Starlight: Stargazers

The ship streaked across the sky as it dodged incoming fire from the ground on all sides. It screeched like some kind of monster as it seemed to move impossibly at the hands of its pilot. Three smaller ships weren’t far behind it, firing to bring it down.

Inside the cockpit of the ship, the pilot put all her focus on keeping the ship moving without staying still long enough to become a target. The task was becoming increasingly difficult.

“JESUS H FUCK!” Anna shouted as her beloved ship rocked under the pressure of another close hit. Her red hair fell in front of her face, and for the hundredth time this day, she was grateful she had cut it short before this job.

She shook her head to clear her sight, and turned on the comm, “Bonnie, how’s my baby looking on your end?”

In the engine room, a much younger girl looked around nervously before responding. “You know I’m not a mechanic right? I have no idea what half… or any, of this stuff is.” Her voice held all the attitude of a teenager and it brought a smile to Anna’s face. Even now her young friend managed to remain rather bitchy and whiney. It was almost endearing.

“Well use your best judgment.” She shot back as she twisted the ship to avoid more incoming attacks.

“Okay, umm is anything supposed to be on fire??” Bonnie asked as she quickly tried to get some of the systems under control.

“No… Nothing should be on fire.” Anna said through gritted teeth. She was going to strangle the kid once she was able to reach her.

“Oh… then we have a problem,” Bonnie said back, as she grabbed an extinguisher and tried her best to quell the flames that were quickly beginning to spread.

“Oh fuck… yea we do,” Anna spoke mostly to herself as she saw another ship come into view. It was bigger than the other three, and very clearly had more firepower. Anna dove her ship down to avoid a cannon shot from the new ship and had to smile when she heard Bonnie’s cussing from below.

“What the hell are you doing up there?! Trying to kill me?!” Bonnie’s voice came over the comm. Anna smiled again before doing a roll to avoid another shot. Again she heard the other girl’s cursing.

“Sorry, MEPAC sent a heavy hitter.” Anna quickly explained.

“I fucking hate Martians!” Anna laughed at the response, before another shot killed her mood, as well as put a hole through her right-wing.

“Oh shit.” Again Anna seemed to be speaking mostly to herself as she tried to keep the damage under control.

“Oh shit?? What’s oh shit? What happened?” Bonnie’s questions were cut off and replaced with screaming as the ship suddenly dropped. Anna struggled to fix the issue, it was difficult as the ship was now spinning wildly on its forced descent.

She managed to straighten it out and begin to put it at more of a glide than a straight fall. She felt some pride beginning to well up as she recovered from the issue, then it vanished as she realized she had just given their chasers a prime target.

“Oh come on.” She said feeling so angry she could scream as the MEPAC ships lined up for the shot. Shots rained down, tearing threw their target and causing fiery balls of explosions.

Anna couldn’t believe her eyes as the MEPAC ships were cut down by an attack from above. Suddenly she saw two blue fighters race past firing upon the last and biggest MEPAC ship.

“The hell happened?” Bonnie said as she raced into the cockpit before strapping herself in a chair. “Oh fuck yea!” She exclaimed as she saw the ships that had been shot down.

“We’re not out of the woods yet girl, those are ESF fighters. They’re not going to like us much more than the Martians.” Anna said while trying to think of a way out of the current issue. Her radio sparked suddenly as the MEPAC ship went down and the ESF ships turned their attention on her.

“Unknown vessel this is Earth Space Federation territory. State your purpose and Identity or you will be fired upon.” The voice informed her.

“Oh shit,” Anna said as she tried to think of an option, any option that could get them through this.

“Well, shouldn’t you say something?” Bonnie asked nervously. Anna shot her a look and saw the young blonde nervously playing with her hair. A trait Anna discovered she only did when she was trying not to show fear.

“I’m flying the ship, you say something.” She said with a smile. She hoped it was enough to calm the other girl.

“You have eight seconds to comply.” The ESF pilot continued.

“What should I say??” Bonnie exclaimed, sounding even more panicked.

“Six seconds.” The voice continued.

“Anything but the truth,” Anna replied.

“Four… three…” The pilot was unnervingly calm.

