Eclipse the Lost Planet: Journey of a Thousand Miles - by LFox (c) 2008

A young female scientist lands on the planet Eclipse thinking it’s an abandoned world she can survey and document.  However she becomes stranded on the planet and quickly finds that among the frozen skyscrapers the planet is very much alive.

She finds the planet has become a hellish death match game where people kill each other for energy to keep themselves from being frozen by the planets harsh cold.  As if things weren’t sinister enough a violent race of creatures known as Slivers with bizarre abilities call the planet their home and unphased by the cold they hunt down the human survivors and devour them for food.

Author Notes:  This story is losely based on the game Lost Planet. I say losely because I've never actually played more than the demo levels. But that was enough to strike an idea of an interesting story series.

I've been kicking this thing around for months editing it and changing it. Finally after forcing myself half I managed to get it finished although I'm still not entirely satisfied with the end half of the story. Hopefully it seems believable enough I'm not all that smart when it comes to physics or science.

(c) 2008 by LFox
Eclipse the Lost Planet: Journey of a Thousand Miles

In the far end of a galaxy in the deep vastness of space floats a small round planet known as Eclipse which is completely frozen over with heavy ice.  Slowly orbiting the planet is a large moon called Tempest made of sand and vicious storms.  In three separate directions of Eclipse float small blue suns which provide constant light to the planet, however none of them are strong enough to provide heat.

Slowly making its descent toward the planet surface of Eclipse is a small private owned spaceship.  The spaceship is a beautiful new sleek design much like a fighter plane with a brilliant white exterior.  Seated in the cockpit in the driver’s seat is a female scientist named Sora who’s in her mid 20’s with a slim athletic figure at 5’7ft tall with reasonably sized breasts in the small C’s, long brown hair down to her shoulders and beautiful blue eyes.

Sora’s hands hold the joystick firmly, ahead through the cockpit window heavy snow rushes past as the ship speeds toward the planet’s surface.  After a minute or two the snow thins and disappears leaving a beautiful clear view of the planet.  Unlike on earth however the lighting of the planet is very dark from the distant suns giving only the kind of light a late dusk on earth gives.  A massive flat landscape of snow stretches out into the distance with mountains lining the view.

Beneath Sora’s spaceship however where she’s guiding it to land is a massive city.  The city stretches for miles but rather than being a bustling metropolis it’s deserted.  Large hundred foot skyscrapers made of metal, stone and glass graze the clouds.  Thick snow blankets the buildings many of which have begun to collapse under the sheer weight of the snow and the brittle nature of the frozen metal.

Sora flips several switches overhead and three large metal feet slide out of the underbelly of the spaceship.  With a heavy shake the ship settles down on a city street.  Sora gazes out the cockpit window for only a moment before unstrapping her seatbelt and rushing through the ship to the airlock.

Inside she seals the door behind her then turns to the side of the small room where a sleek white light weight spacesuit hangs.  On the back of the suit is a heavy plasma battery encased in metal with various hoses and life support systems linking up to the visor.  She rips the spacesuit off the rack and quickly changes into it then slams down the visor and locks it tightly in place.

She kneels down where the spacesuit hung to pick up a large white suitcase and long silver automatic gun.  With the suitcase and the gun in hand she reaches out and presses a button next to the outer airlock door.  Light mist quickly fills the room as the pressure is quickly changed to match outsides in preparation of leaving the ship.  As the outer door slides open a compartment underneath opens up and a step ladder extends down toward the ground.

Sora carefully climbs down the ladder, she stands on the city street looking out into the distance in awe with the ground blanketed heavily in knee deep snow.  All around parked on the side of streets are fancy new age cars and motorbikes with sleek designs that once ran on large plasma batteries.  The cars and motorbikes have long since aged though and become covered in heavy ice and snow over the years.

All around skyscrapers tower over the streets but most of the windows are smashed.  The stores on the ground or higher levels are ruined with shelves tossed about or emptied entirely.  All that’s really left of any of them are ransacked rooms with glass, ice and snow strewn about.

“Oh my god” says Sora.

Sora stands silently glancing around the massive ruined city for several minutes before beginning to walk slowly along the street.  As she does the snow begins to thin further along until its only ankle deep.  Suddenly a small white creature runs past Sora, the creature itself is a Sphian about the size of a house cat with a slender fox like body with a pair of large rabbit ears on its head.  On its forehead it has a large blue sapphire in the shape of a diamond.

Sora turns and stares at the Sphian in shock as it disappears around the corner of the street.  “There’s actually life on this planet?”.  After several moments a gunshot rings out echoing in the air.  Sora holds her gun tightly and glances around in fear.  “What the hell was that?”

The sphian quickly runs out from around the corner toward her.  It jumps into the air to climb onto a car but as it does a gunshot rings out and a bullet hits the creature in the head sending it hurtling to the ground between Sora’s feet.  Sora kneels down and looks over the sphian’s body as blood slowly pools out of its wound onto the snow.

The sound of snow crunching and shuffling about quickly catches her attention.  As she raises her gaze to the corner she stares silently in awe.  Standing on the sidewalk is a young boy about the age of twelve standing at 5’3ft tall with very short blond hair and green eyes.

Sitting tightly around his neck is a white collar with a small display on the center and just below it is a silver chain with a snowflake made of silver.  Perched on his head is a set of white military style goggles and in his hand is a massive 3ft long white sniper rifle with a large scope on top, small retractable legs for stability on the base and a white sash connected to the front and back which is draped around his neck.

The boy’s clothes also look military in style as he’s wearing a set of heavy white combat boots, a thick set of white snow pants, a thick white jacket with a zipper on the front and a set of heavy white gloves on his hands.  On the sleeve of the jacket is a silver snowflake with a blue pickaxe and sickle over it.

Strapped to his belt are several small ammo pouches along with a larger supplies bag.  Strapped to his right leg is a white pistol while a massive twelve inch long combat knife is sheathed on his left.

“Oh my god” says Sora.

The boy quickly clutches his rifle and aims it at Sora’s head with an emotionless face.  “Hand over your energy”

Sora stares at him blankly not understanding what he just asked.  “Energy?  What are you talking about?”

The boy’s grip weakens and he looks at her oddly.  “Why are you wearing a spacesuit?”

“I landed on this planet a short while ago to survey it.  I had no idea there was people still alive down here”

The boy lowers his gun and looks at her seeming confused.  “You willingly landed on this planet?”

Sora nods.  “That’s right”

“Are you an idiot?”

Sora’s eyes widen in surprise.  “I beg your pardon?”

“You won’t be getting off this planet again”

Sora narrows her eyes and stares at him curiously.  “What makes you say that?”

The boy’s eyes suddenly go wide as he thinks of something.  “Never mind let’s get to your ship quick before it’s too late.  Which way is it?”

Sora stares at him blankly.  “What do you mean too late?”

“We have about ten minutes if even that before your ship ices over and it can’t take off anymore where is it?”

Sora stares at him dumbfounded.  “That, can’t be”

“Where’s the ship?”

Sora turns around and starts running back toward the ship with the young boy following her.  After several minutes they quickly scale the outside stairs and enter the airlock sealing it behind them.  As soon as the airlock finishes pressurizing and decontaminating Sora rips her visor off and runs to the cockpit where she begins frantically checking over the controls.  The young boy quickly appears by her side watching her for several moments.

“Can it still fly?” asks the boy.

Sora stares at the controls with a mixture of fear and surprise in her eyes.  “I, I don’t understand it.  The engines are icing over.  Their built to handle the most intense cold imaginable”

“Charge the engines you might still be able to take off”

Sora flicks several switches and pushes a lever forward to power up the engines.  The engines hum to life and outside massive jets of blue flames spray out from the engines.  As they quickly warm up ice begins spreading over the exterior of the ship.  Suddenly the power on the engines goes completely dead and the large blue flames disappear entirely.  After several moments small snowflakes begin falling from the sky, slowly at first but the wind and the snow quickly picks up as a massive storm starts.

Inside the cockpit the young boy looks at the snow outside sadly.  “It’s too late.  You’re stuck here”

Sora grabs the lever for the engine power and maxes it out.  The engines burst to life at full power with massive 20ft blue flames shooting out from the ship.  After only a few moments however the engines sputter several short bursts of flames before going completely dormant as they ice back over.

“What’s going on?  What the hell just happened?” asks Sora.

The young boy looks at her sympathetically.  “A blizzard, the engines will be iced over by now.  You won’t be able to get them heated enough to take off again”

Sora stares at him in shock.  “What?  That, that can’t be”

“Ships can take off this planet but only if their engines don’t have to fight the temperature.  With the gravity combined with the ice they’ll never heat up enough to make it off the ground.  Even if they do you’ll never get out of the atmosphere”

“So, I’m stuck here?”.  The boy nods and after several moments Sora’s face brightens up.  “It’s okay, I can just send an SOS.  Someone will come no big deal”

“With the storms and the way the atmosphere is you’ll never get a transmission into space.  The only way you’d send an SOS is if you could send it from one of the satellites”

Sora shakes her head.  “No my equipment will work just watch and see”.  Sora presses several buttons on the control panel.  “It’ll…it…it, doesn’t go.  The, the signals not getting anywhere”

“When you’re done crying I’ll be by the airlock”

With that the young boy slips away.  Sora stares at her ship controls for several moments before collapsing on the dashboard with tears forming in her eyes.  Thirty minutes later Sora finds the young boy sitting by the inner airlock door silently.  Sora herself looks defeated, her eyes are puffy and red from crying and she looks horribly depressed.

Hearing her approach the young boy looks up at her.  “Are you done crying?”

“What’s your name?” asks Sora.

The boy smiles.  “Haseo, how about you?”

“Sora, if you don’t mind me asking how do you survive on this planet?  I didn’t think anything could stand the cold”

Haseo takes a hold of his collar.  “With this”

Sora bends down and stares at the collar intently.  “What’s that?”

“A BWU”

Sora furrows her brow.  “A BWU?”

“Body Warmth Unit.  Using energy from plasma batteries it pumps heat directly into your body.  With it you can walk around outside without getting cold.  Having parts of your body exposed makes you lose heat quicker though so to stop from using too much power we still dress in warm clothing”

“Amazing, I’d never considered the possibility of using a device to pour heat into the body”

“Do you have any plasma batteries?”

Sora nods.  “Yes I have several in my equipment and a case full for ammunition.  Why do you ask?”

“Well, after this one I only got one left.  If I don’t find more soon I’ll freeze to death”

Sora’s eyes widen in surprise.  “What?  Can’t you just get more batteries?”

“From where?  Solar power was used to charge the batteries.  The only way to get more these days is to kill other people”

“You, you can’t be serious”

Haseo nods.  “I am”.  He puts a hand to his BWU and smiles slightly as he remembers.  “The one in my necklace now I got from a woman I killed.  Unfortunately I haven’t found any other people lately”

Sora stares at him in disbelief.  “You kill people for energy?”

Haseo nods.  “Everyone does”

Sora looks at him fearfully.  “What’s going to happen to me?”

Haseo smiles.  “I don’t know.  You’ll probably freeze to death.  That’s if no one comes to this ship and kills you first”.  Sora stares at him silently for several moments.  “I’ll tell you what why don’t we work together?”

“Work together?”

Haseo nods.  “We’ll stick together and hunt for energy together.  If you really have as much energy as you say you have we may have several months worth maybe even a full year if we’re lucky”.  Sora stares at him silently.  “If you stay here someone will come and kill you”

Sora stares at the sniper rifle in his hands then glances up at his smiling face.  “Okay, I’ll, I’ll come with you for now”

“Let’s collect anything useful from your ship before we leave and dress warm”

Ten minutes later Sora is dressed in a set of bluish heavy snow clothing especially made to trek in the deep cold.  Haseo also has the addition of a small white bag slung around his chest diagonally which is filled with hundreds of plasma batteries.  The plasma batteries themselves are small clear cylinders the size of small triple A batteries with grainy light blue liquidy crystals inside.

“Shouldn’t I take a gun?” asks Sora.

“Do you have any that don’t run on energy?” asks Haseo.  Sora shakes her head.  “Then no, we’ll find one for you later”

Sora glances at the bag of energy on Haseo then at his BWU and finally at his face.  “How am I supposed to go outside?  I don’t have one of those BWU things.  Should I just use my spacesuit?”

Haseo reaches into a pocket on his jacket and pulls out a small white collar like his own.  “I always keep a spare, I don’t know why but I guess it came in handy”

Haseo opens the front of the BWU where the display is and loads a plasma battery into the chamber.  As the chamber snaps shut the display lights up with a message saying 143 hours remaining.  Sora leans down letting Haseo quickly attach the device around her neck.  As the BWU is snapped shut around her neck it quickly activates and heat begins pouring into her skin.

“It feels really warm” says Sora.

Haseo smiles.  “That means its working fine”.  He turns to the airlock door and grabs the handle.  “Ready?”

Sora looks at him fearfully.  “Is there really no other way?”

Haseo shakes his head and opens the door.  Several minutes later the two of them step foot onto the snow outside.  The blizzard has since passed, all the footprints are gone and the entire snowy terrain as been reshaped as snow mounds have formed or been moved about with the storm.  Sora glances around at the landscape with her unhindered view and breaths the icy cold air deeply.

“Odd, I don’t feel cold at all” says Sora.

Haseo smiles.  “That’s the BWU at work.  Just don’t ever take it off.  If you do you’ll freeze to death in less than a minute”

Sora nods her head in agreement.  “The gravity feels a bit heavy although I guess you wouldn’t notice”

Haseo shakes his head.  “No you get used to it.”

