang'? Vinyl thought, turning her head to see what her head had hit. Perched neatly on top of the rock Vinyl was currently using as a seat, was a red box with a white cross on the front. The first aid box... That's convenient, Vinyl thought with mild disbelief as she grabbed the box and pulled it into her lap before opening it, finding all the bandages, syringes, and other medical equipment dishelved, but otherwise intact. Vinyl sifted through the box before finding the vial marked 'Morphine- 500 mg' and an empty syringe. She pulled the cap off the needle with her teeth and spitting it out with little care where it landed, stuck the needle through the soft top of the vial and drew not so much that she would become loopy, but enough so that she wouldn't feel anything for a while. Placing the syringe in her mouth, she placed the vial back in the box before slapping her forearm a few times to raise the vain. The small tube now pressing up against her skin, Vinyl grabbed the syringe from her mouth and, with as steady a hand as she could muster, drove the needle into her vain and depressed the plunger. Alright... now I play the waiting game... Vinyl thought to herself as she removed the syringe and let it fall to the jungle floor. Oohhhhhhhhh, yeah... That's it... Vinyl thought happily as the pain slowly began to dim from 'seeing stars' to 'sore muscles the day after.' As her body stopped panicking over the pain it was suffering, Vinyl began to think more clearly. Remembering her pocket held a communicator, she reached her hand in and felt the small device. She quickly pulled it out, only finding that it had been severely damaged in her tumble, if the exposed circuitry and cracked casing meant anything. Shit, Vinyl thought sourly, throwing the small machine, So much for that. Making a move to stand up and quickly falling back on her ass due to the intense burning in her side reminded Vinyl she had a hell of a cut to deal with first. She began looking through the first aid box again, hoping to find some sort of disinfectant to at least clean her wound. While she was doing that, she heard a snap that was different from the normal sounds of the jungle. Vinyl snapped back to her upright position, wincing slightly from the pain in her side. Looking down at her side, she noticed her pistol had, somehow, remained in its holster during the crash. Vinyl quickly drew her sidearm, giving it a quick once-over before deciding that it had survived the crash and holding it at the ready as she scanned the jungle around her. After looking around for several moments, she was about to put her gun away when a bush rustled to her right. She immediately pointed her gun to the right, the barrel resting neatly between the eyes- Of her pilot, Lyra. "Bloody hell, capt'n, you're alive!" Lyra exclaimed happily, completely ignoring the gun in her face. Vinyl let out a sigh that was a cross between a happy one and an irritated one. "Jesus Lyra, you scared the shit outta me," Vinyl said, holstering her weapon. "What are you doing out here?" Vinyl asked, her curiosity getting the best of her. "Same reason you are, capt'n; right after you got tossed, I went flyin' with ya. Instead of hittin' a branch, I landed in a pond. Saw the fires over there and figured it's as good a place to start as any," Lyra explained, taking a seat on the ground next to Vinyl. "How messed up did ya get?" Lyra asked with, in Vinyl's opinion, far too much enthusiasm. Vinyl groaned before answering, "Dunno. Went out the viewport and hit somthing-" "A branch. Looked right nasty," Lyra clarified. Vinyl leveled a cold glare at her, one the pilot returned with a happy grin. Vinyl sighed before continuing, "I hit a brantch," Vinyl put heavy stress on what she hit, much to Lyra's delight, "and woke up with a massive headache and a nasty cut," Vinyl explained, motioning lazily to her right side. Lyra looked at her captain's side, seeing the cut for the first time. "Ouch. Look's like that hurts," Lyra commented casually, as though they were discussing the weather. "You don't say?" Vinyl asked, with no small amount of irritation. "I do say. Anyway, I don't know shit about wounds, but that one's a nasty bugger. Let's get you to the ship, let Bonnie fix ya up," Lyra said, slipping an arm under Vinyl's right side and hoisting her up. Vinyl groaned as black licked at the edge of her vision as they stood before her vision went back to normal once they were both upright. "Hang on," Vinyl said, closing her eyes to keep her head from spinning. I need more morphine, "Don't forget the first aid kit. The other two might have gotten banged up too." "Sure thing, capt'n," Lyra said, doing her best to reach down while balancing Vinyl upright at the same time. Once she grabbed the little red box, she handed it to Vinyl to hold in her left hand while Lyra pulled a flare out of her pocket and lit it, lighting up the dark jungle and casting menacing shadows that danced all around them. "Damn jungle looks even spookier, somehow," Lyra said, uneasiness leaking into her tone, if only slightly. "All the more reason to get the hell back to the ship. Let's go," Vinyl said, lipping along while Lyra supported her. "Don't have to tell me twice," Lyra said, helping her captain across the uneven mix of rocks and mud. The two women slowly but surely made their way towards the fires in the distance, climbing over fallen trees and rocky outcrops while avoiding the slippery earth. Lyra's flare burned with a steady hiss, casting dark shadows over whatever was near. Vinyl, while she did her best to ignore it, couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. It didn't feel like a predatory watch, it felt like something was... observing her. It, whatever it is, was