“Uh hi. Please don’t shoot us.” Bonnie suddenly said over the radio.

“Identify yourself immediately.”

“Uh… I’m Bonnie.” She said to the pilot.

“What is your purpose?” That was the only response.

“Uh… were… journalists.” She said suddenly. Gaining confidence in her lie she pressed on, “We’re supposed to be documenting the ESF military. We need to be escorted to our destination.” She spoke firmly. Anna respected how well the young girl could commit to a lie, and convince those around her that it was the truth. The problem was that she often got too bold, and seemed to forget that they were indeed lies.

“Give us your clearance code.” The pilot demanded.

“Oh fuck…” Bonnie said unsure of how to continue the lie.

“Don’t worry babe…” Anna spoke up using her pet name for Bonnie, which she only used when things were about to get crazy. The last time Bonnie had heard it was right before they had been fired upon by a set of MEPAC fighters. “You did great. Bought us enough time.”

“For what??” Bonnie asked before she let out a scream, as the ship seemed to tear itself apart. Anna had set the ship to empty its air through several different exhausts. Simultaneously clearing her ship of the fires and making it seem as though the ship had suddenly broken down.

She guided it down in a controlled drop. Well… as controlled as she could. It went tearing through the sky approaching the ground at an alarming rate. The surface was covered with trees, and Anna tried her best to skim the top of them until she could find a clearing.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t one in sight. Her left wing dipped a little and connected with a tree, promptly being torn off, sending the ship into a spin as it crashed through trees before connecting with the ground. Even after contact, the ship continued to slide forward tearing up the ground as it moved.

As it finally came to a stop. Anna let out a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding. She glanced over at her friend and saw that Bonnie was as pale as a ghost but otherwise unscathed from the landing.

To her delight she looked out the window and saw the ESF ships flying away, apparently buying her show of destruction. Though as she looked over how much of her ship was scattered across the forest ground she realized it may have been more real than she had hoped.

“Well, that could’ve gone a lot worse, don’t you think?” She asked, turning to her friend. Bonnie flipped her a middle finger before leaning over her seat and vomiting.

“Eww, gross Bonnie.” She unbuckled herself and helped her friend do the same before they headed out of the ship. It was rather easy to exit the ship, as she discovered that all that seemed to be left of her ship was the cockpit.

“Ah hell.” She muttered to herself.

“So… what do we do now?” Bonnie asked her.

“We continue with the plan,” Ann replied before digging through nearby wreckage for useful supplies.

“Seriously? Not to rub salt in the wound, but even if we get what we came for? How are we getting back? The ship is trashed!” Bonnie felt herself getting worked up, and tried to keep herself calm. Which was becoming more difficult the more she thought about their situation.

“Bonnie, re, ax,” Anna responded while finding her handgun and strapping it to her waist before continuing her search. “We’re gonna be just fine. Have I ever let you down? Now help me find the big blue trunk.”

Bonnie let out a sigh before helping look. Anna had saved her a few years back from the slums of earth and had taken care of her since then, but they always seemed to be just barely getting by, and sooner or later she feared their luck would run out.

She heard Anna give a happy grunt as she found the trunk next to what had once been one of the wings of the ship. Anna dragged it to a flat surface and opened it up. Bonnie looked at it and was surprised to see a very advanced, very expensive-looking emergency kit.

“Damn, where did you get this? How did you get this?” She asked the older girl.

“It was payment for one of the jobs we did. This here is legit Ark tech, now strip naked girlie.” Anna said as she began removing some items from the trunk. It took a moment for her words to sink in.

“What? Why?” Bonnie wasn’t sure how losing clothes was going to help them at all. Even still she trusted her friend fully and started stripping anyways. She saw Anna setting what looked like a pair of heavy bracers and a pair of heavy boots together.

They looked unreasonably boxy and big. She couldn’t imagine how they would help. She saw that they did match a collar that Anna put with them. She didn’t like that there seemed to be no other pieces for the outfit.