As Haseo slowly begins to walk off Sora follows him closely.  As their walking she looks over him carefully observing him closely until her gaze eventually wanders to the silver patch on the side of his sleeve.

“What’s that symbol on your arm stand for?” asks Sora.

Haseo glances at the side of his arm.  “That?  That’s Sovranet.  It used to be a major faction on this planet”

“And now?”

“It’s just a symbol”

Sora glances around at the ruined skyscrapers covered in ice.  “What happened on this planet?  There’s an entire city here you can’t tell me it was always like this”

Haseo shakes his head.  “It wasn’t.  I was pretty young when it all happened but I can tell you what I know.  Eclipse was a beautiful prosperous and rich planet, but it all changed overnight.  A little over five years ago the scientists on our planet discovered that the sun was losing energy and it would soon burn out until it could recharge itself”

Sora furrows her brow.  “I’ve never heard of a sun recharging itself.  How long does it take?”

“From what I know about 200 years but the power it recharges only lasts for about 100.  Anyway the two major factions Sovranet and Ralerion each had their own views on how to handle the upcoming crisis so they worked separately.  Relerion’s idea was to store masses of food, water and energy and work in controlled bunkers until the sun recharged itself.  Sovranet’s idea was to adapt to the planet by using BWU’s and hopefully later genetic modification so people could literally live in the cold atmosphere”

“There was a problem though right?”

Haseo nods.  “The scientists, all of them were off on their estimation.  Three months before the sun was due to burn out the planet turned to ice overnight.  Sixty percent of the planets population froze in the night.  Those that survived started to be picked apart by Slivers.  We knew about the slivers but they were all underground in deep tunnel networks where they laid sleeping for centuries”

“So they came out when the climate shifted?”

Haseo nods.  “Yeah, apparently the slivers like the cold.  Survivors were trapped in their homes too afraid to leave for fear of freezing to death.  Ralerion made rescue efforts while the Sovranet mass produced prototypes of their BWU’s for all the people within their faction.  Ralerion demanded BWU’s be mass produced for everyone but the Sovranet felt it was best to look after their own people”

“They tried to let the others die so they could focus on a group they could save?”

“That’s right, Sovranet didn’t have the resources it needed to save the remainder of the entire planets population due to the sudden cut of time, they barely had enough time to finish the prototype of the BWU.  Ralerion raided Sovranet outposts stealing BWU’s and handing them over to the public.  Before long everyone had one but because of Ralerion’s poor judgment there wasn’t enough resources to support the people.

Wars broke out between the factions and in the factions themselves.  In the end people started to worry only about their friends, family or themselves.  As the factions broke down people started traveling in small groups hunting each other like animals for more energy so they could keep on living”

“What about getting off the planet or signally for help didn’t anyone ever try?”

“The few ships that existed were either too iced over to fly or were piloted off the planet with less than half a dozen people on board.  As for signally for help, no one ever came”

“What about the other bases?  Aren’t there any left?”

Haseo shakes his head.  “Like I said the preparations were cut short.  Most bases were incomplete or under stocked.  Those with actual heating ran out of energy within several weeks or months.  It’s doubtful there’s any bases still operational”

“So how did you survive?”

“My parents were Sovranet.  We were near one of the bases when the climate shifted.  After a while my parents were killed in a raid and shortly after the base ran out of resources.  I traveled with a small group that taught me how to shoot and look after myself.  As the group got smaller and we ran low on energy I watched several of them turn on each other for it.  Eventually I was the only one left in my party and I’ve stayed alone ever since, I figured I was better off”

Sora looks at Haseo sadly.  “I feel sorry for you, especially since instead of being able to take you off this planet I got stuck here myself”

Haseo smiles.  “Don’t feel bad it’s…”

Haseo is cut off as a gunshot echoes throughout the air and he’s suddenly blown off his feet.  He lands on his back in the snow a moment later with a smoking bullet hole on the center of his chest.

Sora turns to look at him with wide eyes and screams out.  “Haseo”.  She quickly runs over to him and kneels down next to him.  Seeing he’s still alive she breaths a heavy sigh of relief.  “Oh thank god you’re okay”

Haseo remains motionless as he looks up at her calmly.  “It hit my vest.  Run to one of the nearby cars and stay down”

Sora looks at him confused.  “What?”

Haseo throws his arm out knocking her to the ground just as another gunshot echoes around them.  As Sora flies backward a bullet whizzes past and hits the snow right where she was sitting.  Haseo quickly sits up with his rifle clutched tightly in his hands and looks over at her.

“Hide” yells Haseo.

Sora quickly turns over and scrambles to the nearest car which she hides next to it out of sight.  Meanwhile Haseo runs over to the other side of the street and ducks down behind a car.  He clutches his rifle tightly and carefully scans the balconies on the skyscrapers ahead through his scope.  A gunshot echoes around them and a bullet hits the hood of the car near Haseo’s head leaving a large hole.

He glances at the bullet hole and quickly switches his search to a different section of the skyscraper.  After a quick pass he finds a woman clutching a sniper rifle in her hands gazing at him.  He lines the scope up quickly and zooms in on her forehead before pulling the trigger.

The bullet hits her in the center of her forehead and after wobbling around for a moment she falls over the balcony.  She falls through the air for several moments plummeting several dozen floors before hitting the snow covered pavement below with a loud crack.  As her blood begins to pool out around her body Haseo quickly scans the surrounding buildings through his sniper scope to ensure there’s no one else around.  After several moments of searching he finally eases up on his grip and slowly stands up.

“It’s safe” says Haseo.

Sora glances out from behind the car, she looks around before slowly standing up and walking toward him.  “People just shoot each other like this?”

“Everyone has a rifle these days.  If you’re going to get killed chances are it’ll be while you’re walking around without ever knowing you’re in danger”.  Haseo’s eyes slowly narrow as he stares at her.  “…You’re not wearing a vest are you?”

Sora shakes her head.  “No, I’m not”

Haseo walks ahead and gestures his hand for her to follow.  “Come on we’ll get you some proper gear”

Together they walk over to the dead woman and Haseo kneels down to inspect her more closely.  The woman herself is wearing Sovranet clothes just like Haseo and she even has all the exact same gear.  He takes off her BWU and pockets the battery from it before tossing it aside.  He then turns and looks Sora over a moment before turning back to the woman.

“You can use her clothes their better suited for the climate and better camouflage” says Haseo.

“Umm, okay” says Sora.  “Where should I change?”

Haseo smiles.  “You can change here.  I promise I won’t look”

Sora looks at him seeming confused.  “What about the cold?”

“The BWU will keep you warm and it won’t use up too much extra energy if you’re fast”

“Alright”

“Just give me a moment to grab her gear”

Haseo carefully starts removing her ammo pouches, weapons as well as an assortment of utilities she had hidden underneath her clothes.  When he’s done everything’s lying neatly on the snow before him.

“Get changed I’ll check over this stuff” says Haseo.

Haseo quickly goes to work occupying himself with the utilities.  Meanwhile Sora watches him for several moments before kneeling down next to the woman and beginning to undress her.  As she switches clothes she keeps a close eye on Haseo but true to his word his head nor his eyes go anywhere near her while she changes not even once.

While she’s busy changing Haseo inspects the various equipment pieces removing small panels to inspect the plasma batteries within before closing them again.  When he’s done with them he quickly switches to the weapons checking the amount of ammo in them and how much they have all up.

“Alright I’m changed” says Sora.

Haseo quickly turns around to find Sora changed completely into the woman’s Sovranet clothes.  He smiles at her and gestures a hand at her to come closer.  “Good come here and I’ll show you the gear”

Sora walks over to him, she kneels down next to him and slowly looks at the mass of items on the ground.  “Gear?”

Haseo nods.  “This is basic equipment everyone carries these days”.  He holds up a pair of goggles like the pair he has on his head.  “These are for protection for your eyes during heavy storms.  They have high level zoom capability as well as several vision modes”

Haseo begins laying his hand over the items as he names them.  “Pistol, combat knife”.  His hand moves over to a small white flashlight.  “Flashlight”.  He lays a hand over a white metal box that has a small stub of metal poking out in the middle of it, the box itself is on the front of the combat belt that holds the ammo pouches.  “This is the grappling hook it’s for scaling rough terrain or buildings”.

He grabs the metal stub and pulls it out revealing it’s a thin long piece of metal.  As it comes out the metal head splits into three long spikes while still retaining the small metal rod body.  Attached to the body piece is a thin white metal rope that disappears into the mechanism.  Haseo pushes the grappling hook spikes back together and pushes it back into the mechanism before continuing.

“Some bags for holding food, batteries, ammo and anything else”.  His hand comes to a stop over a pair of thin white blankets.  “A pair of blankets for sleeping, I always use one for a blanket and the other for a pillow.  You can even use them to hide in the snow if need be”.  Haseo grabs a thin white wrist watch with a digital display and holds it up to Sora.  “Put this on now”

Sora takes the watch and quickly straps it to her wrist while Haseo begins to explain about it.  “That’s an EU, Environmental Uplink it has a satellite uplink that informs you about weather changes to do with your current location”.  He points a finger over at a small white rectangular box with a display on the front, similar to a walkie talkie in some ways.  “This is a TU, Tactical Uplink they’re for radio communications but people only ever use them for maps these days”

Haseo points next at a white remote looking tool with an 8 shaped handle with an attached circle.  “This is an MP9 to play music”.  He grabs a large ten inch long white cylinder that’s about as thick as his wrist.  “This is an MPFU, Multi-Purpose Flame Unit”.

He presses in on it towards the top and the top outer shell splits apart revealing a nosel similar to a gun barrel.  He presses on it again and the metal around it springs up and fans out into a large metal plate.  “It has an adjustable flame with an optional hotplate.  You can use it for cooking or heating but it uses almost as much power as a BWU”.  Haseo turns to the last two items and gestures a hand at them one is a small white drink bottle with a cup lid while the other is a large sniper rifle.  “Finally drink bottle and rifle”

Sora looks over the equipment silently for several moments before finally turning to Haseo with a somewhat skeptical look.  “Everyone has this stuff?”

Haseo nods.  “Mm hmm”

“With such good equipment it seems like all this is a sick game”

“Put this stuff away on you quickly.  We should get going”

Sora quickly puts the equipment away on herself and slings the rifle strap around her.  Having grabbed everything they want the two of them begin slowly walking off along the streets.  As their walking Sora notices the Sovranet patch on her arm and looks at it closely.

“These are Sovranet clothes aren’t they?” asks Sora.

Haseo nods.  “Like I said these days everyone just wants energy.  Faction doesn’t even matter anymore”

“So, how much energy exactly did she have?”

“Her BWU had two days worth and that’s it.  Aside from a couple rounds of ammo she didn’t have much”

“How long do these batteries last anyway?”

“Three days, 141 hours”

Sora stares at him blankly in surprise.  “141 hours?  So to survive a month on this planet you have to kill ten people?”

“Actually, it’s closer to thirty since very few people have spare or full batteries on hand”

Sora stares at Haseo’s young face for several moments silently.  “How many people have you killed?”

Haseo goes in thought for several moments.  “Mmm, I don’t know anymore I lost count.  Probably several hundred”.  Sora stares at him silently seeming somewhat depressed.  “You’ve never killed anyone before have you?”

Sora shakes her head.  “No I haven’t.  I always stock guns for self defense especially against alien life forms but truthfully I’ve never killed anyone”

Suddenly both their EU’s beep for several seconds.  They both pause in their walking and stare down at the small devices which have displayed “Heavy Blizzard Incoming in T-minus 2 Minutes”

Haseo furrows his brow.  “The weather’s really bad today.  I guess we better take shelter”.  He turns to a massive apartment skyscraper on the side of the street and pulls his grappling hook out until he has a decent line.

“What are you doing?” asks Sora.

“It’s best to take shelter in a nice high place”

Sora stares at him questionably.  “You know, I’m sure there’s some stairs”

Haseo shakes his head.  “Most of the stairs in these buildings have collapsed or been destroyed.  Besides it’s quicker this way”

Haseo takes a few steps back and holds the grappling hook in his hand with several feet of line free.  Holding it tightly he quickly starts swinging it in a circle before flinging it up in the air at the 20th floor.  The grappling hook flies over a set of railing and lands on the ground.  After waiting a moment he tugs on the line pulling the grappling hook back until it’s jarred on the railing.  He gives it a few heavy tugs to test the line to make sure it’s secure then turns to Sora with a smile.

“Ready?” asks Haseo.

Sora stares at him nervously.  “What do you mean ready?”

“Come here and hold onto me”

Sora’s eyes switch from Haseo to the skinny metal line as she thinks about it.  “Can that thing hold two people?”

Haseo nods in confirmation so Sora slowly walks over to him until she’s standing next to him.  He puts one arm around her and with the other he grabs the line tightly.  She quickly does the same and when their ready he pulls his arm away from her only a moment to press in on the grappling hooks box to make it retract.  The two of them quickly fly upwards into the air as it retracts and after only a few moments they come to a stop at the railing 20 floors up.

Sora quickly lets go of Haseo, she carefully climbs over the railing then turns and helps him up.  Haseo leads the way heading through a set of glass doors into an apartment living room which despite all things is actually rather neat and tidy.  The only thing making it look messy is the fact that everything is iced over with small layers of snow built up over the carpet and furniture.

As they sit down on the carpet Haseo takes out his MPFU and sets it down on the ground with the hotplate open and a brilliant light blue flame beneath.  Mere seconds later snow begins to fall outside and the wind begins to pick up quickly to high speeds.

“Hungry?” asks Haseo.

“Uh, I guess so” says Sora.