studying her. Watching. Waiting. Calculating. "You feel it too, huh?" Lyra broke Vinyl's concentration. "Like somethin's watchin' us?" Vinyl didn't meet her gaze, "Yeah. It's probably nothing, let's just focus on getting back to the ship," If she had looked at Lyra, she would have noticed Vinyl's eyes didn't hold the same conviction as her voice did. "Aye aye," Lyra said, eyeing the shadows carefully. Vinyl was no stranger to lying; hell, with her job, lying was a daily requirment. But for one reason or another, she couldn't lie to her crew, her family. It felt wrong. Vinyl mentally chuckled at how being decitful only felt wrong when it was towards the ones she cared about. Vinyl may be a thief and have a lees-then-favorable attitude towards the law, but that didn't make her heartless. She rearely showed it bluntly, but she cared deeply for her crew. It felt as though they were her children, and she was duty-bound to care for them or die trying. Maybe it was because she had always wanted a family, and with her line of work, knew she never could. Maybe there really was honor among thiefs. Either way, she was going to get them off this rock, one way or another. "They've crash-landed, Commander," An underling said. "So they have," Commander Shining Armor observed more than responded. All was silent upon the bridge of the E.N.F. Virgil aside from the sounds of helmsmen working at their stations and the near-palpable intensity that radiated from the commander. No one aboard the Virgil knew exactly why the commander had such a drive to chase down these particular criminals, but they had all served under him long enough to know that when the good commander set a goal in mind, he would move the stars themselves to complete it. They also knew that, whatever these pirates had done, they had made the commander very, very upset. "What are the odds of them surviving the landing?" Shining Armor inquired, his calm somehow more unsetteling than if he had yelled it. "Uh, the odds of surviving the crash are seven-hundred and twenty-five... to one," A lieutenant responded, a mild shake to his voice. "Seven-hundred and twenty-five to one," He repeated. After a short pause, he spoke again, the same calm layering his voice, "Prepare a serch-and-destroy team to land on the planet's surface once the crash site has been located. I want to ensure that they either didn't survive, or are swiftly brought into custody. I want to make an example of these lawbreakers." Shining Armor slowly approached the viewport of the massive ship while he spoke, each step slicing through the silence like a blade. Yes, an example, The commander thought to himself, An example that the Equis Naval Forces *will** bring peace to the Frontier...* ...At *any** cost.*
Chapter 2In the middle of the journy of our life I found myself within a dark woods where the straight way was lost. -Dante Alighieri, The Inferno "So, capt'n," Lyra began, pulling Vinyl atop the small rock ledge they needed to vault, "What made ya come to this backwater planet anyway?" Vinyl grunted as she was lifted up, panting slightly as Lyra hooked her arm under hers again and they resumed their hobble through the dark jungle. "Well," Vinyl began through labored breaths, "It was either crash land here and maybe survive, or die in space. I'm no colonist, but I took my chances with the planet." Lyra noticed how her captain didn't so much as glance at her during her explenation, but decided to make nothing of it. "And how's that choice workin' out for ya?" Vinyl chuckled before coughing lightly, "Peachy." Lyra smiled to herself, "That's the spirit!" Lyra smiled wider at the sight of her captain smiling, if only a small one. The two women continued on in silence, the pitter-patter of rain increasing in frequency and noise above. A few times, they had to stop so that Lyra could re-light the flare after a large drop somehow managed to fall right on the flame. Both of them knew that it was already bad they were in a jungle at night- they didn't want to be in a jungle at night in the middle of a rain storm. As they trudged on, they noticed the drops, while decreasing in size, became much more commonplace. Looking up, they noticed that branches on several of the trees above had snapped off. They could see a clear trail of debris go in a mostly straight line and noticed the light from the flair was glinting off something. As they approached it, they noticed it was a large piece of glass, most likely from the viewport as the ship had traveled through the foliage above. "Least we're headed the right way," Lyra said, discarding the finally burnt-out flair and pulling the last one she had from her pocket and lighting it. "Where'd you get these, anyway?" Vinyl asked, motioning towards the flair. "Found 'em near where I landed, much like you found the first aid. Guess we both have some good luck," Lyra said, squinting in the contrast of red light and pitch-blackness. "We'll be lucky when we get back to the ship... what's left of it," Vinyl said. She held a special place in her heart for the Dis. Her and that ship had been through more than most people spend with their best friend. She remebered the day she stole it, fresh out of the shipbreaking yard, like it was yesterday. It was when she and Octavia were just barely adults, begining their life of crime in the only way any respectable pirate did: by stealing their vessel. For months the two had planned their attack, waiting patiently for the right opprotunity to present itself. They had managed to overhear two technicians on the street talking about a project they were working on, a prototype ship that would be run almost exclusively by an on-borad A.I. unit. Both girls knew that that ship was their ticket out of