“We are in a warzone sweetheart. ‘Fraid your normal clothes aren’t going to cut it. These will help, put them on once you get your stuff all off.” Anna responded handing the pile to Bonnie, before pulling out some similar, though smaller items for herself. Bonnie started to put her new pieces on while she watched Anna undress. She felt pretty weird standing naked with just a pair of ridiculous boots and bracers on, and of course the collar.

Anna smiled at her before pressing some buttons on her collar. Bonnie let out a surprised yelp as she felt it stab a small needle into the back of her neck. Then she saw the lights on her boots and bracers turn on. Suddenly material started to seep out of the items, covering her body as it went.

It spread from her boots and bracers connecting with itself forming a neat one-piece suit over her body. Once it connected from her boots to her bracers, to her collar the lights blinked and the blocky items began to slide apart, moving across the fresh fabric that now covered her skin, resting at different parts of her. She suddenly saw that she was being covered in plate-like armor over vital areas.

She had to admit to herself, that Ark tech made some seriously badass gear. She caught a look at herself in some metal of the ship and let out a whistle. She was covered in what looked like some very lightweight power armor. She was willing to bet she was bulletproof right now, and she certainly looked it.

She looked at the now naked Anna and watched her attach the smaller items to herself in the same way. Now realizing that her stuff had been so bulky because of its armor plating, she wondered why Anna’s was different. Then she saw it turn on.

As the material spread over her friend she noticed some immediate differences. Firstly Anna’s fabric looked almost leather-like and was skin tight. Second, there was very little plating, and the outfit was colored coal-black with red accenting. A severe contrast to Bonnie’s Silver and blue metal armor.

“No fair, how come you get the sexy outfit?” Bonnie whined to her as she admired her friend’s figure, something the skin-tight leather made very easy.

“You got the safer one, so quit complaining,” Anna said to her teenage companion.

“These are battle sets, Ark Scope Armor. Besides… I wear it better.” She teased while doing a pose to show off her body.

“Whatever. It shows how small your boobs are.” Bonnie said while rolling her eyes. Anna reached back into the Trunk and pulled out a few more things. One was an SMG that she handed to Bonnie. Lastly, she pulled out a rifle and checked its scope.

“So, we’ve got armor and guns… something bad is going to happen right?” Bonnie asked after making sure her gun was turned on.

“We are in the middle of a war zone.” As if to emphasize her words, there was a loud crashing sound. Both girls looked at where it had come from. Only a few seconds later and they saw a fast and tall ESF battle mech rushing out of the tree line before looking at them.

The mech was very intimidating, moving on two bipedal legs, which gave it great maneuverability over almost all-terrain, with two machine guns for arms. All four limbs were attached to an oval-shaped box that held all the wiring needed to make it move.

“Oh, shit…” Bonnie said before the mech raised its gun arms and started firing. The girls dodged out of the way, Anna taking cover behind some wreckage, while Bonnie dove back into the remaining intact part of the ship.

Anna peeked over her cover and had to drop to the ground as the mech tore through her cover. Its attention shifted, as Bonnie leaned out of her cover and started shooting.

The bullets didn’t seem to affect the mech, as they aimed at her and fired. Bonnie ducked back into cover as Anna bolted out and raised her rifle. She aimed at one of the arms and started firing.

She was running much faster than she normally could as her suit began to pump chemicals through its needle and into her body. She moved faster than the mech could turn, but just barely. The bullets it had started firing as soon as she broke cover were trailing behind her less than an inch.

She saw Bonnie start firing on it as well. One of its arm guns rotated to face behind it and fired at Bonnie again. However, as it moved Anna saw where it rotated. She was curving her direction as she ran and was now heading towards Bonnie.

She switched directions quickly with a back flip, just missing the shots. As she tore off the way she came she saw the gun moving and took her shot. She was rewarded with it snapping suddenly at the impact. The arm began to spin wildly as it continued firing.

Anna stopped running and focused on shooting at the other arm joint. This one was torn clean off, as Bonnie caught on and added her shots to the same target, the combined fire severing the limb.

Anna ran towards the disarmed mech and jumped onto it firing into its “heart” box. After a few rifle shots at point-blank the mech lost power and fell to the ground. Anna jumped off it as Bonnie came out of cover.

“Damn, those things can be tough. You ok?” Anna asked.