Haseo unzips the large bag on his side and pulls out a large chunk of snow white meat.  He draws his combat knife and deftly begins chopping the meat into small cubes over the hotplate.  When he’s done he pulls out a small vial from one of his ammo pouches that’s filled with glittery silver liquid and another that’s filled with very fine purple dust.

He opens the vial with silver liquid and pours out a couple drops worth over the meat before corking it and opening the other vial.  He quickly shakes out the other vial over the meat spreading the purple dust over it generously until the meat is fully covered.

“What’s that stuff?” asks Sora.

Haseo holds up the vials in his hand.  “The silver is sliver blood.  The purple is just some herbs”

Sora looks at him seeming confused.  “Sliver blood?”

Haseo nods.  “Yeah, it’s actually a very nice seasoning”

Haseo quickly puts the vials away then grabs a handful of snow from the ground nearby and throws it on the hotplate.  As the meat quickly begins sizzling in the soupy mixture he stirs it slowly with his knife to make sure it cooks evenly.  When it finishes several minutes later he takes out his drink bottle’s lid and pours half of it into it.  He sets it aside and holds out his hand to Sora.

“Hand me your drink lid”

Sora quickly reaches under her jacket and pulls it out handing it to him.  He deftly pours the other half of the mixture into her cup and hands it to her.  Haseo picks up his share, he begins stabbing the meat with his combat knife and slowly eating it.  Meanwhile Sora raises hers to her mouth and sniffs it cautiously.  She draws her knife and stabs a piece of meat with it then nibbles off the side of it.  Finding she rather likes the taste she begins eating her meal.

“This is pretty good” says Sora.

Haseo smiles.  “I’m glad you like it”

Sora glances out to the balcony at the heavy blizzard that’s blowing outside.  “How long do you think the storm will last?”

Haseo glances at his wrist and on his EU’s display is a message saying “Heavy Blizzard, Clear Weather in T-minus 60 Minutes”.  “Looks like an Hour, it’ll be dark by then though so I guess we’ll camp here for the night”.  Haseo opens the energy bag on his side and takes out a handful of batteries.

“What are you doing?” asks Sora.

“Carrying all the batteries in a single bag is dangerous”.  Haseo holds out a handful of them to her.  “Here, put these in your side pocket”

Sora takes the handful from him and quickly stashes them in a pocket on her jacket.  Haseo takes out another handful of batteries and quickly stashes them in his own pocket.

“What exactly will we do?” asks Sora.

Haseo stares at her blankly.  “What do you mean?”

“Well we can’t just stay on this horrible planet.  We gotta at least try to find a way off”

“There is no way”

Sora goes into thought for several moments.  “You said something earlier about Sovranet working on gene manipulation so people could live in this cold atmosphere didn’t you?”

Haseo nods.  “Yeah”

Sora looks at him curiously.  “What happened to the research?”

Haseo goes deep into thought for several moments.  “Mmm, I don’t know.  I guess it was probably stopped”

Sora shakes her head.  “I don’t think it would have been.  If anything I think they would have tried to work on it faster”

“What’s our point?”

“My point is that the work on it may have been finished or at the very least it’s close to being finished.  If that’s the case I could probably even finish it myself after I’d taken some time to look over the research files”

Haseo shakes his head.  “I doubt the research is still around and there’s definitely no one working on it now”

“Why don’t we at least look into it?  And while we do maybe try to find a way off this planet.  If we fail at one we might at least succeed at the other”

Haseo stares at her blankly.  “What for?”

Sora narrows her eyes.  “Do you really have anything better to do?”

Haseo thinks it over for a moment before shaking his head.  “I guess not, alright we’ll head to S13 tomorrow it’s a Sovranet bunker where the research for it was supposed to be getting carried out”

The two of them quickly finish off their meals and when they’re done Haseo washes out the drink lids by melting some snow in them over the MPFU.  He closes the hotplate on the MPFU and leaves it on letting a blue flame illuminate the area.  He pulls out his blankets from underneath his jacket and sets one down for a pillow while the other he unravels and throws over himself for a blanket.  Sora quickly mimics his actions and lies down on the carpet opposite to him.

“Well goodnight” says Haseo.

Sora glances at the MPFU then turns to him looking concerned.  “You’re just leaving that thing on overnight?  Won’t it waste a lot of energy?”

“Yeah but it’s important.  It gives us light and keeps smaller animals away.  Not to mention the heat generated from it keeps us warm so our BWU’s use less power and since there’s two of us we’ll actually use less power by having it on”

Sora nods at his explanation.  “I see”

Haseo turns over away from her and pulls the blanket in tightly around him.  “Try not to knock it over during the night.  It’s so hot it’ll burn through your skin before you even wake up”

Sora’s face turns slightly pale and she gives the MPFU a long glance before slowly backing away further from it.

“Sora?” asks Haseo.

“Yeah?” says Sora.

“What are you doing here?  Why would you come to this planet?  What were you after?”

“I’m a scientist I own a small shuttle that I use to travel to uncharted or distant worlds so I can study their ecosystems and wildlife.  I heard that this planet’s sun burnt out, I came here to study the ecosystem and find out more about what happened here.  I, I had no way of knowing the climate and gravity was so harsh it’d strand my ship here especially since my ship is specially built to handle such things”

“Earlier you said you could finish the research if it was partially done.  Did you mean that?”

Sora nods.  “Yeah, I’ve worked a lot on genetics and studied a lot of alien life forms.  I’ve even made several scientific advancements which others have largely recognized”

“I see.  Sora?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry you got stuck in this frozen hell hole.  But I promise I’ll find a way for you to get off this planet”

Sora smiles softly at Haseo’s back.  “I’m the one who should be saying that to you”

Haseo shakes his head.  “No, I grew up here so I’m used to it.  I feel a little sad though that a kind person like you has to be stuck here”

“Enough talk.  Let’s go to sleep.  And Haseo”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for saving me.  I don’t know what I’d have done if you hadn’t helped me”

“No problem”

The next morning Haseo slowly begins to stir from his sleep.  As his eyes flicker open he hears the sound of cupboards being opened and closed.  He sits up and yawns sleepily then quickly turns off and puts away his MPFU before heading into the kitchen where he finds Sora busy searching through the cupboards.

“What are you doing?” asks Haseo.

“Oh you’re awake” says Sora.  “I was just seeing if there was anything useful to us”

“I doubt you’ll find anything useful.  Everything should have already been taken or used”

Sora nods in agreement.  “Yeah there doesn’t really seem to be anything in these cupboards at all”

“You know, I was thinking.  Can’t you overpower the engines on your ship somehow?  It might be able to take off then”

Sora sighs heavily.  “As good as that is that’d be impossible.  The way the engines and the power system is designed it can’t handle any more stress.  It’s already specially modified to max out just under melting temperature and power capacity.  If we did try to overpower it the engines would either melt, burn out or blow up”

Haseo smiles.  “I figured you might have already thought of it but I figured I better mention it now.  Well let’s have some breakfast then we can get going”

They head back to the living room and sit down on the snowy carpet.  Haseo quickly pulls out his MPFU again and fires it up quickly cooking them up another amount of gravy covered meat.  When they’re done Haseo quickly cleans the last of their equipment up before standing up.

“If you’re ready we can head to S13 now” says Haseo.

“Okay, let’s get going” says Sora.

Together they head out onto the balcony and quickly rappel down together.  As they hit the snow Haseo quickly pulls out his TU and looks over it carefully to find the right location.

“We’re lucky we’re not far from S13” says Haseo.

Sora stares at him nervously.  “How far is it exactly?”

Haseo smiles.  “Only fifty miles”

Sora’s eyes widen in surprise.  “F-fifty miles?  On foot?”

Haseo remains smiling and nods.  “Yeah”

Sora stares at him in wonder.  “You call fifty miles not far?”

“Yeah, why something wrong?”

Sora shakes her head slowly.  “Isn’t there any vehicles we can use?”

Haseo smiles.  “Don’t be silly.  All the cars and motorbikes are frozen over besides most of them have had their batteries removed.  The only thing that works in this kind of cold are mechs but we’re lucky there’s none around here”

Sora looks at him confused.  “Why are we lucky for that?”

“Because someone else would be piloting it.  I don’t know about you but I don’t like being shot at by miniguns”

Sora’s face quickly turns horribly pale.  “Mini-guns?  You’re talking about combat mechs?”

Haseo nods.  “Yeah, there’s not many around anymore but you’re better off not running into them”

With that the two of them slowly begin walking off along the side of the street.  After almost thirty minutes of nothing but the sound of snow crunching underneath their feet and the ever so slight sound of the wind Sora finally speaks up.

“This planet is creepy” says Sora.

Haseo looks at her blankly in confusion.  “What do you mean?”

Sora’s face darkens and she glances around them.  “It’s, so quiet.  The only thing you can hear is our footsteps and the slight sound of the wind”

Haseo smiles.  “It’s silent but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing around”

“I guess so”.  After another half hour of walking Sora suddenly stops.  “Can you excuse me for a minute?”

Haseo stops and turns to her.  “Why?”

Sora averts her eyes to the side.  “Because, I, I need to go to the toilet”

“Number one or number two?”

Sora turns and glares at him.  “Does it really matter?”

Haseo nods.  “If you’re only going number one you can keep your pants on and pee in a cup.  You’ll save about five or ten minutes worth of energy if you do that”

Sora stares at him blankly for several moments.  “Do you have a cup then?”

“Use the lid on your drink bottle.  You can just wash it when you’re done”

“Alright I’ll be back in a moment then”.  Sora quickly turns to walk in a building on the side of the street.

Haseo holds a hand out toward her.  “Hey wait if you’re going inside let me check around first”

Sora stops and turns to him seeming confused.  “What for?”

“Slivers like sleeping in warm dark places.  So most of them sleep in the buildings wrapped around pillars or curled up in corners”

Sora glances at the building then at a nearby car before finally turning back to Haseo.  “I’ll, I’ll just go behind a car then”

Haseo smiles.  “I promise I won’t look”

Sora walks over to a nearby car and ducks down behind it to go to the toilet.  Meanwhile Haseo carefully looks around the area checking for danger.  After several moments the ground begins shaking slightly and in the distance the faint sound of metal creaking can be heard.  Haseo’s ears quickly pick up the noise and he turns to the sound clutching his rifle.  Meanwhile Sora quickly finishes and stands up to look at him.

“What’s that noise?” asks Sora.

Haseo’s eyes suddenly go wide as he recognizes the noise.  He quickly turns and runs over to Sora.  Grabbing her by the arm he pulls her over to the doorway of a nearby building.

“What’s wrong?” asks Sora.

Haseo hold a finger to his lips.  “Shhh”

The two of them peer out from the doorway at the street while being careful not to be seen.  After several moments the ground starts shaking heavier and the sound of metal creaking grows louder as the noise approaches.  Suddenly a massive 15ft tall very light blue mech appears from around the corner.

The mech itself is composed of two long legs with three pointed star shaped feet.  Sitting atop the legs is a massive round metal chamber with a massive minigun for its right arm and a gigantic flamethrower for its left.  The machine itself has no head at all the only way the pilot can see out is through a thin strip of blue glass toward the top of the chest of the machine.  On the side is the symbol for the Ralerion faction which is a red triangle with a black gear and wrench.

Haseo turns to look at Sora with a slightly worried expression.  “Well, you wanted a mech”

Sora stares at the large combat mech in awe.  “That things massive.  Look at the size of those guns”

“Wait here”

Sora’s eyes widen in surprise.  “What?”

As the mech passes by a moment later Haseo rushes out before she has a chance to protest.  He runs up behind the mech and jumps onto its back.  He carefully crawls up onto the mech and over to its right arm where he hits something.  Suddenly the cockpit flies open surprising the male driver inside.

The male driver himself has clothes exactly like Haseo and Sora only instead of white their very light blue and on the side of the arm they have the symbol for the Ralerion faction.  Haseo draws his pistol, swings himself round and shoots the driver in the forehead several times.

As the man collapses in the seat the mech lurches to a stop.  Haseo quickly checks the man’s pockets and takes anything of use before unclasping the seatbelt and kicking him out of the mech.  Haseo sits down in the seat, he straps himself in then reaches up and closes the cockpit.  As he walks the mech over to Sora she carefully steps out from the doorway to meet him.

Haseo flings the cockpit open and smiles brightly.  “Hop in”

Sora stares the mech up and down taking note that it’s a one seater which Haseo is already occupying.  “Uhh you realize there’s only one seat”

Haseo nods.  “Yeah, you’ll have to sit on my lap”

Sora gives him a faint smile.  “I’m a little big for that.  Shouldn’t you be sitting on my lap?”

“Do you know how to pilot a RCM1?”

Sora quickly goes silent and climbs up the side of the mech into the cockpit.  She stares at Haseo’s lap for a moment before sitting on him gently.  With her in place Haseo reaches up and pulls the cockpit shut before starting the mech walking off again.

“It’s pretty cramped in here” says Sora.

“These mechs are only made to be one seaters”

“Yeah, I, I noticed.  So what’s so dangerous about these mechs?  You managed to get this off whoever had it pretty easy”

Haseo smiles.  “Just luck”.  Haseo points at a smashed monitor on the control panel.  “This particular one doesn’t have a functioning motion tracker or heat sensor”

Sora glances down at his face curiously.  “How do you know how to pilot this thing anyway?”

“I’ve driven them a few times and was even given some lessons on piloting them.  They’re not too hard once you get the hang of them”

“So in this thing how long do you think it’ll take us to reach S13?”

“Probably a couple hours but for that we’re going to have to run.  Hold on”

Haseo presses the joystick forward and the mech quickly takes off sprinting down the streets.  After a while the buildings slowly part leaving a massive empty landscape of ice ahead of them.  After several hours of traveling in the mech Haseo stops it by a small snow covered mountain.

