“… Where am I?”
The creature blinked its large, glowing yellow eyes as it rolled over, disorientated. Its appearance was unusual, an upright, humanoid being, with a reptilian head, covered in bone-like armour. A large armor plate ran up its head, while more bone armour covered its chest, arms and legs. Its hands consisted of two claws and a thumb, with no discernible area where each finger ended and where each claw began. Its toes were similar, two at the front, one at the back, connected to well-built digigrade legs. A long tail waved around, minding its own business.
Where the creature was, it did not know. Scattered around was flaming debris, the remains of a space shuttle. The ship had clearly fallen apart, after nearly burning up in the thick, oxygen and nitrogen atmosphere.
Above the crackling of flames, the creature could hear voices. Confusion and curiosity wanted the creature to get up, but a sharp pain in its left leg suggested otherwise. Not that it mattered, the voices were getting closer.
“I have not seen any other beings. Living or otherwise!”
“Just keep looking, you stupid Vrekan!”
Immediately, the creature realised he needed to act. The voices sounded agitated and worried, but not particularly threatening.
“Help!”
The voices both stopped. Heavy footsteps rushed over to the fallen being. They were not of the same species. One of them was clearly some sort of anthropomorphic lizard being, with tentacles for hair and an oversized bust. She stank of some sort of strange pheromone, which made the creature feel queasy. The other creature, the Vrekan, was wearing an intricately carved set of metal armour, which covered up most of its looks. But it clearly had a beak and long, dextrous, clawed toes. A humanoid eagle, without any sort of wings. Both towered above the creature.
“You! Rethavok! Are you well?” the Vrekan shouted as it helped the creature to its feet. The creature limped slightly. Something had punctured its calf.
“Not really, no, but I will heal. Who are you both? What happened?”
“Well clearly our stupid fucking shuttle fucking crashed and everyone’s fucking missing and it’s all fucking gone to fuck!” the feminine being shouted. “It’s all fucking awful!”
The Vrekan simply tutted. “I am Verlais Mystfaron. That whore the-”
“I AM NOT A WHORE!” the feminine creature continued to shout. “I AM NOT A FUCKING WHORE. I DO NOT GET PAID TO SLEEP WITH OTHERS. I AM THE FUCKING ROYAL SPY OF THE THANATIANS AND YOU WILL NOT CALL ME A WHORE AGAIN!”
Verlais rolled his eyes and ignored the grumpy creature. “She is Kindyna Tromou.”
The little creature was still confused. “What was the Royal Spy of the Thanatians doing on a public transport ship to Portalia City?”
“Well maybe I fucking wanted to spend some fucking time being a normal fucking Thanatian and travel with the fucking masses, before I head off back home to Thanatia Three and my life of luxury? It’s none of your fucking business Rethan. What the fuck is your name anyway?”
The creature hesitated. “…My name is Arksi Theanon.”
Verlais looked surprised. “You are one of the former Ξ-Class Ksa? I did not recognise you!” Despite the fact that Verlais was over a metre taller than Arksi, he seemed almost in awe at Arksi’s presence. “What were YOU doing on that flight? I thought you-”
“I am no longer a Ksa, Verlais. Sorry to disappoint you.”
Kindyna tutted, then wandered around for a bit, uninterested in both the Vrekan and the Rethan. Verlais lifted Arksi up and carried him on his shoulders, something that made Arksi feel very uneasy. He had a lot of questions, and none of them would be answered while Verlais was carrying him around like a child.
“I can walk, you know.”
“I wish to carry you. I have never met a Ksa before. Do you have special powers?” Verlais continued to ask questions, not giving Arksi time to answer, as they followed Kindyna. But as Kindyna came to an abrupt halt, so did the rest of them.
Ahead of the trio was a crater, some fifty meters in diameter. A crater was to be expected from a crash, but not one as cleanly and perfectly cut as this one. There was nothing inside the crater, no debris, no bodies, no scratches, nothing.
“That is… unusual…” Arksi muttered.
“This whole fucking thing is unusual!” Kindyna started off on one of her swear-filled rants again. “It’s bad enough we’re like, the only fucking survivors, but now there’s all this supernatural shit!”
“I have not seen any other bodies either…” Verlais added. “As if everyone just disappeared…”
Arksi scrambled down from Verlais’s shoulders and headed towards the crater’s edge. He then gently placed his clawed hands on a small piece of debris on the ground and closed his eyes.
“What is he doing?” Verlais whispered, only for Kindyna to hiss at him to shut up.
After half a minute, Arksi opened his eyes again, and turned around to face his newfound allies.