“Yea, and yea. You know we should get one for ourselves.” The teen responded.

“I’ll think about it,” Anna said with a laugh.

“Oh, shit…” Bonnie practically whispered. Anna turned around and saw three more ESF mechs break from the tree line.

“For fucks sake…” She cursed while trying to think of a plan. The mechs locked onto the girls and began to move forward. A rocket came from somewhere behind the girls and collided with the lead mech.

As it exploded another different-looking mech broke the tree line. One of its arms was a blade, that is used to cleave the closest mech in half, & the third and final of the ESF mechs was shot down by the new one’s cannon arm.

“Aw fuck MEPAC!” Bonnie shouted as both girls dove to the ground as more shooting began. All over ESF mechs and troops seemed to be coming into the clearing only to be met with MEPAC doing the same.

Bonnie felt a tug on her arm and looked at Anna who started crawling. She followed the other girl as best she could.

Anna kept one hand on her friend and the other on her rifle, shooting at anyone who got too close to them. She felt heat searing her cheek as explosions went off nearby, and could barely see through the dirt that now caked her face.

Suddenly a black armored MEPAC soldier fell in front of her. She stared into the creepy-looking facemask most of their grunts wore, right before it kicked out, knocking her rifle from her hand. She tried to get it back but the MEPAC jumped onto her while drawing a knife.

Her hand shot up, to catch the blade before it came down on her neck. She struggled to push it away, but even with the chemical enhancements, she was losing. Suddenly several shots went tearing through the soldier’s head and torso.

As the body dropped off of her, Anna looked back to see Bonnie with her gun raised. She quickly grabbed the girl’s hand and her rifle. They were close enough to the tree line now, so she stood and ran. They passed several soldiers on their mad dash, and Anna could hear a few shots bounce off of Bonnie’s armor. The two girls kept running even when they had reached the woods.

Anna looked back and could see a few ESF soldiers giving chase. She let go of Bonnie’s hand and turned around while still moving backward. She aimed her rifle and let off a few shots.

The soldiers ducked for cover and she turned back around to continue running. After a while, they found themselves alone. The two girls stopped to catch their breath.

“Jeez, that was crazy,” Anna said trying to stay upbeat. She looked over at Bonnie and was glad to see that she appeared unharmed.

“What are we gonna do Anna? We can’t keep this up.” The younger girl said, sounding close to panicking.

“Shh baby. It’s going to be okay, promise.” Anna reassured her with a hug. After she was sure the girl had gotten back under control she checked her tracker, which she had fortunately remembered to grab before everything went south.

“Okay, we need to head this way.” She said pointing and beginning to walk off “Luckily we went in the right direction and it shouldn’t be too far. A couple of hours maybe.”

“Should we even be continuing? Maybe we should just cut our losses…” Bonnie spoke as she followed her friend.

“Even if we wanted to, which we don’t, we wouldn’t be able to. Our ship, our home, is destroyed. This job will get us a new one, a better one.” She didn’t mention that she was also unsure how they were going to get off this planet. She didn’t want to alarm Bonnie with that thought just yet.

The girls walked for some time, luckily managing to avoid any conflicts. The sound of warfare was always able to be heard, but that helped them steer clear of potential problems.

Anna kept them close enough to the sounds to keep any wildlife away while staying far enough away to not be noticed. Soon they came to a clearing and stopped to take a break.

The clearing had been a crude camp for some soldiers that had moved on days ago. Anna was grateful, she hadn’t been able to grab anything once the shooting had started, so she hoped to find food and water at least.

Bonnie seemed to share her thoughts and was searching the camp while muttering about how such a pretty girl shouldn’t have such poor luck. Anna had to keep herself from laughing.

Suddenly she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand, and she discreetly began to survey her surroundings. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary, but she couldn’t shake the feeling.

She turned to Bonnie to suggest moving on when she saw, Three soldiers rushing towards them. She shouted to Bonnie as she raised her rifle and fired.

Bonnie jumped out of the way and took cover as shots started flying. She looked at Anna and shouted a warning as she saw another soldier closing in from behind her. She raised her gun, but couldn’t shoot for fear of hitting Anna.

