Chapter Text
Stifling air wafted against Yarah's face. It burned lightly as he inhaled the dust before he covered his face with a filter mask. Hacking a cough, he cleared his throat and spat out the sand. They had been out and about on this recon mission for hours. Not that they had a curfew, but it made him feel jumpy to be alone with his thoughts and looking out for any possible movement on the horizon.
"So, like, are we done here?" called slightly nasal, but a hoarse voice from the shadows of a cave opening. Three people emerged from the cave, each as unique as a snowflake.
'Or so they think,' Yarah thought as he rolled his eyes at the question. He glanced back at them before moving to their hoverbikes to warm up the engine. "So, what happened there?" He didn't expect an answer; the silence was just creeping up his backside again. Yarah had left them to their things after he had managed to open some vault door. It hadn't been interesting enough for him to stay and watch. The last thing he had heard was Waga telling Barika "I bet you don't dare to go touch that thing" and that never bode well for this crew.
"Nothing much, some weird shit happened with Barika and he didn't seem to hear us," Waga exclaimed as he walked over after checking his guns were properly holstered. "And then... we sort of just left there. The ball thing was creepy to look at. I mean it was SO COLD there."
Yarah looked up at the man with an unimpressed stare. 'Oh boy...' he sighed and signaled Evgena and Barika to hurry it up. Certainly, he admitted that after six months on a desert planet it had been like stepping into a sub-zero freezer in those ruins. Mounting the hoverbike, Yarah pulled down the goggles as he felt Waga climbing behind him. It had been a long time since he had bothered to go exploring with others in tow. It was dangerous to move in groups when you were one of the most wanted people on Algol. Glancing back to Evgena, he shifted the gear to acceleration. The engine hummed to life and he took off without a warning, eliciting a surprised yelp from Waga who grabbed on tightly from the handles in the back.
Evgena scoffed at the takeoff and nodded to Barika before taking off after Yarah. They had had a long day of exploring ruins in the cave that she had spotted the day before. While musing through all the happenings, Evgena blinked in surprise as the faint dust cloud ahead in a rocky pass became larger and static rumbled through their communication links.
"Get to cover!"
Evgena quickly maneuvered to the side of the rocky pass, watching as Yarah and Waga quickly went under the hail of artillery fire. She slowed to a halt and got off the bike with her rifle and ducked behind cover with Barika in tow.
Yarah had continued as far away from a fork in the pass. He had called in for Evgena out of habit, more than concern. After that, an explosion of sand hit him in the face as their hoverbike tipped over. At these precise moments Yarah continued to wonder why he bothered to stick with the rag-tag group, but then he remembered that there was no way out of the planet at the current moment, so it was the lesser evil. Dragging himself to take cover behind the bike, Yarah listened to the exchange of gunshots between Waga and the unknown assailants.
A litany of swears escaped from Waga as he got hit, prompting Yarah to take a turn. He grabbed the Vulcan Carbine from Waga's side holster and took a steady position against the now silent hoverbike for support and cover before letting his darker side take over. The shots were precise. One after another the shots hit their mark. An eye from one through a clay mask. A wrist from another, fingers splintered. Ankle shot for the third one. Yarah kept fixated on the shooting until he emptied the clip with accuracy shots and ducked back.
Waga gave an impressed whistle at the results. He had never seen Yarah handle a gun. Well other than just carrying around. After reloading, Waga took aim again from his cover and shot, briefly losing his balance by an inch. The shot hit its target, but merely broke a clay mask covering the man's face. There was a brief silence before a larger artillery shot sounded from the far back. Both Waga and
Yarah attempted to duck for cover from the impact that blew them unconscious against the sand covered rocky terrain.
Barika held tightly onto his stun gun. There was an eerie silence at that moment and he dared to look over his cover. He caught sight of a group of people chanting something. 'Oh no no no...' At that moment of panic, he felt a pressure laying on him. Squeezing around him. He tried to signal Evgena to watch out but fell unconscious before he could even lift a finger.
"Shit... shit, shit shit, why is this happening," Evgena repeated and whirled around to take cover herself again, falling over at Barika's unconscious body. At that moment she held her breath. Time seemed to stand still for the longest time as all the events leading up to this with these people recoiled.
Evgena raised her arms up in the air and shouted from the top of her lungs: "I surrender!" She was terrified. Barika laid unconscious next to her, for unknown reasons. She couldn't hear the exchange of fire from Waga's direction and there were simply too many targets to handle alone with a sniper rifle. While under fire it was impossible to get any shots fired. Silence fell to the rocky pass finally.
'So, you might be wondering how we got into this situation...'