the underbelly of Equis. After they followed the two workers back to the shipbreaking yard, they had the location and the time. The ship was on-scedule as far as build time and takeoff were concerned. Once they had expansively scouted the sight, all they had to do was wait. When the night came and the workers left, Vinyl and Octavia snuck onto the ship, powered it up, and flew it out before the reaserch team even knew what happened. The feeling Vinyl had as she stood upon the captain's stage- her stage -finally leaving all the mess that they had grown up with... It was a feeling she would never forget. Once the two had hobbled to the edge of the small cliff, as Vinyl laid her eyes upon the flaming, smoking, warped mess that her proud ship now was, she felt another feeling she would never forget. "Bloody hell..." Lyra breathed, "It's wreaked. It'd need a whole crew just to get it back on it's feet." Vinyl said nothing. The utter loss of her ship had struck a deep pain in her heart, one akin to finding out that a family member had passed away. She let a lone tear stroll down her face as she scanned the wreakage, happy memories of larceny, ambushes and escapes playing through her mind. It's gone... bounced around in her empty head. It was almost too much to take in. Almost. As her sad thoughts faded, they gave way to thoughts of anger, rage, and most powerful of them all, vengance. She swore she would, one day, have her revenge for what those E.N.F. bastards had done to her beautiful ship, if it was the last thing she did. But for now, she put a lid on it; there was nothing she could do for the time being, and she still had a family to take care of. Glorious vengance would have to wait. "Let's get down there. We've still got to make sure Tavi and Bon Bon are okay," Vinyl said, having collected herself. Lyra was confused at her captain's calm. "Aren't ya mad for what's become'a the ship?" "Oh, I'm very mad," Vinyl replied in the same calm, "And the day I meet the sorry sonofa bitch that shot down my ship, I'm going to tear him a new asshole so wide, he could fit the whole goddamn E.N.F. navy up it. But until that day, I've got a crew to take care of. Let's go," Vinyl said, motioning for Lyra to head down the hill a few dozen yards to the right. "Aye aye, capt'n," Lyra said as they made their way for the hill. "Hope Bonnie's all right..." Vinyl heard Lyra mutter under her breath. You and me both, Vinyl thought to herself, knowing that Lyra didn't intend for her to hear that. Once they reached the bottom of the hill, not without nearly slipping and falling down it, the two outlaws faced a new challenge: finding a way inside the ship. "Let's see..." Vinyl thought out loud as she scanned the wreakage of the ship, "There should be an airlock nearby. Hopefully, the backup generators are online," Vinyl concluded, pointing towards a nearby part of the ship. "And if they ain't?" Lyra asked, guiding Vinyl to the spot she pointed at. "Then we're fucked," Vinyl said flatly. "Ah." The two began their final march when they heard a snap followed by a growl behind them. They both froze before sharing a look and slowly turning around. "Uh... capt'n?" "Yeah?" "What the bloody fuck is that?" "I don't know." The two were looking into the glowing yellow eyes of a wolf of some kind, only rather than flesh and blood and fur, they were made entirely of sticks and leaves, the soft clinks of their paws rising only just above the steadily growing sound of rain. There were five of these creatures slowly forming a semicircle around the two, baring their sharp, wooden teeth and growling softly while their pircing yellow eyes never left them. Vinyl, never one to go down easily, dropped the first aid kit with a clang, drew her sidearm, pointed it at the nearest one, and fired. The revolver let out a loud bang as the hammer struck the bullet and sent it clean into the forehead of the strange wolf, the sudden noise causing the other wolves to retreat a few steps. The wolf collapsed into a pile of sticks, the yellow eyes simply vanising. "Well..." Vinyl began, leveling the next shot, "That wasn't so hard." Vinyl was aiming at the next wolf and was just about to pull the trigger when she heard the ratteling of sticks. She looked around for the source of the noise when she saw the pile of the one she just shot was moving. She could only look on as the pile went from a lifeless heap of wood to wolf again, slowly rebuilding from the paws up, the top of the skull, if it could be called that, being the last piece to settle into place again, a neat hole in the center. Once the yellow eyes had reapeared as well, it began to growl once more and slowly approach, quickly followed by the other four. "... Shit," Vinyl said, letting her arm fall lamely to her side again. As the five wolves slowly closed in, Vinyl and Lyra shared a look, knowing that while they weren't going to go down without a fight, this may very well be the last time they enter the fray. "Lyra, it's been an honor," Vinyl solomly said, placing her revolver in its holster and drawing her combat knife. "... I'm secretly a lesbian!" Lyra said quickly. "I know," Vinyl said calmly, eyes moving from one wolf to the next. "... Really?" Lyra asked awkwardly, picking up a large rock. "Trust me, it wasn't that hard to figure out," Vinyl said, slashing at a wolf that got too close, casuing it to back away a few steps. "... Really?" Lyra asked again, this time in embarrassment. The pack almost upon them now, the two braced for the coming attack, Vinyl gripping her knife and Lyra raising the rock above her head. One of the wolves, the alpha by the looks of it, crouched down, ready to leap forward and begin the attack. Both girls tensed for the inevitable... When