“Why are we stopping?” asks Sora.

Haseo smiles.  “We’re here”

Sora looks around ahead of them.  “We are?  I don’t see anything”

Haseo flings the cockpit open and they climb out of the mech.  As they stand around near the mountain Haseo looks around the area.  “This is odd.  I don’t see the door for the bunker.  I thought it’d be open or the door would at least be ripped apart”

Sora looks at him in surprise.  “You think that means it’s still operational?”

Haseo shakes his head.  “No, but if it is we won’t be getting in”

Haseo walks closer to the mountain and wipes away some of the snow revealing the rock beneath.  He stares at it for a moment then kneels down and wipes some of the top snow away on the ground revealing more rock.

“It doesn’t look like it’s here” says Sora.

Haseo cups his chin and goes into thought.  “Mmm…hang on, I think I remember hearing some of the more important bunkers were given camouflage.  This one probably has the door disguised as the rock.  If that’s the case though it looks like it’s been buried in snow”

“Don’t tell me your suggesting we dig up ten tons of snow to see if the doors underneath”

Haseo turns around and runs over to the mech.  “We may not have to”.  He quickly climbs into the mech and pulls the cockpit shut.  He stares over the controls in front of him for several moments then the mechs left arm raises up slowly as he aims it.  “Move away” says Haseo.

Sora quickly backs away and watches as a massive blue flame bursts out from the mech’s flamethrower.  It flows over the snow vaporizing it instantly and uncovering the base of the mountain.  Haseo swishes the flamethrower back and forth several times before turning it off.  When he’s done all that’s left is a massive crater up against the mountainside with rich dark brown earth.  Haseo quickly climbs out of the mech and runs over to the wall.  Sora stands idly by watching him silently as he begins inspecting the wall closely.

“I think we’re wasting our time” says Sora.  “It’s not here”

Haseo pushes on the mountain and the rocky formation underneath his hand slides in.  The mountain begins to shaking and as he backs away the entire side up of the mountain begins to slide upwards revealing a massive hallway of light green stone that’s large enough to drive in trucks and tanks.

Haseo turns to Sora with a smile.  “I told you it was here”

Sora stares at the hallway in surprise and awe.  “Yeah, yeah you did”.  Haseo climbs out of the crater and gets into the mech again.  As he straps himself in Sora looks at him in confusion.  “What are you doing?”

“We’ll take the mech inside and close the door so no one sees, just in case someone comes by”

Sora walks into the bunker and stands by the side as Haseo pilots it inside.  As he hops out he pulls down the glasses on his head.

“Put your goggles on and set it to night vision then we can close the door” says Haseo.

Sora pulls down her goggles and turns to him.  “Uh, how do you set it to night vision?”

Haseo points to the side of his goggles where there’s a small button formation.  “Press the tab in on the side to cycle modes”

Sora presses the button in several times until her vision comes to a brilliant wash of purple color with white.  “Okay got it”

Haseo walks over to the entrance where a small panel is situated on the wall.  He presses in a button and the massive mountain door slowly begins to descend.  As the door finishes closing he readies his rifle by clutching it tightly in his hands with a finger near the trigger.

The two of them walk down the large hallway a short distance until they come to a giant doorway leading into a massive storage room.  Inside the storage room sit half a dozen 8ft tall metal square containers all with various long tears in the metal.  Lying about the floor are hundreds of bullet shells with dried blood smeared everywhere.

“What the hell happened here?” asks Sora.

“Most likely slivers” says Haseo.  “Keep an eye out there might be some still left in here”

Sora lets out a heavy breath and clutches her rifle tightly keeping a finger close to the trigger.  “We should probably check the power system to see if it’s just off or if it’s out”

Haseo nods.  “I guess so”

Together they head through a small doorway and follow a hall along until they come to a stop in front of a door labeled power room.  Haseo gently pushes the door open revealing a small room with a large control panel on one side and a massive 10ft long metal generator that’s bolted tightly to the wall.  He slowly walks over to the generator and looks it over carefully before grabbing a switch on the center and pulling it downwards.

The generator quickly whirls to life lighting up with blue light across its body.  After several moments the lights about the bunker begin flickering for a few seconds before staying on.  As the power room lights up they both push their goggles up onto their heads so they can see easier.  Haseo walks over to the control panel and starts looking over it carefully before starting to flip a variety of switches.

Sora stands silently watching him curiously for several moments.  “What are you doing?”

“Turning off all the unnecessary systems like heating, water and so forth to conserve what’s left of the power” says Haseo.

“Keep the electricity on”.  Haseo nods.  “How long can the facility stay online?”

“Well with everything on full operation only another few days but with just electricity, water and lighting several months”.  As Haseo flicks the last switch he turns to Sora.  “Alright let’s go look around”

The two of them leave the power room and begin looking around the facility.  Most of the rooms they come across are vacant with smashed equipment strewn about the place with blood and bullet shells decorating the floor and walls.  After searching around for a while they walk into what used to be a large laboratory with animal cages and lab equipment destroyed everywhere.

“This bunker is an absolute mess” says Sora.

Haseo nods.  “Yeah, this would be the lab where they were working on the gene manipulation but…”

“There’s nothing left”.  Sora walks over to one of the tables where a computer is lying in pieces.  She slowly looks over the room for several moments before turning to Haseo.  “No documents, no discs, no hard drives, no samples, nothing”

“They must have moved the research then”

Sora nods slightly.  “Yeah, the question is, where?”

Haseo relaxes in a nearby chair while Sora continues walking around the remains of the lab.  She’s almost about to give up looking when she suddenly spots a small flat metal panel with a display lying on a desk.  She walks over to it, picks it up and looks it over for several moments before pressing a button on the bottom.  The panel lights up playing a video message of a female woman wearing a lab coat with long blond hair down to her shoulders.

“This is Dr Sabrina Baldwin.  I’m the lead scientist of the Frozen Blood project, the goal of which is to modify human DNA to be able to survive the cold weather environment present on the planet at the current time.  If you’re seeing this message your no doubt in the bunker S13 in my old laboratory.  I requested animals to be captured and brought to the facility for study particularly sphian’s and slivers.

I was hoping to use what I found to speed up the progress of my research.  Several slivers escaped from time to time or caused problems but that wasn’t the cause of what you see right now.  A group of slivers got into the facility and started killing people.  One of these slivers was nothing like I’d ever seen before made from pure electrical energy and as such impossible to kill, well at least with the equipment we had.

Before abandoning my laboratory I recorded this message and salvaged all my research.  All documents, discs, hard drives, samples and anything else I could carry with me that was of importance I took.  Thankfully it didn’t take long to gather them because we were only a day or two away from abandoning the facility due to lack of power.

The facility itself had its operating systems turned offline to conserve what little power it had and it was locked down.  Anyway I’ve since moved my laboratory to the following coordinates.  At the current time of recording this message my research has had some interesting results but anything close to manipulating DNA to sustain someone in a cold environment is still a dream.  I’m leaving this message so if anyone thinks they can help with my research or wants to help with testing or gathering materials they’ll be able to find me.

That’s all I have time for.  But before I go if you’re seeing this message and are still in my old laboratory I warn you that the electrical sliver may still be around”

With that the screen on the flat panel goes dormant.

“Well it looks like the research is still going on” says Sora.  “Any idea where those coordinates are?”

Haseo nods.  “Yeah they’re in Promise City it’s a long way to go though”

Suddenly the sound of heavy sparks and flashing of electricity begins to echo from the hallway.

Sora quickly turns to Haseo in fright.  “Did you hear that?”

Haseo quickly jumps out of the chair and runs over to the doorway.  He slowly leans to the side slightly peering into the hallway.  Inside is a the electrical sliver a massive beast a little larger than a person made entirely out of brilliant white and yellow energy.  It has a long pointed flat head; its body is long and slender with a set of massive scythe arms on its side.  Instead of legs it has a long slender tail that seems to let it almost glide in the air.

Haseo slowly pulls his head away and turns to Sora.  “It’s the sliver”

Sora’s face turns pale and she holds a hand up to her mouth from fright.  “What, what do you do?”

“We can sneak past it”

Suddenly Haseo’s BWU starts beeping.  He glances down at it and quickly grabs it with his hands putting the beeping to a stop.  Outside the sliver turns to look at their doorway and slowly glides through the air closer to them.

“What the hell was that?” asks Sora.

Haseo quickly grabs a battery out of his pocket and changes it with the one inside his BWU.  “The damn battery went out”

Sora glances to the side looking out into the hallway.  “It’s, it’s coming this way”

“I’ll distract it.  You run back to the entrance, I’ll meet you there”

Sora stares at him in disbelief.  “Meet me there?  You’ll be killed”

Haseo takes off the bag full of energy on his side and hands it to Sora.  “Here’s the energy”

“Wait”

Haseo ignores her and runs out into the hallway.  He draws his pistol and fires a few shots at the sliver.  As expected however the bullets pass right through not even doing the slightest bit of damage.  Haseo slips past the sliver and runs off down the hallway.  The sliver turns to him and growls angrily before gliding off through the air after him.

Sora runs over to the doorway and watches them for several moments as they disappear down the hall.  When their gone she takes off running going through the twisting halls until she passes through the large storage area and comes to a stop by the main entrance where the mech is parked.  She quickly hits the button to raise the door then stands around impatiently while glancing around frantically in hopes of seeing Haseo.

“Maybe I should go after him?” says Sora.

Suddenly Haseo comes running into the hallway with blood running down the side of his arm.  “Get in the mech”

Sora quickly climbs into the mech and Haseo joins her.  He pulls the cockpit shut and turns the mech around taking off running.  As they pass through the entrance the sliver glides after them following them with a angry hungry stare.  After having the mech run at top speed for several minutes the sliver has long since disappeared from view.

“I think it’s gone” says Haseo.

Sora breathes a sigh of relief and suddenly notices the blood on Haseo’s arm.  “Oh my god you’re bleeding”

Haseo smiles.  “I’m okay”

Sora glares at him.  “No you’re not, stop the mech we have to fix your wound”

Haseo glares back at her.  “NO, not until we get some distance between us and that sliver”

After almost half an hour of running in the mech Sora finally speaks up.  “This is more than far enough stop the mech”

Haseo eases up on the controls and the mech slows down until it comes to a stop.  As they get out Sora pulls off Haseo’s jacket and shirt to take a closer look at the wound which is covered in dried blood and heavily charred as if someone jammed him with an electric rod.

“God it looks like you were burnt” says Sora.

“It was an electric shock, pretty powerful” says Haseo.

Sora stares at the wound for several moments before looking him in the face.  “Do we have a med kit?”

“There should be one next to the seat in the mech”

Sora goes over to the mech, climbs inside and starts searching around the seat until she finds a rectangular silver metal box with a red cross on it.  She takes it over to Haseo and sets it on the ground then begins rummaging through it.

“That was crazy what you did” says Sora.  “You could have gotten killed”

Haseo smiles at her.  “I know, that’s why I gave you the energy”

Sora turns to him with wide eyes.  “THAT’S why you handed it to me?  You were expecting to get killed?”

Haseo continues smiling.  “If it comes down to us getting killed.  I’d rather I die so you can escape”

Sora stares at him sadly.  “Haseo…you, you shouldn’t do that for me”

Haseo doesn’t say anything in return he just keeps smiling at her.  Sora ignores his smile and silently goes to work washing off the wound with some snow carefully before giving him an injection next to it and applying a bandage over it.

“Okay that should do it” says Sora.

Haseo grabs one of the blankets out from his jacket and wraps it around himself tightly.  “We gotta wash the blood off the slivers will be drawn to it.  If we walk around with my jacket like that we’ll get more of them”

“And how are we going to do that?  It’s not like we have a washing machine or running water here”

Haseo smiles.  He takes out his MPFU from his jacket and sets it down on the ground with a small blue flame on the tip.  He takes out his drink bottle and takes off the lid then scoops up some snow and holds it over the flame.  Within only a few seconds the snow melts turning to water.

Using it Haseo carefully begins washing the blood off his clothes, repeating the process several times until it’s clean.  When he’s done he holds his clothes over the flame for several seconds to let them dry before he puts them back on and cleans everything up.

“Okay we should get going again.  So do you want to head to Promise City next or do you want to try to find a way off the planet?”

Sora shakes her head.  “We don’t have any leads for getting off the planet unless you know of any bunkers or facilities that could have that kind of capability”

Haseo goes into thought for a moment before shaking his head.  “Sorry I don’t.  At least none that I haven’t already checked”

“Let’s just head to Promise City then.  How far is it?”

“Probably a day or two using the mech, probably a week without it”

Sora turns and looks over the mech.  “Speaking of the mech it runs off a power cell or something doesn’t it?”

Haseo nods.  “Yeah a large plasma battery”

“How much power does it have left?”

“With constant use probably only a couple days.  At full power they can operate almost nonstop for a month, depending on how much you use the guns it can be a lot less”

“I figured it wouldn’t last too long.  Well I guess we should get going”

“I’ll teach you to drive so we can take turns”

Sora nods.  “Alright”

“Get in”

Sora climbs into the mech and quickly straps herself in the seat.  Haseo climbs in after her and as he sits down on her lap he pulls the cockpit shut.

“You ever driven a mech before?” asks Haseo.

“Yeah a bit but this is completely different design”

“Well they all have the same basic functions.  You latch your feet in on the petals and move them around to control the movement of the legs.  The control sticks control the arms”.  Haseo holds a hand over several buttons on the control panel.  “This is the weaponry.  These six are to adjust weaponry settings, rate of fire, spread, flame length and so on.  To fire just press the buttons on the control sticks”.