After hearing Bonnie’s warning, Anna dodged to the side. She turned and fired at point-blank. Miraculously, the enemy soldier dodged. As she got a good look at him she felt her heart race and her blood chill. An Ark trooper.

Clad in full Ark gear he looked more robotic than man, and unlike Anna’s suit, his gear was made for hazardous combat. She jumped back trying to get some distance, but he stayed within arm's reach.

His hand shot out towards her and she dropped her rifle so she could use her arms to block the strike. It still had enough force to throw her to the ground. She rolled back and drew her sidearm almost instantly, but stopped before firing.

The Ark trooper was standing in front of her holding Bonnie in his arms, with a knife at her throat. Both stared at each other, the few seconds dragging on as though they were hours.

“Drop it.” The trooper spoke, his voice sounding almost robotic through his helm.

“Let her go,” Anna said without moving. She was aiming directly at his head, and anyone else she could have taken, but she wasn’t sure she could pierce Ark's armor. As if reading her thoughts he spoke again.

“I can kill her and get to you before your shots pierce my armor. Now drop it.” She waited for only a second longer before she dropped the gun and raised her hands while standing.

By now the other soldiers had made it to them, and it was a small relief when Anna saw that they were not Ark soldiers but Frontier Militia. She was still in serious trouble but if they had been a full Ark squad she was pretty sure that she and Bonnie would be executed immediately.

Ark military wasn’t known for leaving witnesses to missions. The Frontier on the other hand had very loose rules at best. Not always a good thing, but for now it gave Anna a little hope that they could still walk away from all this alive.

“Well, what do we have here?” One of the Frontier soldiers spoke while looking the girls over. “You're wearing Ark gear which means you’re not ESF or MEPAC. You're also sure as shit not Ark though. There’s not enough of you to be from a Frontier military. So… who are you?” He said while getting close to Anna.

She felt a pair of arms grab her and hold her in place. The man drew a knife out and pressed the flat of it against her cheek. She did her best not to show any fear. Suddenly an Ark squad didn’t seem like such a bad alternative anymore.

“Were tourists, fucker. Got lost, spare a ride?” Bonnie spat at him. He turned to look at her with a chuckle, before returning his attention to Anna.

“Somehow I doubt that.” His blade began to turn and she felt the edge begin to press into her skin, and a drop of blood formed on her cheek.

“That’s enough.” The Ark trooper spoke up. The leader looked back at him and looked like he was debating ignoring him.

“We’re spies.” Bonnie suddenly blurted. Anna looked at her and tried to send her silent shut-up mental waves. The others were now looking at her. “We were hired by some prick from Ark. He gave us these suits and an Ark ship. Wanted us to collect information about the warzone, specifically an area near here.”

“Bullshit.” One of the Frontier soldiers spoke.

“Maybe not…” Another replied.

Anna sent a glare at her young friend. The compulsive liar. All they had to do was have seen the girls' ship to know the story was bullshit. Despite her irritation, she was a little proud of the other girl’s quick thinking and hoped it worked.

A full Ark squad would know this was bullshit, but a single Ark trooper being reinforced by Frontier, that was another matter. Unless they knew for sure that the girls were lying they wouldn’t be allowed to touch them for fear of upsetting the Ark. Normally Frontier soldiers might not follow that rule, but with an Ark trooper in their squad, they couldn’t disregard it.

The Frontier leader was thinking the same as he looked back from Bonnie to Anna to the trooper.

“What do you think we should do?” One of the soldiers asked him.

“They have to be lying, let’s just gut the bitches and move on.” Another spoke up.

The Ark trooper turned his head slightly in that man’s direction. He didn’t notice, but his boss did.

“No.” He said quickly. “We take them with us.”

“What?”

“If they are being honest, we of course wish to help our Ark allies. If they aren't, well we can always kill them later.” He said with a shrug. The soldiers picked the girls’ guns up and started to raid the camp. Bonnie was let go and she immediately ran to Anna. Anna wrapped her arms around the girl and whispered fiercely.

“Foolish girl, you're gonna get yourself killed.” She could see a few tears had rolled down Bonnie’s cheeks and felt her eyes start to sting with her own.