a flame flew from behind them, landing on the wolf and shattering, engulfing the creature in flames. The wolf began yelping as it fruitlessly ran in panic, pawing at its head and body in a vain attempt to quell the flames. For several seconds, the wolf ran like this before collapsing to the ground, rolling and pawing at itself. After a few seconds, the wolf stopped moving altogether, simply lieing on the muddy ground as the wood crackled and popped in the flames. "... The fuck?" Vinyl let out in confusion. The two looked behind them to see a woman with curly peach and blue hair, wielding a molotov in her hand, standing atop the ship with a cocky grin. "Thought you could use some help, captain!" Bon Bon called out playfully before tossing the flamming bottle of alcohol, landing on the back of another wolf, dooming it to the same fate as the first. The other wolves, understanding that the tables had quickly turned against them, decided that perhaps this prey was a bit too much for them. The remaining three wolves turned tail and ran back into the darkness and safety of the jungle, wimpering slightly all the while. Both pirates let out a breath they didn't know they were holding. Vinyl turned back to look at Bon Bon, a happy grin plastered to her features, "Thanks for the help, Bon Bon!" Bon Bon gave her captain a salute, "Anytime, captain!" After a rather... displeasurable dealing with the airlock door, Lyra and Vinyl managed to get aboard the ship, much to Octavia's delight and relief. Said delight and relief proceeded to go right out the window when Octavia noticed the large cut on Vinyl's side. "Vinyl! Your side!" Octavia yelped in panic, her lavender eyes full of worry. "Yup. Noticed," Vinyl grunted, the adrenalin and morphine shot from earlier wearing off quickly. "We need to get you to the medical bay!" Octavia said, taking Lyra's place at Vinyl's side and leading the now-limping captain towards the medical bay. "We're gonna need to get the power on first," Bon Bon interjected. "The backup got all but destroyed in the crash and the main is offline." "Then what are we going to do?!" Octavia screamed, panic fueling her rage. "How destoryed is the backup?" Lyra asked, looking towards Bon Bon. "I don't know... I couldn't get it to turn on," Bon Bon said slowly, embarrassed at her lack of mechinal knowledge. "If the backup and main generators aren't too banged-up, I could fix one of 'em... or, at least, get one to work," Lyra said, running through different solutions in her head. "Alright, here's the plan," Vinyl said, not without some difficulty, "Lyra, Bon Bon, you two head for the- fuck, this hurts -head for the generators. Tavi, calm the fuck down, and we'll head to the med bay and do what we can 'till the power's back on." "Aye aye, capt'n!" Lyra gave a quick salute before heading down the hallway to the back of the crippled ship. "We'll be back soon!" Bon Bon called out as she followed the pilot. Octavia helped Vinyl the opposite way down the hall, the clanks of their shoes echoing around the metal walls. "What happened to you?" Octavia asked, this time with her inside voice, but not without her paniced tone. "Can't talk, much pain," Vinyl grunted, "Wow, very sucks." "Oh...o-okay," Octavia stammered, deciding that silence was the best choice for now. "What happened... *grunt* to you?" Vinyl asked. While she wasn't exactly prime for conversation at the moment, she always hated the quiet. Quiet always set her on edge. "Oh... uh, Bon Bon and I were both knocked out in the crash. She woke up first and then woke me up. We weren't hurt aside from some cuts and bruises. Once we figured out that you and Lyra weren't on the ship, we decided to wait until morning to go out and look for you..." Octavia's voice died out at the end, her eyes avoiding Vinyl. Vinyl knew she wanted to say more, but the stars dancing back and forth across her vision weren't allowing words to form. She saw Octavia's lips move, but didn't hear what she said. That was partly because Octavia muttured it, partly because there was a slight ringing in her ears. "What was that?" She managed to almost choke out. "I'm sorry..." Octavia was just above a whisper and not facing Vinyl. "Tavi, speak up," Vinyl grunted with a bit of irritation. "I'm sorry!" Octavia yelled, turning to tightly hug Vinyl, much to her surprise and discomfort. "I'm sorry we were going to wait! It's a jungle, and raining, and night, and we didn't know what was out there! It was cowerdly of us! And I-I-I was so scared you might have... might've..." Octavia sobbed into the slightly taller woman's shoulder, almost crushing her with her hug. The stars in Vinyl's vision suddenly burned much brighter and it took a fair amount of willpower not to pass out when Octavia hugged her. "Tavi! Side!" Vinyl croaked out in protest, gasping when Octavia went back to only supporting her. Octavia sniffiled as a few stray tears continued to roll down her cheeks, "S-sorry..." She mumbled. "S'okay," Vinyl breathed out. Today was simply not her day. Octavia carefully leaned Vinyl against the wall, her cut facing the empty hallway. "C-can you stand?" Octavia asked with a shakey voice. When Vinyl only nodded in response, Octavia slowly pulled her arm out from behind Vinyl and manually pulled the medical bay's door up after throwing the pressure release lever on it. When the door slid up and settled with a click at the top of the doorway, Octavia took Vinyl with her arm once more and helped her to the table when the autosurgon hung limp above. Octavia helped Vinyl ease her way onto her back before taking the first aid box from Vinyl. "Morphine..." Vinyl groaned. her eyes shut and head spinning. "Hmm? Oh! Uh, just a moment," Octavia said, opening the small