He points over at a monitor displaying an area map.  “That’s the TU, it’s the same as the handheld you can pan around zoom in or out and it keeps track of your location.  We’re here”.  He points at the map.  “And we need to head over here”.  He traces his finger over to an area quite a distance away.  “Okay that should be everything, got all that?”

Sora nods.  “Yeah, seems simple enough”

Haseo smiles.  “Okay give it a try we want to go straight ahead”

Sora slowly begins to move the petals on the floor of the mech.  As she moves them the mech slowly begins to walk forwards.  After getting used to the movement she begins picking up the speed until the mech starts jogging.

Haseo smiles.  “You’re doing great”

“Thanks, this is actually pretty easy”

Haseo nods.  “Yeah, the controls just seem a bit intimidating at first”

Together the two of them continue traveling in the mech switching over who drives every so often while the other rests.  Around midday they come to a stop and Haseo prepares them a quick lunch.  Afterward they continue on traveling until it begins to grow close to nighttime.

Haseo stops the mech and begins setting up camp to start cooking their dinner.  Meanwhile Sora gazes up at the sky leisurely.  After staring at it for several moments she suddenly notices Eclipse’s main sun which is a small blue orb sparkling in the sky.  Slowly closing in on the sun in the sky however is a massive moon almost as large as the planet itself and at such a close distance that it takes up half the sky.  At such a close distance every detail of the moons stormy sandy surface can be seen.

“Is that a moon?” asks Sora.

Haseo glances up at the sky.  “Yeah, that’s why it’ll be dark soon”

Sora turns to him in confusion.  “What do you mean?”

“This planet is called Eclipse for a reason.  That moon circles around the planet fully every 47 hours.  You see Eclipse has three suns but only one of them is close enough to provide heat and decent light but right now it’s burnt out.  That moon circles around the planet and for seventeen hours it blocks out all sunlight making it pitch black”

“So, rather than have an actual night time when the sunlight isn’t shining on the surface that moon provides it by blocking off the constant light?”.  Haseo nods.  “I’ve never heard of a planet before that had such a bizarre day and night system.  Although, it does explain why last night was so dark.  There wasn’t a single shred of light anywhere”

“Eclipse is a very unique planet”

“I guess the long day and night cycle explains why time seems to just drag on and why I’ve felt so tired”

Haseo smiles.  “Eclipse’s long day and night cycle takes some getting used to but once you are it won’t bother you”

Sora sits down beside Haseo and looks over the food simmering on the MPFU.  “So, how are we doing on food?”

“We have enough for several days so don’t worry.  We’ll easily find something long before then”

Sora raises an eyebrow.  “Are you sure?  So far we’ve been crossing nothing but frozen desert”

Haseo nods.  “When we get closer to Promise City we should come to a forest”

After finishing off their dinner the two of them lay down to go to sleep.  In the morning after a quick breakfast they take off in the mech again.  After several hours of nonstop driving with Sora at the controls she suddenly slows the mech down and comes to a stop.  She peers ahead of them where a woman with long black hair wearing a Sovranet uniform is lying collapsed in the snow

“Is that a person?” asks Sora.

Haseo suddenly perks up and looks out at the woman.  Seeing her his eyes go wide.  “Crap, quick turn this thing around and run”

Sora looks at him in confusion.  “Why?”

Haseo turns to her.  “DO IT”

Sora quickly turns the mech and has it take off running back the way they came.  Suddenly the woman gets up facing them with a massive 6ft long, 1ft wide silver metal barrel slung over her shoulder that resembles a bazooka.  She takes a moment to aim at them and presses the trigger.  The barrel ripples over with blue sparks of energy and suddenly a massive sphere of plasma the size of a basketball is shot out.

Sora glances at Haseo.  “Why are we run…”

Sora stops short of her sentence as the plasma blast hits the mech’s right leg.  A large blue sphere of energy crackles around the area and as it clears the leg is completely vaporized.  The mech is sent crashing to the ground and slides several feet in the snow before coming to a stop.

“What the hell was that?” asks Sora.

Haseo stares at a monitor on the control panel that’s flashing warning signs.  “Damn she shot the leg”

Sora’s eyes go wide.  “What?”

Haseo turns to her with a serious expression.  “Some people lie on the ground pretending to be dead.  When someone comes to check them they kill them”

Haseo quickly helps Sora unlatch herself from the mech’s seat and controls.  With her free he flings the hatch open but as they slowly crawl out they come face to face with the woman who’s holding a large sniper rifle which is pointing at them.  They both silently stand up and hold up their hands in surrender.

“Hand over your energy” says the woman.

“Okay” says Haseo.

Haseo slowly reaches into his pocket and grabs something firmly in his hand.  Suddenly he pulls his hand out and flings a small round silver metal marble at the woman.  The metal marble flies out and hits the woman’s left arm sticking to it like glue.  Haseo grabs Sora’s arm and turns around dragging her with him.

“RUN” yells Haseo.

Before the woman has a chance to react the metal marble explodes sending her flying backwards, knocking her to the ground.  After several moments she gets up and looks at the two of them.  Her vision fuzzes over several times like a ruined video tape and suddenly a wireframe model appears on the right hand side flashing warnings about her arm.  She looks down at her arm which is completely gone save for a smoking stump made of metal wiring, skin and blood.

Sora glances back behind them as they run and her eyes go wide in shock as she sees the woman standing up.  “Oh my god she’s still alive”

“She’s an android” says Haseo.

Sora turns and stares at him in surprise.  “She’s what?”

“I’ll explain later.  For now just run”

Behind them the android woman pulls out a pistol and starts shooting at them.  Several bullets hit their backs but because of their vests they remain unharmed.  As the gunshots continue they hold their heads low trying to avoid being killed.

After only a handful of shots the android woman’s gun clicks as it goes empty.  She quickly tosses it aside and picks up the pace trying to catch up to them.  Suddenly the two of them come to a stop at a massive Cliffside at least a hundred feet up.  Down below is a large icy stream with hundreds of thousands of trees stretching into the distance.

“Get ready to jump” says Haseo.

Sora’s eyes go wide.  “Jump?  Are you crazy?”

“There’s no time”

Just as they’re about to jump off the cliff the android woman catches up to them.  She grabs the bag full of energy around Haseo’s waist and pulls it into the air ripping it off him.  Dozens of plasma batteries pour from the bag and fly over the cliff dropping into the water below.

Seeing the batteries flying over the energy both the woman and Haseo yell out in unison.  “THE ENERGY”

Sora draws her pistol and jams it to the android woman’s face.  Not wasting a moment she pulls back the trigger firing at point blank range into the android woman’s face several times.  Seeing an opportunity Haseo kicks the android woman away and grabs Sora’s arm, together the two of them jump off the cliff.  They fall for several moments before crashing into the freezing cold water below and within seconds they’re swept downstream by the heavy current flowing in the water.

The android woman stands up above on the Cliffside watching as they disappear into the horizon.  With them gone she turns her attention to the surrounding area quickly locating the plasma batteries with her superior vision.

Meanwhile Haseo and Sora sweep downstream with the current.  After several minutes Haseo finally manages to grab Sora’s hand, he pulls her in and grabs a hold of an icy slab on the side of the river.  With great difficulty he pulls her over and the two of them carefully climb out of the water and collapse on the riverbank.

As Sora pants heavily to catch her breath she looks around them in wonder.  The riverbank they’re lying on is covered in light snow with lush green grass practically frozen beneath.  Ahead of them is a massive forest of thousands of beautiful green trees covered in thin sheets of ice and snow, most of which are more or less completely frozen.

“Oh my god” says Sora.  “The entire forest is frozen”

“Quick take out your MPFU and dry yourself” says Haseo.  “The energy in our BWU’s will go down really fast otherwise”

The two of them quickly pull out their MPFU’s and begin using them to thaw their clothing.  When they’re done they put them away and Haseo begins checking Sora over to make sure she’s not hurt.

“Are you hurt?” asks Haseo.

Sora shakes her head.  “No, I don’t think so.  I felt something hit my back but, I don’t feel any pain”

Haseo leans around and takes a look at her back seeing several bullet holes in her jacket.  Seeing she’s fine he turns to her with a smile.  “It’s okay.  It all hit your vest”

“Haseo, what was that woman?  You said she was an android”

Haseo nods.  “There were hundreds if not thousands of androids living amongst the populace of the people.  They looked and acted so human you could never even tell them apart.  They all relied on solar energy absorbed through their skin which charged their plasma batteries”

Sora looks at him confused.  “Then, why is she still around?  Surely her power would have run out by now”

“Well, some of them modified themselves.  Now they use energy to power their batteries like people so their dependant on it to live”

Sora lowers her eyes.  “I see, speaking of the energy, we can’t get it back can we?”

Haseo lowers his eyes and shakes his head.  “I’m afraid not.  The currents are really strong in these streams so, the batteries could be anywhere by now and it’s not safe to backtrack to the cliff”

“So what that was four, five months worth?”

Haseo nods sadly.

Sora slumps down and lets out a heavy sigh.  “Great”

Haseo smiles.  “Don’t worry everything will be fine.  Let’s just keep going”

Haseo stands up and holds out a hand to help Sora up.  Together the two of them head into the forest and begin walking through the frozen landscape.  As they do Sora glances around at the trees and overhead.  The branches and leaves are all so perfectly frozen in place and the little bit of light that passes through the foliage glitters on the ice creating a beautiful mystical scene.

“This is amazing” says Sora.  “I can’t believe this entire forest froze over”

Haseo smiles.  “This is nothing compared to the frozen falls”

Sora raises an eyebrow.  “Frozen falls?”

Haseo nods.  “That’s what it’s called now.  It’s a massive waterfall that stretches for miles and every bit of its completely frozen”

Suddenly a white Sphian leaps off a tree branch from overhead onto Sora.  She lets out a scream of surprise and falls to the ground.  The Sphian leaps off her chest and runs off into the distance.  After several moments a large snow white sliver flies through the air past them after the Sphian.

Sora sits up and glances around in shock.  “What the hell was that?”

Haseo clutches rifle and runs off.  “Come on its fresh food”

Sora quickly scrambles to her feet and runs after Haseo with her rifle in her hand.  A short distance away the sliver catches the Sphian in its jaws in mid jump.  It shakes the Sphian about in its mouth and crushes it with its teeth before dropping its bloody corpse to the ground.

As the sliver slowly begins ripping pieces of meat off the corpse Haseo holds up his rifle and carefully takes aim.  Sora comes to a stop next to him and watches as he fires a shot.  The bullet flies out and hits the sliver in the back of the head instead of killing it however the sliver explodes into a rush of white snow.

Sora’s eyes widen in surprise.  “What the hell?  What happened?”

Haseo glares angrily at the falling snow.  “Damn”.

He quickly releases the grip on his gun and pulls out his MPFU.  He tweaks the settings quickly and as he turns it on a massive 3ft jet of blue flame rushes out from the top.  He holds it tightly in his hand while glancing around the area at the snow on the ground.

Sora watches him for several moments in confusion.  “What exactly are you doing?”

Haseo turns to her.  “The sliver, it turned to snow.  Keep your eyes open”

Sora’s eyes widen in surprise.  “Snow?”

Sora clutches her rifle tightly and carefully scans the area looking for anything unusual.  Suddenly snow bursts into the air near Haseo’s side and the slivers body quickly forms from the snow gliding toward him.  He quickly twirls the MPFU around in his hand and stabs the sliver in the face as it reaches him.  The searing hot flame burns right through its body and the sliver crashes into him exploding in a rush of snow.

Haseo quickly turns off his MPFU and puts it away then turns to Sora with a warm smile.  “Well we got food again”.  Haseo pulls out his combat knife, kneels down next to the Sphian’s bloody corpse and goes about carving the meat off its frail body.

Meanwhile Sora kneels down and inspects the snow around them where the sliver died.  “It’s gone.  It was made of snow.  I’ve never seen a creature like this before.  What exactly are these slivers?  First one made of electricity now one made of snow?”

“Slivers each have their own unique ability.  Some are made of electricity or fire.  Or they can heal themselves rapidly or coat themselves in thousands of razor-sharp spikes.  Once more when slivers are together they share abilities”

“So, one that can heal rapidly will also become made of electricity if one with that ability is nearby?”

Haseo nods.  “Exactly”

Sora puts a hand to her chin in thought.  “So these creatures wiped out most of the population when the climate shifted?”.  Haseo nods.  “I can see why with such amazing abilities.  What else do you know about these slivers?”

“Not much.  I know they like sleeping in dark places and when they do sleep it can be for decades, centuries even.  I’ve seen quite a lot of slivers eat a meal then curl up in a corner and go to sleep for weeks”

“Incredible.  I wish I could study them in detail they sound truly fascinating”

Haseo smiles.  “You really like learning about other life forms don’t you?”

Sora smiles and nods.  “Yeah, I’ve always been fascinated in that way”

Haseo finishes slicing the last of the meat off the sphian’s body so he quickly bags it and cleans off his knife.  “Well that should do it.  It wasn’t a lot of meat but it should do us for a while longer.  It’s a shame the sliver was a snow one”

“By the way what was that creature?  The one you cut up for meat”

“A Sphian”

Sora raises an eyebrow.  “I take it they can stand the harsh cold?”

Haseo nods.  “Sphian’s are pretty odd creatures they seem to adapt to temperatures whether their extremely cold or extremely hot.  Their also pretty good eating”

“Well I guess we should get going we still have a long way to go don’t we?”

