Project Terra

Main Framed

Kiri looked through the locker assigned to her, wondering what color her space suit would be. Blue. She put it on over her engineer's uniform, the deep blue of a supernova overlaying the silver and green. A loudspeaker chimed in over the locker room, and the 3 or 4 other engineers listened in along with Kiri

"Attention: The Archangel is now departing, expect temporary gravitational fluctuations," a person on the other end announced. Kiri looked around. All the other lockers were taken, except for one, with a red space suit inside.

Outside one of the airlocks, Kiri secured her helmet to her suit. A commanding officer was explaining the mission to some of the lower ranks, but Kiri had been on missions like this multiple times before. She half listened to the officer, mostly because she had to. When the rest of the engineers finally went into the airlock, Kiri followed. The airlocks sealed behind them, and everyone did a double and triple check that their helmets were in an airtight pressurized seal. When everyone had verified, Kiri hit a button on the wall and the other airlock opened, sending everyone into the void.

Zero-g was a wondrous experience when one wasn't confined to the seat of a striker. It felt liberating, the ability to look around in a full panorama of space. Kiri tried her best to wipe these thoughts from her head, she was still on duty, after all.

She used her jetpack to move around, and flew towards one of the larger fragments. It was 4 or 5 times larger than her striker, and a scan showed it still had two sealed rooms, though small. Kiri flew inside an opening and picked out a few components that looked valuable.

Kiri went inside the second room, using it as a makeshift airlock. A sensor on her helmet showed her the air inside was dangerously low in oxygen, and that survival was near impossible, should she remove her helmet. Kiri floated there, momentarily, confused before it dawned on her. If the oxygen levels were low, something needing oxygen was here. Sure enough, Kiri could see ZN-3 floating in the corner of the room, their face almost blue as they struggled.

Kiri took the red spacesuit from her pack, and did her best to help ZN-3 put it on. They weren't overly co-operative, and it became somewhat easier when they had passed out. When the red suit was on and sealed, Kiri carried them out of the room, bridal style.

A few hours later, Kiri and ZN-3 were aboard the Final Saviour. They were lying down on a bed, with a cable running from their eye into a computer, which Kiri was operating. Nova looked over them, providing security detail.

"Can't believe you're doing this, Kiri. If that thing corrupts the computer system and all of us die, that's on you," Nova said, ticked off. "All this for some love interest," she added.

"They're not my love interest!" Kiri protested. She looked over her interface, and deleted some malicious looking data, before unplugging ZN-3. They sat up slowly, and looked around.

"Where- Where am I?" they asked, disoriented and confused.

"Hey, we're not going to hurt you," Kiri reassured them.

"Yet," Nova interjected, which earned her a glare from Kiri.

"We just want to know where-"

"Three! The third! It's on Three!" ZN-3 blurted out, terrified.

There was a slight awkward pause between the three.

"Come with me," Kiri gestured for ZN-3 to follow her, which they did.

Kiri's quarters were nothing overly fancy, but they were enough for her to have some element of comfort. One wall was entirely glass, giving her an incredible view of the abyss. There was some furniture: A bed, wardrobe, and even a TV. Kiri led ZN-3 inside, who followed skittishly.

"Too cowardly to kill me in front of your partner, eh?" They asked, trying to sound tough, but just being paranoid.

"Look, see? No weapons, I can't kill you even if I tried," Kiri said, turning out her pockets. "Why do you keep thinking that we want to kill you?" She asked them in return.

"Well, it's-" they began to explain, an uneasy look on their face. "-my parent. They told me about a ship full of evil creatures that look like you, and that you wanted to kill both of us!" Kiri thought for a second, processing this accusation.

"Did it ever occur to you that you look pretty similar to us? And if your parent was trying to protect you, how do you explain this?" Kiri posed as she turned on the TV.

A fleet of ships blotted out the sun, and a large portion of the city had been reduced to rubble. A small platoon of soldiers held out in an alley against the robotic invaders to no avail. Their blood splattered over the camera and the feed cut.

ZN-3 fell to their knees. If they didn't have two cybernetic eyes they would probably be crying.

"You... you're lying! R-Right?" they asked Kiri, who shook her head no.