case and digging around for the vial. After her search, she found the vial. After another quick search for a syringe, she pierced the soft top of the vial and drew enough to keep Vinyl's pain at bay, but not enough to make her loopy. See softly slapped at Vinyl's forearm to raise the vain and once the small tube pressed against Vinyl's pale white skin, she gently pressed the needle in and depressed the plunger, sending the painkiller to do its work. Octavia placed the needle in a nearby trash bin and looked back at Vinyl. She was still tense and her breaths were labored, but she slowly began to relax as the morphine coarsed through her, her breathing becoming steady and easily. Octavia let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. The same breath was caught in her throat at the sight of the long gash in Vinyl's side. "Vinyl... sh-should I help your side?" Octavia tentatively asked. "Yeah... that would be a good idea." Vinyl said, her voice sounding distant. "O-okay," Octavia said, still shaken by the thought of Vinyl's possible demise in the jungle. She was well beyond relived that she was fine and well, all things considered, but the prospect that, at the moment, had been very real was quite a blow to the young navigator. She had been with Vinyl since they were little; she couldn't imagine a life without her. "Hey, Tavi?" Vinyl asked, a tired tint to her words. "Yes?" Octavia responded quietly. She had just gotten to cleaning the large cut, gently wiping the mud and leaves away. "Remember when we were kids, and we'd watch the ships at the port come and go, thinking about the day we'd finally have our own?" Vinyl asked, her voice full of happy reminiscing. "Yeah. You'd always point at one and say what class it was, even after I could tell for myself." Octavia couldn't help but smile at the happy memories of the giddy little girl Vinyl had once been. "Did you ever once think we'd be in a mess like this?" Vinyl asked, her playful tone returning once more. Octavia giggled a little, "Not at first. But after we grew up and started... doing what we do, I sort of braced for something like this to happen. Eventually," Octavia gave Vinyl a playful smirk, one that caused Vinyl to chuckle softly. "You always were my voice of reason, Tavi," Vinyl said, laying her head back down on the table. "Given our current predicament, I must not be doing my job very well," Octavia said playfully. She was glad Vinyl was talking to her like this; she always knew how to calm her down. "To be fair, it is me we're talking about," Vinyl chuckled. "Yes, it is," Octavia said, a happy smile on her face, despite the nasty wound she was cleaning, "And I wouldn't want it to be anyone else." Vinyl chuckled, "I love you, little sis." Octavia smiled warmly, "I love you too, big sis." Despite what the two call each other, they aren't actually sisters. Octavia was always amused that they called one another that. She remembered their childhood, the rough experience it had been. They both were orphaned for one reason or another; neither woman ever knew the exact reason, nor did they enjoy discussing it. When they were just little girls, they had found each other- even with their sometimes radical differences in personally and tastes, they gravitated towards one another. Vinyl was the brave, adventurous one while Octavia was the calm, rational one. Octavia (usually) kept Vinyl from getting into something she couldn't get out of, and Vinyl gave Octavia the exciting life they had only dreamed of as children. While Vinyl did get in over her head on occasion and Octavia thought their life sometimes was a bit too exciting, both woman knew they wouldn't want it any other way. Octavia had removed the final leaf and was about to get to work on what was left the mud that was quickly beginning to harden when the lights turned on, slightly startling Octavia. The autosurgeon that was hanging limp over Vinyl suddenly snapped back up, ready to preform whatever was needed. "Guess Lyra got the power back on," Vinyl said, a sleepy tone entering her voice. Octavia knew that sleepiness couldn't mean anything good with a wound of this caliber. "I guess she did. Let's get the autosurgeon on and get you healthy again," Octavia said, walking over to the interface for the autosurgeon on a nearby wall. After checking to make sure the system was powered up and working without a problem, she engaged the system's virtual intelligence. "Beginning examination," A monotone voice spoke from the autosurgeon as it scanned over Vinyl, highlighting various wounds over her body with holographic outlines. As more and more outlines appears over her body, Octavia gave a silent prayer that Lyra had gotten the power back on when she did; Vinyl had suffered serious wounds in her ejection, wounds well beyond Octavia's healing abilities. Vinyl had the large cut in her side, a fractured skull, several broken or fractured ribs, and more smaller cuts all over her body than Octavia cared to count. The readout on the interface also showed that in addition to losing quite a bit of blood, the wounds were beginning to grow infected with, thankfully, known bacteria and small parasites which could quickly be killed and sanitized. All in all, Vinyl would be fine. "Examination complete. Beginning treatment. All persons are required to leave the room while treatment is administered," The monotone voice instructed, the various arms lowering to begin their work.
