The Fall of Every Sparrow

[rekindledtitan]

It’s a calm cold morning on the outskirts near the Wilds. The aeronautiloids are hibernating in their nests, the odd small creature chirps in the bushes, and the blue grass is hidden by a shallow layer of snowfall. It’s picturesque, and quiet: most of the Nexus visitors prefer the shelter and hot drinks of the built-up streets this time of year. In fact, someone’s counting on that.

There’s a white flash, a split-second burst of horrendous noise. An armed figure drops out of the air backside first, her plate armor in flames, and hits the ground with a low whumph. She rolls over immediately and pushes herself to her knees, swearing- then looks up, over her shoulder. There’s just a second to register the source of the noise above, and then the blazing, half-melted remains of a hoverbike crash down onto her.

It takes a minute before she pushes herself back up, twisting to shove the smoldering wreck off of her with a grunt. The fire on her own armor has gone out at this point, but it's black with chemical ash. Blaze lurches back a step or two and surveys the damage through the half of her helm that isn’t totally destroyed. The nearby snow has melted and begun pooling around the ex-bike, steaming away from the hot metal. Ghost materializes above her shoulder to scan his smoking Guardian, then the bike. Here’s hoping they didn’t land on anything important.

“Think we can salvage it?” Blaze asks him. The tiny floating robot gives her a Look.

Abashed, the Exo Guardian reaches up to try and detach her crumpled helmet, wincing at the pain when something jostles inside. Anyone getting close to help (or spectate) will get her hand lifted in sheepish greeting and a rueful look, the glow of one optic visible through her cracked faceplate.

“Ever had a great idea that you, uh, kinda regretted instantly?”

Comments

[rekindledtitan]

"Maybe one day I'll get the chance to take something like that for a spin - if it can hold my weight, hah. They still had wheeled motor vehicles when I was built, but I haven't seen one in working shape that I can remember." Her memory isn't as durable as her body, unfortunately.

She reaches for his hand before she hesitates, then more carefully shakes it. The reason for her caution is two-fold: the tough mesh on the inside of her hand is decidedly warm still, and the iron of the Titan's grip suggests that it could be a crushing one, if she forgot herself.

"Hold up, you're from Antarctica too?" And people used to think it wasn't real! The armored warrior leans closer, unconsciously looming over him in her excitement. "Are you with Palmer's crew? Does he know you're here?" He'd be thrilled to know someone else made it out, she thinks.

[outpostcook]

"Palmer?" Kinner looks up from examining the bike. "I know him, yeah, but we're from different universes. Different times and different teams, if with some very similar people. Both of our teams were led by guys named Garry, for example." Kinner's still amazed by the coincidences, if they are coincidences. "He's got one of those things in his world, but he was lucky. He got away."

Kinner's glad somebody got away from the Thing. It reminded him that the alien wasn't invincible, and that they have a chance of stopping it.

"My team was also attacked by an alien, also a shapeshifter. We found it in the ice and took it back to our camp. Our lead biologist, Blair, wanted to unthaw it, and turns out it wasn't as dead as we thought it was. Made up for lost time by gobbling up several members of our team, including me. I was milking a cow when suddenly there was a sticky blue tentacle wrapped around me, and next thing I know I'm here."

[rekindledtitan]

Both robots are listening intently at this point. Ghost visibly winces at Palmer's description of his death, the points of his little shell folding over his eye for a second.

"Devoured by a fake cow, huh? Isn't that just insult to injury?" She'll win no prizes for tact, but Blaze reaches up to clasp his shoulder. Her expression is even harder to read behind the broken helm but her voice is kinder, if not exactly soft. "I hope you don't remember too much. Death's a hard thing to live through sometimes."

[outpostcook]

Kinner nods grimly as he listens, then cracking a bitter smile. "Bein' gobbled up by an alien sure as hell isn't the way I would've chosen to go, that's for sure. I don't remember much, but I remember enough. Worst part is the alien can make copies of the people it eats, with memories and everything, so there's another me running around back in my homeworld."

He shrugs, shaking his head. There's nothing he can do about that. "I'm all right, or I will be. Thanks for seeing after me, though."