“Yeah, about four days walk until we hit the city”

The two of them continue walking through the forest for the rest of the day finally ending toward the night to setup camp.  After a quick meal the two of them lie down to go to sleep.  Several hours later Sora awakens to the sound of snow being shuffled around.  She turns her head to the side to see what the noise is and quickly puts a hand to her mouth to stop herself from screaming as she comes face to face with a massive green sliver.

She stares at the sliver with wide eyes in utter panic.  Trying not to make any large moment or sound she slowly lowers her hand toward her pistol.  The sliver opens its mouth slowly giving a light hiss sound.  Suddenly a gunshot rings out and hits the sliver in the face blowing it away from the force of the shot.  Sora quickly grabs her gun and sits upright noticing there’s two other slivers nearby, one next to Haseo and another in front of her.

Haseo himself is lying down with his rifle in his hand, the barrel still smoking lightly from the shot.  The slivers raise their scythe claws preparing to strike them.  Haseo ignores the sliver by his side and instead fires at the one by Sora catching it in the head and blowing it back from the force.  Sora quickly turns toward him as the slivers scythe claw flies toward his neck.  Just before it hits she fires a shot at the slivers head causing it to lose its balance and miss with its swipe.  She quickly jumps to her feet and shoots the sliver several more times in the head to be sure it’s dead.

Haseo sighs.  “That was close”

Sora stares at the dead sliver lying next to Haseo for several moments before turning her gaze to him.  “Why did you aim for the one going for me rather than the one going for yourself?”

Haseo smiles.  “I could ask you the same question”.  Sora glares at him angrily in silence.  “Well I guess we won’t run out of food now”

Sora’s expression quickly lightens as she looks around.  “I guess not.  What ability did these ones have?”

Haseo shrugs.  “Who knows.  We’re just lucky none of them could transform.  I think from now on I’ll keep watch at night at least until we’re out of this forest”

“We’ll take turns.  You can’t stay up all night by yourself”

“It’s not trouble”

Sora glares at him angrily.  “I said we’re taking turns”

Haseo smiles.  “Okay”

Two days later the two of them are walking through the forest however as they do the ground beneath them suddenly collapses.  The pair of them fall through the snow 20 or 30ft before landing roughly on a heavy snow bank on the ground.

Haseo slowly sits up and looks over at Sora.  “Sora are you okay?”

Sora nods and slowly sits up.  “Yeah I’m fine, what about you?”

“I’m okay”

They quickly turn their gaze above where a beam of light is streaming in from where they fell.

“Wow, we fe…” says Sora.

Haseo suddenly puts a hand over her mouth midsentence cutting her off.  Sora looks at him confused and he holds a hand to his lips then points toward the side of them.  Strewn about the rocky cavern edges around them are dozens upon dozens of slivers of all shapes, sizes and colors.  All of them are sleeping many curled up in corners or curled around rocky pillars.  Sora’s eyes go wide seeing all the slivers and Haseo slowly pulls his hand away from her mouth.

“W-what do we do?” whispers Sora.

“Stay very quiet” whispers Haseo. “They’re all sleeping and they won’t wake up unless we’re noisy or touch them”

“How are we going to get out of here?”

Haseo gazes upward from where they came.  “We can’t climb up.  It’s too steep and there’s too many slivers along the walls.  We could easily wake one of them up if we lose our footing”

“Then what?”

“Put your goggles on”

They both quickly pull down their goggles and look around the area again quickly noticing even more slivers than before that were concealed by the darkness.

“Oh god, there’s so many” says Sora.  “Even more than I saw before”

Haseo looks around slowly then points over to the side where a small tunnel leads off from the large cavern.  “There.  With any luck that will lead us out.  If not we’re going to have to risk climbing out”

Sora gulps down heavily with fear in her eyes.  “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that”

The two of them silently get up from the snowy mound and make their way over to the tunnel.  Haseo readies his rifle and quickly crawls inside.  Sora stands by waiting for a moment before crawling in after him.  As they continue through the tunnel it quickly becomes narrower becoming the size of an air vent making it extremely difficult for Sora to squeeze through.

“I don’t think this is going to lead to the surface” says Sora.  “It’s getting narrower”

“It should be o…” says Haseo.  He quickly pauses in his sentence as he comes face to face with a large black sliver.

“What’s wrong?  Why’d you stop?”

“Sora, be very, very careful when coming past here”

Sora looks at his back confused.  “Sure, but, why?”

Haseo very carefully climbs around the sliver being careful not to touch it and disturb its sleep.  As he passes by the sliver comes into her view and she shakes her head in disbelief.

“Oh god, you gotta be kidding me” says Sora.

Haseo quickly turns to face her.  “It’s okay.  Just, carefully crawl past”

Sora shakes her head.  “No I, I can’t, I’m much bigger than you, I’ll, I’ll wake it up”

Haseo smiles.  “Trust me it’ll be fine just be very careful”

Sora gulps down heavily.  “Okay”

She crawls forward and carefully starts to squeeze her way past crawling over the sliver.  As she’s almost past she accidentally kicks the sliver in the face making her freeze in position and turn deathly pale.

“Did it, wake up?” whispers Sora.

The sliver growls lightly and moves it head away pulling it closer to its body.

“It’s okay, it’s still sleeping” says Haseo.

Sora breathes a sigh of relief and quickly finishes crawling past.  As they continue along the passage it suddenly takes a sharp turn straight up.

“Looks like we can climb up” says Haseo.

“Do you see any slivers?” asks Sora.

Haseo shakes his head.  “No”

Haseo grabs a hold of the side of the passage and hoists himself up climbing until he passes through the opening into a long large cavern.  As he pulls himself up he looks around noticing dozens of slivers strewn about the ground curled up sleeping.  Others are curled around large rocky pillars holding up the cavern.  Haseo looks around for several moments before kneeling down and helping Sora climb out of the passage.

As she looks around her eyes widen in surprise.  “Oh god, there’s more here as well”

“This must be a sliver nest.  There’s probably even a queen somewhere in here”

Sora turns to him in surprise.  “Queen?”.  Haseo nods.  “…which way?”

“Hang on”.  Haseo looks down one end of the cavern and zooms in closer with his goggles.  Seeing a dead end he turns around to look down the other way spotting a passage leading off to the side.  “That way.  The other way is a dead end”

Together they carefully start walking toward the other end of the cavern stepping over slivers slowly as they go.

“Careful you don’t step on them” whispers Haseo.

“Don’t worry, I won’t” whispers Sora.

As they come to the other end they walk around the bend finding a split in the cavern with a tunnel leading off either side.

“Which way?” asks Sora.

Haseo motions a hand to the left.  “Let’s try this way”

After a short walk down the cavern tunnel they come to a stop at the entrance of a large room.  Like the other rooms it’s occupied by dozens of slivers however toward the center is a much different one.  The queen, almost three times the size of the other slivers it’s a large purple serpent with razor shape spikes along the length of its entire body.  Her head is a massive flat disc with boney spikes jutting out from the sides.

“Is that a sliver?” asks Sora.

Haseo nods slowly.  “Yeah, I, I think that’s a queen.  Let’s get out of here”

Just as they’re about to turn to leave a sliver near Sora’s foot shifts in its sleep stretching out its sharp scythe claws so she quickly backs away pressing up against the wall to avoid it.  As she does a sharp pointed rock stabs her in the side.  She’s about to let out a loud scream when she quickly muffles herself by putting a hand over her mouth.

“You okay?” asks Haseo.

Sora slowly pulls away from the cavern wall and puts a hand to her side finding she’s bleeding.

Sora nods.  “Yeah, stupid rock stabbed me”

Haseo gestures a hand for her to follow.  “Come on”

Sora lets her hand hang at her side for a moment and the blood on her glove runs down to her fingertips.  It quickly pools together and several droplets fall down onto the slivers head by her feet landing right near its nose.  Sora quickly wipes the blood off onto her pants and the two of them turn to leave.

As they begin walking away the sliver sniffs softly in its sleep, catching the scent of something its sniffing deepens until a moment later it stirs.  The two of them pause in their steps and slowly turn around.  The sliver slowly rises as it awakens while every other sliver in the area begins sniffing the air deeply and beginning to stir from their sleep.

Sora’s eyes widen in fear at the scene.  “What’s going on?  Why are they waking up?”

Haseo quickly turns his gaze to her bloody pants leg then to the wound on her side.  “The blood, we gotta get out of here quick”

They quickly turn and begin running through the cave toward the exit.  As they pass by the sleeping slivers one by one they begin to sniff the air and rouse from their sleep.  As they turn the corner they begin running down the tunnel toward a glimmer of light in the distance.

A pair of slivers fly around the corner after them with teeth barred and claws at the ready.  Sora quickly crawls through the small opening out into the sunlight with Haseo close behind.  She’s about to turn to continue running when he turns around and takes out his MPFU.

“What are you doing?” asks Sora.  “Their right behind us”

“I know” says Haseo.  “That’s why I’m doing this”

Haseo quickly adjusts the settings on the MPFU and jams it in the ground at the base of the small tunnel entrance.  As he turns it on a massive jet of blue flame sprays upward preventing anything from getting through without some serious burns.  With the trap set he quickly turns around grabbing a hold of Sora’s hand and pulling her away.

“Let’s go” says Haseo.

As they run off into the distance a sliver flies out through the tunnel after them.  However with the scolding hot flame blocking part of the entrance the sliver flies out of the tunnel only to come crashing to the ground as its split clean in half down the middle from the intense heat of the blade like jet of flame.

The next sliver pauses at the entrance momentarily to check things after seeing what happened to its friend.  Its body quickly turns to snow and seeps out either side of the tunnel avoiding the flame entirely.  As the last of its body passes through it reforms and it turns back to face the tunnel where several other slivers are lying in wait.

The sliver slashes the MPFU with its large scythe claw cleaving the metal device in half and extinguishing the flame.  No sooner than the sliver does the others burst through the tunnel and speed off into the forest after Sora and Haseo.

“This way” says Haseo.

He pulls Sora to the side over near a tree where a large mound of snow has built up on the ground.  Not wasting anytime the pair dive into the pile and shift about until their totally engrossed in it.  Moments later a mass of slivers rush past hoping to catch up with them.

“You sure they won’t find us here?” whispers Sora.

“The snow should be enough to cover our scent at least from a distance” whispers Haseo.  “Once we’ve waited a bit we’ll get moving again”.  After lying in wait silently for several minutes Haseo suddenly grabs a hold of Sora’s hand.  “Let’s go”

Together they burst forth from the snow mound and take off running through the forest again.  Several minutes later when they’ve made some distance Haseo slows down and stops.

“Why are we stopping?” asks Sora.

“We need to stop the bleeding on your wound” says Haseo.

Sora shakes her head.  “It’s okay I’m fine”

“I know that’s not it.  The fresh blood is easier for them to sense than the blood that’s dried and frozen to your clothes”

“We don’t exactly have any bandages you know”

Haseo holds out his hand and looks at her with a serious expression.  “Give me your MPFU”

Sora reaches under her jacket and pulls it out handing it to him as he asked.  Haseo silently turns it on and begins adjusting the settings to change the flame until its nothing but a small blue slit of a flame like a match.

Sora stares at him seeming confused.  “What are you going to do?”.  He turns to look at her with a serious expression making her eyes go wide with fear.  “Oh no, no, no way”

Haseo smiles softly.  “Trust me I’ve done this plenty of times on myself.  It’ll only hurt for a moment”

Sora gulps down nervously and turns away from him raising her jacket and shirt to reveal the wound.  Haseo leans in closely to look over the bloody puncture on her skin that still has fresh blood slowly seeping out.

“Bite into your jacket so you don’t scream” says Haseo.

Sora nervously takes her jacket collar and places it in her mouth then bites down on it with all her might.  Haseo quickly adjusts the flame a bit more then moves the MPFU toward the wound.  As the flame makes contact Sora’s eyes water up and she shrieks at the top of her lungs from pain into her jacket collar.  Less than a second is all it takes for the wound to be scalded shut to a slightly charred black mass.  Haseo turns off the MPFU and quickly puts it away under his jacket before looking at Sora with concern in his eyes.

“Sora, are you okay?” asks Haseo.

Sora slowly pulls the jacket collar from her mouth and wipes away her tears.  “Y-yeah, I, I think so.  How’s it look?”

“It looks fine.  It’ll probably take a week or two to heal over decently”

Sora slowly lowers her clothes wincing slightly as she does then turns to face Haseo.  “What about the blood on my clothes?”

Haseo smiles.  “Since no slivers have caught up to us yet I guess we can take the time to clean them off”

Haseo pulls out the MPFU again and adjusts the flame quickly before setting it down on the ground.

“Hope that battery left in your MPFU wasn’t too full” says Sora.  “I don’t think it’s very wise to go back for it”

Haseo smiles.  “It’s okay.  The battery didn’t have that much energy left on it anyway and I can always get another MPFU”

Later that day it’s already grown dark, the two of them have set up camp and are just finishing cleaning up after eating.  Haseo grabs his rifle lying by his side and holds it in his arms.

“I’ll stand guard you get some sleep” says Haseo.

Sora shakes her head.  “No, I’ll take the first shift.  I’ll wake you when it’s your turn or if something happens”

Haseo looks at her seeming concerned.  “Are you sure?  You look pretty tired”

Sora smiles.  “I’m fine, you get some sleep”

“Okay”

Haseo lies down nearby to go to sleep with his gun clutched tightly in his arms.  Sora grabs her rifle and holds it gently in her arms as she watches him silently for several moments.

“You would have stayed up all night” whispers Sora.  “Silly kid”

Days later the two of them are walking along until they come to a stop as the trees thin and skyscrapers appear in the distance ahead.  As they continue it becomes apparent that the skyscrapers are only few of hundreds and the city stretches for miles in all directions.