Chapter 3But the stars that marked our starting fall away. We must go deeper into greater pain, for it is not permitted that we stay. -Dante Alighieri, The Inferno As blackness and nothing gave way to feeling, Vinyl soon found herself wishing it hadn't. Her everything was sore, specifically her side and head. She let out a soft groan and tested her limbs, arms and fingers responsive as well as legs and toes. So far, so good, now just to open her eyes. The sight above her was not an unfamiliar one, but not a welcome one either. Above her as she lay on her back was the autosurgeon, in it's standby position, and undoubtably sterilized from her blood and who-knows-what else. Whatever was fixed aside, it was time to test if she was good to go or if she still needed a bit. A nice start would be proping herself on her elbows, as she slowly did. Aside from a dull throb in her side and slight head rush from sitting up, she was fine. Alright... slow and steady, Vinyl thought, easing her way to a full sitting position and swinging her legs slowly over the side of the table, resting steadily with either hand on the table. Okay... I haven't passed out yet, so I guess I'm good to go, Vinyl thought to herself as she slowly tested her newly-healed body's limits. I wish the damn thing didn't rip your clothes off before every operation, but whatever. "Vinyl? Are you- okay! Sorry!" Octavia said quickly, covering her eyes and starting to back out of the room. "Come on, Tavi, it's nothing you haven't seen before," Vinyl called out to Octavia who seemed to go over the idea in her head for a few moments before slowly re-entering the room, looking anywhere but Vinyl. Octavia shuffled awkwardly, her pale face tinted red from embarrassment. Vinyl just rolled her eyes, "Tavi, my eyes aren't on the floor," Octavia's gaze shifted, "Or the walls," Octavia diverted her eyes again, "Or the ceiling," Octavia closed her eyes before she sighed and finally opened her eyes, her gaze meeting Vinyl's. "That wasn't so hard, now was it?" Vinyl asked, maybe a bit more smug than she should have. "Are you feeling okay?" Octavia asked, not bothering to give Vinyl the satisfaction of answering her. Vinyl stretched her arms above her head, just a bit longer than really needed, while she answered, "Well, everything is sore and I'm sure I've got some more scars to add to my collection, but other than that, I'm fine," Vinyl's stomach rumbled loudly after she said that, "And maybe a little hungry," Sh added casually. "So I heard," Octavia giggled, despite her embarrassment. "We still have a little food left in the mess hall. Try not to eat too much." "I'll make no promises," Vinyl said as she hopped off the table and started walking the direction of the mess hall. After the door slid up, Vinyl was relieved that the lights had come back on, meaning that Lyra had gotten one of the generators to work. While she was walking down the short hall, she saw Lyra come out of the small crew quarters, her eyes widening at the sight of the nude captain. "Sup, Lyra?" Vinyl asked casually, strolling by without missing a beat. Lyra, deciding that the cat was as out of the bag as it was going to get, gave a near slack-jawed stare after Vinyl walked by. Hey, when you had an ass like a Vinyl's, it was only normal for people to stare. It was also normal that people may become offended by said staring. "What do you think you're doing?!" An angry-sounding Octavia demanded, making Lyra jump from the sudden voice. "Oh, hey Octavia. How ya doin'?" Lyra asked casually, even if she was smirking a bit. "What. Were. You. Doing?" Octavia asked again, stressing every word with a poke at the taller woman's chest, the effect lost due to how much shorter Octavia was than Lyra. "Staring at the capt'n's fantastic ass," Lyra said while (quite literally) holding Octavia at arm's length as she gave fruitless attempts to hit the pilot. "Knock it off you sick... perverted... horny... Lesbian?" Octavia had quite a fair amount of steam until the realization of what Lyra was doing fully impacted her. Octavia was, at times, what some would call 'dense.' "Yup! I'm gayer than Elton John skipping down the streets of San Prancisco while waving a rainbow flag," Lyra explained, taking pride in her newly out-of-the-closet sexuality. "... Who?" Lyra simply sighed before shaking her head, "Forget it." Now that Vinyl had gotten clothed and some food in her system- as close as dehydrated meals could get to food -she was feeling a lot better. However, aside from vengeance for her ship, she still had the problem of being, for the foreseeable future, stuck on a planet that apparently wasn't listed as exsisting. However, Vinyl knew more than she was letting on about this rock. Making sure the door to her quarters was closed, Vinyl approached the ornate wooden desk sitting neatly in the corner of the room. Perhaps Vinyl had a romantic view of pirates from before the age of space exploration, but she felt no self-respecting pirate captain was complete without a desk for them to spend their time planning their next move. Either way, she walked around before setteling into her equally ornate wooden chair and simply enjoying the feeling of being in her own ship, current state aside. But feeling good isn't what she was in her for. She was in here for the cube. Open the bottom right drawer, she pulled out a small cube, measurments four inches by four inches by four inches exactly. Normally, that wouldn't be even remotely important, but what was held in the sixteen cubic inches of the cube was. The cube was crystal clear showing what looked like a small cloud within it, the cloud revealing the edges of the cube. It seemed to drift slowly, endlessly, with no discernable source, beginning, or end. On occasion, Vinyl could swear she saw symbols flash momentairly in the dark cloud, but could never be sure. Also unproven, she thought that the cloud seemed to move just a little faster while she held it. Vinyl had stumbled upon this on the last raid on an E.N.F. outpost, with