“Sorry,” Bonnie whispered back.

“Well girls, as I highly doubt there are two places of interest around here, I believe we are heading the same way. Let us mere Frontier men escort you there.” The leader said mockingly.

The group of six headed out once again. Anna tried to think of a way out of this. Bonnie’s lie had bought them time, but eventually, it would be discovered. She needed a solution, but she couldn’t make any attempts until after she had what they all had come for.

She briefly wondered if ESF or MEPAC had any idea about what was on the land they were fighting over. Somehow she doubted it. If they did, the war would be much worse than it currently was.

As they continued, a plan began to form in her head. She looked at Bonnie and hoped she would catch on when the time came.

It wasn’t much longer before they saw their destination in the distance. It looked like some strange large metal box, covered by roots and moss as nature began its slow process of burying it.

However once close enough, it was clear that the big box was a closed doorway of Ark design.

“An Ark lab…” One of the Frontier soldiers said with a whistle.

“Imagine what’s in here…” The other one said.

“Why don’t we find out.” The leader said.

“Not how this works.” The Ark trooper said sternly. The others looked at him with glares, but he didn’t back down. “This one and I will go in and retrieve the item.” He said while pointing at Bonnie. “The rest of you are to wait here.”

“Why are you taking her if everything in there is so secretive.” Asked the leader with anger clearly in his voice. It was obvious he wanted to find out what was in the lab, and that Ark wasn’t going to let him.

“If she was hired by Ark to look, then she gets to look.” He said before heading to the door with Bonnie. She looked at Anna, who nodded her encouragement. The two walked up to the door, and after the Ark trooper opened it, they headed down a staircase that seemed to stretch deep underground, the door closing behind them.

The group set in to wait for the others to return. Anna had her plan, but she had to wait till boredom set in to enact it. After about an hour of waiting, she felt the time was right.

She let out a groan and stretched, showing off her body. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the leader watching her. She moved into a different position so he could get a clear view of her curves. Once his eyes finally managed to make it to her face, she gave him a sly smile and a wink.

“Nature calls boys.” She said as she stood up and started walking off. One of the soldiers moved to stop her but the leader held up his hand and followed her instead. As soon as they were out of sight from the others she felt his hands grip her and pull her against him.

She let his hands wander over her body, as she did the same. While he was feeling her curves she found a knife on his waist. Before she could grip it he spun her around and pressed her against a tree. She smiled coyly at him and he pressed his lips to hers.

She moved her hand back towards his knife but his hands gripped her wrists and brought them over her head.

“Did you think it would be that easy you little bitch?” He hissed in her ear while one hand held her wrists together, the other roaming over her body. “You’re gonna pay for your carelessness.” He said menacingly, but Anna couldn’t help but smile, she had him in the perfect position.

She jerked her knee up with as much force as she could muster. He dropped to his knees silently, unable to make any sound as she reached out and took his knife. She picked up a nearby rock and smashed it as hard as she could into his head.

He fell forward, and she couldn’t tell if he was unconscious or dead. It didn’t really matter either way so she grabbed the sidearm he had kept and started making her way back to the camp. She had to act fast and deal with the two remaining soldiers. If either of them saw her without their leader before she made a move, they would start firing.

As she was trying to think, she felt a massive tremor that knocked all of them to the dirt. It had come from underground, and she was willing to bet it had something to do with the Ark lab.

“Aw, shit! The hell was that?” One of them asked while he started to get back up.

“Not sure. Think it was supposed to happen?” The other responded.

“Not fucking likely. Quick, go get the boss, something's going wrong.” The first said while moving towards the lab’s door.

“On it.” As the other began to leave Anna made her move. She aimed her sidearm at the second guy, but before she could fire she was tackled from behind. She grunted in pain as she hit the ground, and turned her head to see the leader.

“Fuck.” She hissed as she realized she should have killed him earlier.

“Boss?!” The soldier said surprised at their sudden arrival.

“It’s fine, get me the carving knife. I’m keeping this pretty little bitch’s face as a souvenir.” He said while holding her down. Anna struggled to get him off as his soldier ran to their bag. It was left by the lab’s door and he reached it just as the door opened. He looked in the doorway, before getting shot through.