“Wow, is that Promise City?” asks Sora.

“That’s it” says Haseo.

“It looks massive”

Haseo nods.  “I think it’s about ten miles across.  It’s one of the larger cities on Eclipse.  It was where the main spaceport was and around it are about a dozen mines for various minerals”

“Eclipse must have been a lovely place to live before all this happened”

Haseo nods with a small smile on his face.  “It was”.  He reaches under his jacket and pulls out his TU to check their location before walking on ahead.  “Follow me”

They continue walking and quickly come to the edge of the city.  Like the previous one Promise City is in complete ruins.  Cars and motorbikes lie about the side of the streets smashed or frozen over with their batteries ripped out.  Around them the buildings are slowly wearing down, stores ransacked, windows shattered leaving the city a frozen ghost town.  They continue walking on for some time following the TU to their destination.

“How much further do we have to go?” asks Sora.

“Not far, probably another mile” says Haseo.

Suddenly a bullet flies past grazing the side of Haseo’s cheek making him freeze in place.  A trickle of blood flows down the side of his face as he stands motionless with shocked eyes.

Sora stops and turns to look at him.  “Haseo?”.  Her eyes go wide as she notices his cheek.  “Your cheek it’s…”

Haseo suddenly turns to her and knocks her to the ground narrowly avoiding another bullet as it flies past.  “We gotta get outta here” says Haseo.

Haseo helps Sora to her feet and just as they start to run another bullet hits the snow by their feet.  They quickly rush across the street through a broken window into a broken down ransacked store.

“What the hell’s going on?” asks Sora.

Haseo breathes a sigh of relief.  “A sniper”

Sora’s eyes widen in surprise.  “Sniper?”

Haseo nods.  “Since we’re not dead they must be at least two miles away”

“TWO MILES.  You’re kidding right?”

Haseo shakes his head.  “Most rifles can go up to five miles.  Most people can’t shoot further than one though.  However…”

Sora looks at him confused.  “However?”  Her eyes widen in surprise as she realizes what he means.  “Oh god, you don’t mean, an android?”

Haseo nods.  “Could be”

Far away from them in the distance almost four miles away on the 77th floor of a building a pair are perched on a balcony wearing Sovranet uniforms.

One is a young girl around Haseo’s age with very short blond hair and sea green eyes with a pair of goggles perched on her head.  She’s lying on the ground with a large rifle in her hands held over the balcony with her right eye fixed against the scope aimed at the store Sora and Haseo are hiding in.

The other is a man in his late 20s with short scruffy black hair with blue eyes and a scraggly day old shave look.  He’s standing idly by watching as the girl prepares for another shot.

“You’re a shitty shot today you know that” says the man.

The girl shoots him an angry glare.  “I’d like to see you shoot more accurately at this distance with the wind blowing.  By the time the bullet even gets there they’ve moved”

The man ruffles his hair and sighs.  “Ahhh maybe we should move in closer”

The girl smiles.  “No need, I’ll get em on the next shot for sure”

Back in the store Sora and Haseo are sitting silently on the ground thinking.  After several moments Haseo slowly looks up at her.

“Okay listen, we’re going to have to run out.  Stay ahead of me and keep your head down with your arms in front of you”

Sora stares at him silently for several moments before speaking.  “You, you want us to go back out there?”

Haseo nods.  “If there’s two of them one of them will probably be heading toward us.  I’d shoot them myself but…we have no idea where they are and by the time I found them I’d be dead”.  Suddenly Haseo’s EU beeps, he glances down at it seeing a warning on the display saying “Heavy blizzard incoming in T-minus 3 minutes”.  Seeing it he smiles softly.  “Perfect timing”

Sora quickly pulls back her sleeve and checks her EU.  “A blizzard?”

Haseo nods.  “There’s no way they can shoot through a blizzard.  Once it starts we’ll get going again”

The two of them sit silently awaiting the approaching blizzard.  Three minutes later right on the dot the blizzard hits.  Heavy winds start blowing outside so heavily that the buildings begin swaying and creaking loudly.  Several smaller vehicles along the streets start being dragged around until their finally flung high into the air where they disappear almost instantly.  The view quickly becomes distorted blanketed in heavy snow providing only a few feet of visibility in any one direction.

“Let’s go” says Haseo.

Sora looks outside as the fierce blizzard rages on threatening to rip the building apart their sitting in, after several moments she turns to Haseo in shock.  “THAT?  Are you insane?”

Haseo smiles warmly.  “Trust me, it’ll be okay”

Sora stares at him doubtfully but remains silent as he takes her hand.  Together they slowly step outside onto the sidewalk.  Suddenly a large car appears flying in the storm mere feet in front of them.  They just barely duck in time to let it fly over their heads.  As they turn around they watch the car smash into a store behind them.

“You sure we’re gonna be alright walking in this?” asks Sora.

“We’ll be fine just stay close to me and don’t stop” says Haseo.

Together they slowly begin walking down the side of the street sticking close to the building in case they need to quickly grab hold of something.  As they walk objects begin flying past, signs, metal beams, cars and an assortment of other things.

As they turn the block they pause next to a car where a light blue sliver is smashed into the hood of a car.  The car is absolutely totaled being smashed beyond repair and the sliver on it is completely torn apart from the sheer force it hit the car with.  As they continue on the storm begins growing even heavier it becomes hard to keep from being blown away and even harder to keep their footing.

Haseo turns to Sora.  “We better take shelter the blizzard is getting even worse.  We’ll keep going once it’s died down”

Sora silently nods and together they rush into a clothing store on the side of the street.  Clothes are strewn about the floor shredded or ruined by the snow the rest are literally frozen to the stands hanging as large sheets of ice.  Haseo brushes past the clothing racks and they head into a back room.  As Sora steps inside he closes the door tightly behind them.  She sits down against the wall and pulls her sleeve back to check her EU which reads “Clear weather in T-minus 11 hours”.

Seeing the display Sora furrows her brow.  “This can’t be right.  My EU says the storm will last 11 hours”

Haseo quickly checks his EU.  “So does mine.  It’s right though.  It must be a really big storm, it happens from time to time.  I guess we won’t be going any further today”

“We’re only a couple blocks from the lab though”

“I know but, trust me it’s best if we wait for the storm to pass it’s just too dangerous”

Sora slowly nods her head.  “Yeah, I guess your right”

The next day Haseo pulls on a heavily iced door until it comes open.  The two of them stand at the top of an icy metal staircase staring down below at a lone heavy metal door much like large freezers have.

“That’s it” says Haseo.

Sora brushes past him and starts down the stairs.  “Let’s check it out”.  As they come to the bottom of the staircase she looks the door over slowly.  “This looks kind of like a freezer door”

“Most labs are heated so it’s not too surprising”

Sora glances up at the corner above the door where a small round camera is attached to the wall covered in ice.  “Looks like their watching too”

Haseo grabs a hold of the door and slowly pulls it open revealing a small room with nothing in it but another door.  Together they head inside and close the door behind them before opening the other door.  As they walk in they find a large deserted lab room that’s been torn asunder.  Broken glass, shredded papers, smashed equipment and torn open lab cages lie strewn about the room.  Practically everything is coated in a mixture of blood and ice and most things have been literally frozen to the surfaces they were lying on.

Sora stares at the lab shaking her head in disbelief.  “No, oh god no.  Damnit”

Seeing the mess Haseo slowly lowers his eyes with a sad face.  “I’m sorry Sora”

Sora walks over to a lab table and looks over the mass of frozen papers and shattered equipment.  “Gone, it’s all gone.  The samples, the data, everything it’s all ruined”

“I’m sorry”

Sora slowly sinks to the ground with a vacant stare in her eyes.  “What now?  It’s all gone”

Haseo smiles softly.  “We’ll find something else”

“Yeah right” mumbles Sora.

“This genetic stuff would never have gotten you off the planet anyway”

Sora turns to him with tears in the corner of her eyes.  “I know but, it was important.  It could have saved us from the cold.  Saved others, saved everyone, stopped this…nightmare”

Haseo just stands there smiling at her.

Seeing his smiling face Sora glares at him coldly.  “How the hell can you just stand there smiling?”

“Because there’s no use getting upset.  Besides this is Eclipse, nothing ever changes”

“You can’t just stand around smiling when your chance at salvation suddenly turns to shit”.  Haseo remains silent with a smile on his face.  Sora turns her head away angrily.  “You’re an idiot.  Go, get lost I can’t stand you looking at me with that stupid smile plastered on your face”

“I’ll be outside then”

Haseo turns and leaves.  Sora gets up and smacks a stand of empty cracked vials with her hand sending it crashing against the wall.  A while later she opens the door to find Haseo sitting silently against the wall waiting for her.  She slowly lowers her eyes with a sad expression.

“Listen I’m, I’m sorry I snapped at you.  I just, I…”

Haseo turns to her with a smile.  “Don’t worry about it.  You asked before what we do now?”.  Sora nods slightly.  “We find a way off the planet like before.  How about we start checking every single bunker ever made”

Sora looks at him seeming confused.  “What for?”

“Anything that can help us.  Maybe we can send a SOS up to the satellites somehow or find a shuttle”

“Exactly how could we do either of those?  Transmissions don’t get off the planet and, no shuttle is going to be able to handle the cold”

“Shuttles should be okay if they launch from a heated room where the engines can be at full power and as for a transmissions, I don’t know maybe we can get into the satellites themselves somehow”

Sora smiles slightly.  “Thanks”

“Should we make a start?  There’s a bunker five days walk from here”

Sora nods.  “Sure”

Several minutes later the pair are back on the street walking along slowly.  They continue through the city for almost half an hour and turn around a corner.  Suddenly a man wearing a Ralerion uniform runs out from behind a car on the side of the street and grabs Sora by the sleeve of her jacket.  Haseo quickly whirls around with his rifle at the ready but by then the man already has Sora’s pistol in his hand and pointed at her head.

“Don’t move kid” says the man.

Sora stares at Haseo nervously.  “Don’t worry about me, shoot him”

Before Haseo even has a chance to consider it a beautiful blond haired woman wearing a Sovranet uniform walks out from behind him with a rifle in her hands.  She walks toward him with a smirk and plants the barrel of her gun inches away from the back of his head.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you” says the woman.

Haseo glances at the woman behind him.  “You going to kill us?”

The man smiles.  “Maybe, maybe not”

“Let’s see how much energy you have” says the woman.  She quickly relieves Haseo of his guns and proceeds to pat him down slowly.

The man grins sadistically at Haseo.  “You know I hate to say it but, we were completely out of ammo.  Lucky you guys had some huh?”

Haseo grits his teeth and clenches his fist in anger.  “I should have known.  Why else would you come so close to us?”

The woman rummages around in Haseo’s pocket and pulls out a handful of batteries.  “Well well, what do we have here?  Nine batteries, not bad at all”.  With a smile she pockets them then continues searching him taking all his spare ammo and even the battery from his MPFU.  “Well that’s him clean”

“Check her will you?” asks the man.

The woman walks over to Sora and relieves her off her rifle then proceeds to pat her down slowly.  As she finds the stash of batteries in Sora’s pocket her smile widens.  “What a nice haul twenty two batteries total.  You guys have been busy or extremely lucky”

The man pushes Sora way from him and she stumbles forward falling in front of Haseo.  He quickly kneels down next to her and helps her sit up.

“You okay Sora?” asks Haseo.

Sora nods meekly.  “I’m fine”

The man smiles at them broadly.  “With all this energy I’m feeling mighty generous so I’ll tell ya what.  We’ll let you two live today”

The woman’s eyes widen in surprise and she turns to him.  “What?  Leave them alive what are you an idiot?  They have more energy in their BWU’s”

The man flashes her a quick wink with his eye showing he has a plan before turning back to the pair.  “Try to follow us and we’ll kill you.  It’s not like you have any weapons anyway”

With that the pair of them lower their guns.  They start walking off down the street and quickly disappear around the corner.

Sora lowers her eyes sadly.  “Well there goes the last of our energy and our ammo.  I’m sorry I should have been more alert”

Haseo shakes his head.  “It’s okay it’s not your fault and don’t worry I can track them easily.  We’ll get em when they go to sleep”

Suddenly a gunshot rings out nearby and echoes through the streets.  A loud scream of a woman can be heard before a second gunshot rings out silencing it.

Sora turns to Haseo in surprise.  “What the hell was that?”

Haseo stares back at her with an equally shocked look.  “Let’s go see” says Haseo.

The two of them run off around the corner and come to a stop.  Lying in front of them on the ground in a massive pool of red bloody snow are the pair that just robbed them with a bullet hole in each of their foreheads.  Lying about their bodies in the snow are their guns which have the ammo clips removed.

Sora stares at the scene seeming dumbfounded by it.  “What the hell?”

Haseo rushes over to them and quickly checks over their bodies rummaging through their pockets.  After several moments he looks up at Sora in shock.  “The energy, it’s gone”

Sora sighs heavily.  “Great someone else must have got em.  Can we track them?”

“We can try however, I don’t see any tracks”

Sora looks ahead of them where the snowy streets look completely undisturbed with not the slightest hint of a footstep.  “Well they can’t have gotten far let’s look around”

“Hang on”.  Haseo searches their bodies and pulls out a pair of ammo clips.  “Yes whoever it was missed some ammo”.  Haseo quickly tosses one of the clips to Sora, they grab the empty guns lying around and reload them before running off down the street.

“I just got a scary thought” says Sora.

“What?” asks Haseo.

Sora glances at him nervously.  “What if it’s the android?  Maybe she’s been tracking us?”

“That is a scary thought.  We haven’t exactly been covering our tracks so I guess it’s possible”

“What do we do if it’s her?”