the goal of resupplying. Of course, there were far easier ways to go about resupplying, but a raid was more fun, and saved a lot more money. While searching for a supply room, Vinyl discovered what looked like a labratory. Thinking that whatever was in said labratory was very important to the E.N.F., Vinyl did what any good criminal would do, and stole the object and all the data the reaserchers had gathered on it, leaving nothing behind for them to salvage. After the raid, Vinyl decided to read up on what she had just stolen. To put it simply, Vinyl was gobsmacked. The cube she had stolen had a far greater purpose than Vinyl originally thought. When she saw it, she assumed it was some kind of energy source or weapon that the E.N.F. was developing. As she read the files she had stolen, she found herself constantly re-reading the files, not believing what her eyes were seeing. This cube was proof that intelligent life had, at some point, existed. After the E.N.F. had discovered odd readings on a planet that was under consideration for colonization, they sent a reasearch team to investigate. The team found the cube in some ruins that were just below the planet's surface. With the upmost secrecy, they transported it to a remote outpost where the E.N.F. thought no one would ever stumble upon. From there, they spent nearly every moment studying the alien device, learning as much as they could about it. Progress was slow, but being made nonetheless. After months of tinkering with the cube, the reaserchers had discovered that it was a data storage unit, well beyond human capabilities. While none of the team had a confirmed number, they estimated that the cube, which they had named The Library, contained dozens of tarabytes worth of information, possibly hundreds. Carbon dating revealed that the Library was not only comprised of organic material, but was also tens of millions of years old, predating the formation of Equis itself, and possibly documenting the creation of the universe. However, that was all but theory. Unfortunately for the research team, they had no way of accessing the vast ammounts of data stored within the Library. Whatever had built it was decades ahead human technology, despite its ancient origens. And with that, the documents ended. The personal notes of some of the reaserchers supposed that there might be some way to access the information on the Library's home planet, but none of them knew for sure how to proceed from that point. Once Vinyl had finished reading all the files she stole, she read them again. And again. And again. Each time revealed the same thing, and suddenly, Vinyl was in possetion of an object of extreme importance... ... And value. Vinyl's initial plan was to find a buyer. The Library itself would be near-priceless simply because it was physical evidence that alien life had existed, despite whatever it may contain. Vinyl was well aware of a few collecters that were interested in buying goods that were less-than-honestly obtained, and also knew that they would all want an alien artifact to call their own. She was just going to give it to whoever gave her the amount with the most zeros in it, when she thought of a much better plan. The E.N.F. had, undoubtably, learned of the Library's theft shortly afterword. The Library was surely of unfathomable importance to not only the E.N.F., but to humanity as a whole. Combine those two facts, and you had someone who wanted the Library back rather sorely. The same person whom would be able to say that money was no object. Vinyl almost drooled at simply picturing the amount of zeros the E.N.F.'s price would contain. Then she realized that the E.N.F. would be far less concerned with paying for the Library's safe return when they could simply kill her and take it back, so that plan was quickly discarded. That is, until she thought of an ace in the hole that the E.N.F. would choose payment over force. If Vinyl could get to the Library's home planet, unlock the secrets it held, she could save the E.N.F. decades worth of study. But more importantly, if she could have a sure-fire way of destroying the Library and all the information gathered about it should she wish to, she could send the E.N.F. directly to jail without passing Go, nor collecting two-hundred dollars. And with that kind of leverage, the E.N.F. would be far more inclined to ensure the safe return of the Library rather than risk its destruction. And thus, Vinyl found herself in her current predicament. So they were shot down. So they were stranded. So they were hunted by the very people who would being making them all rich beyond their wildest dreams in the near future. Every plan had its bumps and rough patches, and this one was no different. All things considered, this wasn't even the worst spot Vinyl had found herself in. Granted, it was up there, but not the worst. They were on the planet. They had the coordnates of the find site. The plan was still on. Placing the Library back in its drawer, Vinyl had just closed it when her door hissed open and Octavia stepped in. "Hey, Tavi. Sup?" Vinyl asked nonchalant, leaning back into her chair. Octavia sat down in a chair just in front of the massive desk before adressing Vinyl with a somewhat worried tone. "Vinyl, what's the plan here? We're stranded without the means to repair our ship, and I doubt the E.N.F. are going to let sleeping dogs lie," Octavia had suddenly become interested in the floor before her voice picked back up in a whisper, "Are we going to die here?" Vinyl could feel her heart break at the sight of her beloved 'little sister' being so hopeless. She stood up and motioned for Octavia to do the same. When she did, she enveloped the shorter woman in a tight embrace, one