“The hell?!” the second soldier reached for his weapon, but too slowly. Bonnie came running out and shot him down as well. This threw her off balance and she fell to the ground. The leader jumped up to disarm her but had made the mistake of letting Anna go.

She grabbed his leg, tripping him up. Once he hit the ground, she climbed on top of him and stabbed him repeatedly with his knife. After he stopped moving she grabbed his locator and checked its history. She saw where they had left their ship, and swore as she realized it would take them right back through the ongoing battle.

She set it down and went over to Bonnie, helping her up.

“Thanks, gorgeous, I was about to be a goner.” She said with an upbeat tone.

“We gotta go, he isn’t far behind,” Bonnie said breathlessly. Now Anna realized that the Ark trooper wasn’t with her, and doubted he was in a good mood.

“Damn, their ship is a long way off.” She informed her friend getting ready to head to it anyways. With an Ark trooper on their tail and two armies in their way, she didn’t like their odds.

“Not their ship, this way.” The teenager said before running off. Anna swore and chased after her.

“Where are we going?” Anna asked as they ran, but she didn’t need an answer. As they got to the other side of the lab’s surface, she saw what had caused the tremors earlier. A hidden hanger had been raised to the surface, with an Ark ship on it. Anna’s joy faded as she realized the problem.

“I can’t fly an Ark ship!” She shouted in irritation. Their salvation was right in front of them, but she wouldn’t be able to get it to work. Without even slowing down Bonnie shouted back “It’s fine, I can.”

“What?! Since when? You can’t even pilot an escape pod!” Anna exclaimed in disbelief. Bonnie didn’t respond, instead, she turned around and fired off some shots. Anna looked behind them and saw the Ark trooper.

He dodged the attack and shot back. Anna swore and wondered how Bonnie had known he was there, or how she was suddenly a crack shot, that believed she could pilot an Ark ship.

For the moment it didn’t matter, and Anna turned to fire her weapon. Suddenly explosions erupted all around them. Anna looked up to see ships from both sides clouding the skies and firing on all three of them.

“Mother fucker!” She heard Bonnie shout, and felt a little relieved to see her friend acting at least a little like her normal self.

The two girls made it to the ship, and Bonnie opened it with a code. As they ran into the cockpit Bonnie jumped into the pilot’s seat. Amazingly the ship started up, seemingly by her touch alone.

The ship came alive and started to rise. Anna was grateful to see the Ark trooper still on the ground. She was concerned with how they were going to get through this though. Even if Bonnie could fly, there were a lot of battleships in the way.

“Babe…” was all she could get out, but Bonnie seemed to hear the unasked question.

“Don’t worry, I got this.” She saw Bonnie power down the weapons and put the energy into their shields. The ship skyrocketed upwards at her command. Anna was gripping the back of her friend’s seat so tightly she didn’t have to see her knuckles to know they were ghostly white.

She saw a ship above them and let out a scream as they collided. To her complete surprise, the shields allowed her to tear right through the other ship, without so much as rocking theirs.

The other ships scattered out of their way as they continued their direct ascent. Some tried to follow after, but the Ark ship was much faster. Only a few moments later, it broke orbit and continued to move through space.

Anna let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. She looked at Bonnie and saw that her friend looked just as terrified as she felt. She wrapped her arms around her in an embrace and could feel her still trembling.

“That was great honey. Where’d you learn to do that?” She asked without letting go.

“Oh right, yea I learned a lot in the lab,” Bonnie said with a nervous little laugh.

“What? How?” Anna couldn’t wrap her mind around how she had learned all that within the last hour or so.

“It’s a long story, but for now, don’t you need to make a call?” Bonnie said, with a smile. Anna looked a little confused until Bonnie held up a silver research case. Anna screamed with delight and kissed her friend’s cheek.

With a smile, she turned the ship's com on and made the call. She shot Bonnie another smile before turning to face the call. It answered with a familiar smug-looking face.

“I trust everything worked out?” The voice said calmly. She smirked at him before speaking.

“We got it, now let’s talk about the price… Ray.”