The Last Frontier

In 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.