Haseo shakes his head.  “I don’t know but we’ll come to that if it happens”

After almost an hour of searching around the city the two of them finally stop and sit down against a car frozen on the side of the street.

Haseo lowers his eyes sadly.  “I’m sorry Sora I don’t think we’re going to find them.  There’s just nothing to follow”

Sora nods her head.  “I know, I was hoping we’d find something but…”.  She stops mid sentence as Haseo’s BWU suddenly starts beeping.  She turns to him in shock looking absolutely mortified.  “Oh god no”

Haseo smiles.  “It’s okay.  I got a battery but, it’s the very last one”.  Sora watches silently as he reaches his fingers under his right glove and pulls out a small battery.  “After this we really are out of energy”.  Haseo quickly changes the battery on his BWU then turns to Sora seeming concerned.  “How much time does yours have left?”

Sora grabs her BWU and glances down at it.  “131 hours, I changed it not long before we got robbed remember?”

Haseo smiles.  “I forgot about that.  We’re lucky it ran out then”

Sora nods.  “Yeah, I guess so.  So what do we do now?”

“We keep looking for them or someone else until we get some energy”

After searching nonstop for the rest of the day they finally call it quits as nightfall approaches.  High up in the room of an apartment building they setup camp for the night.  Haseo takes his BWU in his hand and carefully removes the battery from it.

Seeing what his doing Sora’s eyes widen in surprise.  “What are you doing?”

“We need to cook dinner” says Haseo.

“I know but, you can’t take that battery out to cook”

Haseo smiles.  “Relax its okay I’ve done this plenty of times before.  BWU’s have a five minute internal battery which is automatically charged at all times.  I can keep the battery out for a little less than that before putting it back in”

Hearing his explanation Sora quickly quiets down and silently watches him as he begins to cook their dinner.  “What’s going to happen to us?” asks Sora.

Haseo smiles at her.  “We’re going to get off this planet”

Sora stares at him with a dreary expression.  “We’re gonna run out of energy and freeze to death aren’t we?”

Haseo shakes his head.  “No we won’t, don’t worry.  I’ve almost run out of energy several times and I’ve always found more.  One time I was down to nothing but the internal battery and I ran into some people so I could get plenty more”

Sora lowers her eyes sadly as she thinks about it.  “There’s two of us not to mention everyday energy gets more scarce”

“Sora, trust me don’t worry about it”

“I’ll, I’ll try”

Later that night Sora slowly stirs from her sleep when she opens her eyes she finds Haseo sitting over her with a pistol pointed at her face.  Sora stares at the pistol fearfully for a moment before looking at his face.

“Haseo?” asks Sora.  “What are you doing?”

Haseo smiles.  “Putting you to use”

Sora’s eyes fill with fear as she looks up at his smiling face.  “You, you don’t mean”

“You’ve been pretty useless but you’re not bad company.  Goodbye Sora”

“HASEO NO”

Haseo pulls the trigger and the gunshot echoes into the distance.  Suddenly Sora jumps up from her sleep panting heavily with sweat covering her face.  She glances to her side to find Haseo sleeping peacefully with his rifle clutched tightly in his hands.

“A dream?” asks Sora.  “Just a dream”.  With a heavy sigh she collapses back against the ground and stares up at the ceiling.  “Would he really do that?”

The next morning Sora slowly rouses to find Haseo busy cooking breakfast.  Seeing her waking up Haseo smiles at her.

“Morning, did you sleep well?” asks Haseo.

Sora sits up and stares at him silently for several moments as she recalls her dream from last night.  “Not exactly”

Haseo looks at her confused.  “Why not?  Don’t tell me you were worrying about getting more energy”

Sora lowers her eyes.  “Haseo, I, I just gotta ask.  People on this planet I know some travel in groups like we’re doing but, when energy gets low…”

“Stop”

Sora turns to look at him seeing on his face that he almost looks scared.  “What?”

Haseo turns to her with a smile.  “Don’t worry.  I promise I won’t hurt you, ever.  I’d rather freeze to death than betray the first friend I’ve had in years”

Sora stares at him in bewilderment.  “Haseo”.  As she remembers back how many times he’s saved her she lowers her eyes sadly.  “I’m sorry, for a moment I forgot all the times you already saved me”

“It’s okay”.  Haseo lowers his eyes and stares into nothing.  “Just, if it comes down to that and you want my energy.  Please don’t let me see it coming”

“Haseo I’d never…”

Haseo shakes his head.  “You say that now but, things change”

Sora stares at him for several moments taking note of his vacant look.  “That’s happened to you hasn’t it?”

Haseo nods slightly.  “A girl I used to know, she was around my age.  She was the last one from the group I traveled with.  When it came down to us almost dying she, she pulled a gun on me.  I was stunned…we fought and, I shot her.  Afterward I realized I would have preferred to die.  Preferably not knowing because shooting a good friend…”

Sora suddenly interrupts him.  “You don’t have to say anymore.  But that’s why you’ve been on your own isn’t it?”

Haseo nods.  “I wasn’t sure I wanted to get involved with you but, you seemed so kind, like her.  I didn’t want to leave you stuck or harm you.  But, truthfully I’ve been worried it might end the same way”

“Haseo I don’t want to hurt you either.  If it comes to that I think we should just go to sleep”

Haseo turns to her with a small smile and nods in agreement.  Later in the day the two of them are standing in the street near a car that’s been frozen over.

Sora looks at him seeming concerned.  “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Well we don’t really have many options” says Haseo.  “If we don’t get some energy soon we’ll freeze and searching around the city just isn’t getting us anywhere”

“What if they shoot you from a distance?”

“That’s why I want you to get under the car and stay there.  If they try to shoot me you can shoot them.  At worst they’ll kill me then you can kill them”

Sora’s eyes widen in surprise.  “What?  You plan to be bait?”

“You got any better ideas?”

Sora nods.  “Yeah, we set a trap and we both jump them”

Haseo shakes his head.  “That’s not going to work.  Besides how do you plan to set a trap?”.  Sora lowers her gaze sadly.  “Trust me”

“Okay”

Sora lies down and crawls underneath the car with her rifle at the ready in her hands.  Haseo waits until she’s ready then grabs his rifle, points it in the air and fires a single shot which echoes around for miles.  After a while he fires again then holds his rifle in his hands at the ready as he glances around them.  After almost ten minutes of standing around Sora shakes her head.

“This isn’t working” says Sora.

“Maybe no one heard the shots” says Haseo.  He quickly takes out his pistol and fires two shots in the air.

“This is a waste of time we should be out searching”

“Searching didn’t get us anywhere.  Besides there’s hundreds of thousands of floors of buildings and the city stretches for miles.  Trust me this is the best way”

An hour later Haseo is sitting against the car with his rifle still in his hands.

“What now?” asks Sora.

“I got one last idea.  You might want to plug your ears though”

Haseo reaches under his jacket and takes out his MP9.

“Why?” asks Sora.  Haseo adjusts a setting on the remote then hits a button.  Suddenly rock music starts playing so loudly that it echoes through the city for miles.  “Christ that’s loud” yells Sora.

“It has to be” yells Haseo.  “If there’s anyone in this city they’ll hear this”

“With that kind of racket we might get something other than humans”

“Maybe but we have to try”

Much much later the sky has grown dark with night and Haseo finally turns the music off and puts the controller away.

Haseo sighs heavily and stands up.  “Let’s go setup camp”

Sora squeezes herself out from under the car and stands up next to him shaking her head.  “I can’t believe nobody came.  Surely someone would have heard that”

Haseo gestures a hand for her to follow as he walks off ahead.  “Come on”

A while later the two are perched up in an apartment again inside a building with their blankets ready for bed.

“Haseo?...Haseo?” asks Sora.  “Hey are you listening?”

Haseo perks up and turns to look at her.  “Sorry I was thinking.  What did you say?”

“I hate to sound worried but are we gonna be okay?”

Haseo smiles.  “Yeah, we’ll try again tomorrow.  Why don’t you get some sleep”

Sora nods.  “Okay”

With that Sora pulls her blanket over her and lies down to go to sleep.  Meanwhile Haseo sits silently in the darkness thinking things over.  In the morning Sora slowly rouses from her sleep.  She looks around the room not seeing Haseo anywhere in sight but all of his guns and equipment is laid out carefully across from her.

“Haseo?” asks Sora.

As she sits up she realizes she has something clutched in her hand.  She opens her hand slowly and glances down finding a piece of paper, a plasma battery and Haseo’s necklace.  She quickly unfolds the letter and begins to read it as she does a tear rolls down her cheek.

“Haseo” says Sora.

In silence Sora slowly reads over the letter each word bringing more tears to her eyes.

Dear Sora

I'm sorry I’m not there with you.  Last night I gave you the last battery as well as all my food, ammunition and equipment.  Before leaving to disappear with the cold I wrote you this note.  Please don't try to find me because I’m already dead.

Last night I was thinking, I was thinking so hard.  I remembered back when I was a little kid my family worked in an old bunker called S2.  The coordinates are below.  It should be about days walk from where you are.  Those coordinates will lead to an entrance hatch, you’ll be directly on top of it and it’ll most likely be buried under the snow.  Dig it out and use the code 57JLED432SV8662AA to get inside.  Inside you should find the base low on power but enough to start up the main system.

Heat up the shuttle bay area and there you should find a working shuttle.  Once the shuttle bay is a normal temperature open the bay doors and use the shuttle to leave this frozen hell.  The engines will start to freeze as soon as you take off but if you max out the power and climb as fast as you can you should be able to escape the cold and the gravity.

I'd like to say that I’m sorry.  I'm sorry I couldn't fulfill my promise to get you off this planet in person.  But I hope everything works out this way and you can leave.  I'd like you to know that you’re a wonderful kind person.  You were a great friend, a companion.  As silly as it may sound to you I think I was starting to fall in love with you.

You reminded me of kindness and innocence things I'd long forgotten existed.  Until you came I was becoming a cold, distant, bitter person.  But your kind loving nature made me remember why I used to smile and because of that I couldn't help always smiling while I was around you even when things looked bad.

With this note I’m leaving you my favorite necklace.  It's not much and it'll probably remind you of me too much.  If that's the case you can throw it away if you want.  But I just thought you should have it.  Maybe it'll bring you luck.

Goodbye Sora and thank you for once again bringing a shred of happiness to my dismal life.

As Sora finishes the note she clutches it to her chest and begins to cry.  “Haseo, you stupid boy.  How could you sacrifice yourself, for me?”

After crying for the longest time Sora wipes her tears away and takes out her TU to locate the place Haseo wrote of.  She quickly gathers up the remains of his gear and gets back onto the street with tears hanging in the corner of her eyes.

After a little over a day’s walk Sora finally makes it to the coordinates Haseo left her.  She checks her TU one last time then drops to her knees and starts digging away the snow.  After digging almost 3ft of snow away a metal hatch finally comes into view.  She wipes the snow off until she finds a control box on the side.  Using the code the hatch slowly unlocks allowing her to pull it open.

Sora stares down at the hatch where a ladder is hidden in concrete cylinder tube stretching far down into the darkness.  She quickly puts her goggles on with night vision and slowly begins her descent, closing the hatch behind her.

As she comes to the bottom of the ladder she comes into a hallway which she follows along until she comes to a set of massive concrete blast doors.  She walks over to a control panel on the side and keys in the code once again.

Ever so slowly the massive blast doors creep open revealing a massive underground warehouse.  Unlike the last bunker it’s completely stocked with dozens upon dozens of metal containers of provisions that have laid unused for the longest time completely forgotten.

Sora quickly closes the blast doors behind her and heads through the complex until she comes to the power room.  She looks over the controls for several moments then flicks several buttons and throws a switch to turn it on but nothing happens.

She turns around to look at the generator behind her finding a set of wires hanging out that have been chewed through.  She quickly strips the insulation around the ends with her knife and reconnects the wires.  As soon as the wires make contact the generator hums to life and the lights around the bunker start flicking on.  She removes her goggles and walks back over to the control panel to tweak the controls a bit before she notices a readout on the side.

“Two years of power left?” says Sora.

She walks through the complex looking around it until she suddenly enters a massive aircraft hanger where a large white shuttle is standing out in the open.  Seeing it she quickly rushes over to it and heads inside.  As she looks over the controls in the cockpit she finds the ship is fully powered and ready to leave at a moments notice.

“Everything works” says Sora.  She looks down and takes her BWU into her hand.  “We only had enough power for one of us to make it here though.  Haseo…”.  Tears form in her eyes.  “You stupid boy”

After the bunker’s had an hour or two to warm up Sora slowly fires up the space shuttle.  The bay doors overhead slowly slide apart causing a rush of snow to fall inside.  As the doors come to a stop Sora gazes up at the clear sky above for several moments before firing up the engine to full power and taking off.

The ship flies off up into the air quickly heading for the atmosphere.  As it starts closing in though ice begins spreading across the wings and engines reducing the power and slowing the shuttle down.  Sora holds the controls steady and just as the engines are about to cut out entirely the ship breaches the atmosphere making it into space.  As the ship begins drifting slowly Sora picks up Haseo’s necklace from around her neck and stares at it.

“You did it” says Sora.  “You kept your promise and got me off Eclipse”.  She clutches the necklace tightly in her hand and tears fill her eyes.  “I just wish you would have done it in person”

Sora relaxes back in her seat getting comfortable for the long trip ahead.  However in the corner of the shuttles windshield the reflection of a white sliver can be seen slowly rousing from its sleep.

The End

Please send any comments/suggestions/death threats to [email protected]

Please address your email with the title of the story in the subject line otherwise there's a good chance your email will be deleted by accident.