Octavia returned like a lost child finding thier mother again. "We are not going to die here. I promise," Octavia held onto Vinyl slightly tighter, "I found some files on the last raid. The E.N.F.'s been mining raw materials here, not too far from here. Odds are, we'll find what we need to fix the Dis, maybe even a ship to get off this rock. Soon as this storm breaks, we'll go there. Okay?" All throughout her explination, Vinyl kept her voice low and comferting, feeling Octavia nod her head into her shoulder. Well, that's not the truth, but not really a lie, either, Vinyl thought to herself, unable to shake the feeling of guilt. "God damnit, sonofa bitch!" Lyra swore, half under the main generator towards the aft of the ship. "Are you okay?" Bon Bon asked with worry. "Bloody, wanker, piece-of-shit wrench!" Lyra spat as the clanking of said wrench was heard towards the back of the small room from Lyra throwing it in anger. "Are you okay?" Bon Bon asked again. Lyra dragged herself out from under the generator, covered in stains of varing colors. "I'm fine. Fucking wrench slipped and I slammed my hand, s'all," Lyra said, sitting up and flexing her hand and wincing slightly as she made a fist. "Here, let me see it," Bon Bon instructed, holding her own hand out. Lyra looked at Bon Bon's outstreached hand and back at her own injured one before slowly offering it to her. Bon Bon gave her a soft smile before holding Lyra's hand closer to her face to examine it. "Be gentle, eh?" Lyra said quietly. "... Please?" She added hesitently. Bon Bon gave her an amused smirk, "Why, Lyra, did you just use the word 'please'? I didn't know you even knew that word." Had Bon Bon been looking at Lyra's face, she would have seen the blush that shone against the pale skin, "There's a lot ya don't know about me." Bon Bon simply giggled, "I'm sure. Well, your hand's fine, just a little bruised. Not broken bones or strains." Lyra, for one reason or another, had a sudden rush of confidence, and before she could think otherwise, her mouth formed the words, "Well, can ya kiss it better?" She immediately began kicking herself before Bon Bon caught her off-guard. Bon Bon lifted Lyra's hand to her face and gave it a simple peck before smirking at the pilot. "All better, you big crybaby? Or does something else hurt?" Lyra thought it over for a moment before pointing with her free hand at the other side of the hand Bon Bon still held and said, "Kinda hurts right here..." Bon Bon simply smiled at her before kissing the spot Lyra pointed out to her in the same way she did the previous spot. "Anywhere else?" Lyra could feel the blush on her cheeks, but didn't really care. "It hurts a little here, too..." She mumbled while pointing at her forehead. Bon Bon, while still holding Lyra's hand, leaned forward and planted a kiss on her forehead, lingering for just a second longer than needed. When she pulled back, she was just inches from Lyra's face. Her heart beating a million miles an hour, Lyra pointed a finger at her lips and all but whispered, "Here..." Both girls leaned forward slowly, eyes indecisive between looking at one another's or closing. After what felt like an eternity, Lyra felt Bon Bon's breath tickle her lips, centimeters away from one another- "Heartstrings!" Vinyl announced loudly as the door slid up. Lyra jumped at the sudden appearance of her captain. "Jesus, shit!" Lyra exclaimed before her head connected with something hard and metalic with a loud *clang*, "Ah! Fuck!" She spat. "Why?!" She asked more to the universe than Vinyl as she held her actually-hurting forehead. "Because your captain needs you!" Vinyl playfully said, her everpresent grin spreading ear to ear. "Fuck you," Lyra groaned, eyes shut and hands to her forehead. Bon Bon was torn between being angry at Vinly for her uncanny timing and stiffeling her giggles at Lyra's expense. "In all seriousness," Vinyl began, closing the short distance bewteen her and her crew, "How's the generator comin' along?" Vinyl asked, her voice losing its lighthearted tone. After letting out a cross between an irritated and pained groan, Lyra responded, "Not good. I'm makin' progress, but without a few replacements, our dear genny has taken its last shit. I can keep her goin' for a little while, three, four days, tops. After that, I hope ya packed candles and don't mind cold dinners." Vinyl let out a small 'hmm' as she began planning their next move. "Hope for the full four days?" Vinyl asked Lyra. "Ray Finkle would make a field goal sooner," Lyra stated simply. "My forehead red?" She asked, letting Bon Bon inspect and simply nod. "That bad, huh?" Vinyl asked, not expecting an answer. "Doesn't give us much time." "What's the plan, anyway? We're rather fucked as it stands," Lyra said, looking to her captain for answers. "There's a mining op, not too far from where we find ourselves currently. Once the rain clears, we'll make our way down there and politely ask if we can borrow some of their parts," Vinyl said, rising and making her way for the door. "And by 'politely' you mean 'at gunpoint', right?" Bon Bon called after her. As the door slid up, Vinyl turned and smiled at her, "You know me so well," And the door slid shut. Lyra and Bon Bon sat in silence for a few moments before Lyra asked, "So! Wanna finsh what we started?" Lyra gave her best casual smile. Bon Bon smiled coyly before standing up herself, "Maybe some other time. I've got some things of my own to attend to." "Oh. Uh, y-yeah. I got loads left to do on this hunk of shit," Lyra slapped the side of the generator. "Later then, yeah?" Bon Bon gave the same smile as the door closed. "Maybe." Once the door clicked shut, Lyra sighed. "So close..." Lyra sat in the silence for a moment. "Fuck."