“Sorry. I was just seeing if I could get some telepathic feedback from the debris…” Arksi sighed. “Unfortunately, I cannot hear anyone.”
Kindyna tutted yet again. “Oh come on, you’re a telepath too? I already fucking tried that! Granted, I doubt my shitty telepathy is as good as yours but fucking seriously? I hate you already!”
“If your telepathy was any good, you would have found me straight away,” Arksi explained. “But you didn’t. But I don’t blame you. The only thing I noticed is that there’s an overarching frequency that’s pretty much killed my ability to reach further than a hundred metres. If it’s reduced my range to about five percent, goodness knows what it’s done to you.”
Kindyna was unsure on how to reply, then decided to completely change the subject, as to hide her embarrassment. “How comes no one has come and found us yet?”
“That… is a very good point!” Verlais exclaimed. “Surely these shuttles have tons of tracking devices? Especially public transport ships to and from major space ports. Isn’t it called a black box or something?”
“Yes, a black box. If we can find that, perhaps we can work out what happened…” Arksi suggested.
The Thanatian though seemed unwilling to agree. “You seriously fucking think we’ll find it? In all this fucking mess?” Kindyna pointed around at all the burning debris and smoke. “You’re both fucking insane if you think we’ll be able to find that fucking box!”
“You mean this box?”
…
The low, grumbling voice came from something large, behind the three beings. It growled as it stepped out from the smoke and flames. It stood at nearly four metres tall, with metre-long horns, foot-long clawed fingers and a tail as long as its body. Its skin was covered in red fur and painted on black markings, particularly round its eyes and down its back. The most terrifying thing though was the creature’s snout, filled with needle-sharp teeth. If one were to make comparisons, they would describe it as a cross between a demented kangaroo and some sort of dinosaur. But such a comparison would have got whoever said it killed.
“Hello, Banikan!” Verlais waved cheerfully. “I am very glad to see another survivor! I hope you are not too injured!”
The Banikan growled some more as it stomped forward and placed the tattered, shredded remains of a black box in Arksi’s hands.
“I am fine. My tail spikes are not. Threan-Type Rethavok, can you repair this?”
Arksi inspected the box. It was in pieces, and most of the inner workings had been removed. “Um… I am sorry, but I probably cannot fix this.”
The Banikan growled again, then awkwardly sat down. Like the others, it was covered in scratches, cuts and bruises, but it was mostly unharmed.
“Typical. But I suppose I should be pleased. Being held in the cargo areas of the shuttle meant I only received minimal injuries. For the first time in a while, I am glad that there is a strong hatred towards my kind…”
Kindyna put a kindly hand on the Banikan’s shoulder. “You Banikans always get it bad. Worse than us Thanatians, and we’re mostly carnivorous scumbags. I’m Kindyna by the way. Those two are Verlais and Arksi.”
The Banikan glanced upwards at Verlais. “A member of the Myst, here? And a Ksa as well? Very curious. You too, Royal Spy. I will not lie, I was uncertain whether I saw you or not, but here you are. Four very important beings…”
“I… I’m not important though…” Arksi muttered, still looking at the broken black box. “Please excuse my ignorance, I am not very knowledgable of Banikan affairs… Who are you?”
The Banikan smiled, a horrible toothy grin. “I am Ct’Era. Former queen-leader of the Fire Tribes. It is a pleasure to meet you.”
Verlais stepped forward to shake Ct’Era’s hand, but the Banikan did not quite understand the gesture and instead tapped Verlais’s hand with her thumb.
“Have you, uh, found any other survivors?” Arksi interrupted. “According to these two, we are currently the only survivors.”
Ct’Era grunted. “No. I have not. But there are no bodies. None. I cannot see them. Nor can I hear other pleas for help. We are alone.”
“We should probably get out of here, perhaps find some shelter or something,” Verlais suggested. “Maybe find the nearest town and ask for help there. I mean, we clearly are still on planet Portalia, yes?
“Smart fucking idea!” Kindyna started swearing again. “We’ll walk in any random fucking direction and find a town or something! Oh, we’re on Portalia, we’ll fucking find some fucking town on this giant, dangerous planet!”
Ct’Era glanced at Arksi and Verlais, with an “is she always like this?” sort of look. Arksi nodded, confirming Ct’Era’s suspicions.
“We should follow the sun West. More likely to find a town that way, rather than heading North or South,” Ct’Era growled as she began to walk off. Arksi followed, pausing only to grab a large metal pole, so he had something to lean on, as to not make his leg injury worse. Verlais smiled at Kindyna.
“You coming?”
“What choice do I have?”