Chapter written by Under Drow
Archivists note to the reader: It seems you are viewing this item in the human language English. For this reason the contents of this file, including names, have been ontologically translated to your preferred language. Apologies for the inconvenience.
Tidal finally regained consciousness, and looked around the pod he was in. He saw the alien he had entered with floating in the air. Stupid alien, jumping when he’d tried to get their attention. Well, at least they were safe from the attack…
The GA’s attack. Why were they even attacking them in the first place, what had the Aquiri done? And now here Tidal was, trapped in a pod, filled with air, with a strange alien next to him, flying who knows where. Who could’ve guessed that this is where the day would lead.
The day was truly another special day, much like when they launched their first warp drive. Tidal was standing on the same structure, in the same place, with Blade , his best friend next to him. After being contacted by the GA, the Aquiri scanned the massive amount of Data, which was somehow very easy to understand, and had constructed a few things from the files. Tidal stared at the new structure towering over the planet; a design courtesy of the GA, it was a large, thick cable protruding from the water and rising into the sky, far higher than even the atmosphere. Suddenly, a machine shot up the cable, so fast Tidal could barely see it before it was already half-way into the sky. Blade came to lean on the railing right beside him. “Wow, look at it go!” He said.
Tidal ’s markings flashed in response. “Yeah, it is quite impressive.” Impressive as it was, there was one thing wrong with it, Mana wasn’t in it.
Blade looked down, he knew today would be hard for his friend. “Hey, if you don’t think you can handle this, I could-”
“No, no, it’s ok. I want to be here.” Just then, an explosion lit up the already bright sky. The long cable was broken in two, sending half of it falling down to Pelago, alongside the carrier and ship with the improved warp drive. A loud siren blared across the platform. It glowed a brilliant white, before everyone on it was launched outward, away from harm. Tidal landed in the water, before the cable came crashing down, causing a massive wave that threw Tidal and many others even further.
Tidal landed with a thud, and just lay there on the purple sand for a moment. He noticed some debris falling from the sky. Suddenly he shot to his feet, that wasn't debris, those were shuttles. Included in the armada was the new spaceship the Aquiri built. Said shuttle seemed to be on a collision course with an island.
The one Tidal was on.
Tidal leapt into the water. A white flash appeared behind him, followed by what sounded like barely muffled thunder. Confused and disoriented, Tidal didn’t notice the GA soldiers floating behind him until they started shooting.
Tidal made a shield behind him, and grabbed his gun to fire back. A yellow bullet hit the sand behind him. His eyes narrowed. Another bullet curved around his shield, he reformed the shield in its path. Hundreds more followed, Tidal reformed the shield, dodged, reformed again, kicked off the shield, either narrowly dodging or getting grazed by the bullets as he slowly inched closer to the squad. One of their guns glowed orange, before it fired a laser of the same colour. Tidal raised his shield, the laser exploded, shattering his shield and blasting him back. Another laser curved behind him and exploded, followed by another, as Tidal was thrown around from one blast to another. It all stopped as a single yellow bullet hit the squad from below, followed by Hammer barreling through on a speeder. The aliens split and focused on the two new threats. Tidal got his bearings, grabbed his gun, and started shooting. One GA soldier got hit by an invisible force, and another yellow bullet hit another soldier. Tidal grinned, Tendril and Blade were here too. The aliens regrouped and formed a shield, it surrounded the group, blocking Tidal ’s shots and the shots from below, and it glowed like the aurora borealis. One soldier grabbed the water and punched it. Tendril appeared in his hands. The shield opened at the top as the soldier threw him upwards, near Hammer . Hammer took this moment to drive his speeder back into the squad. The shield reformed, causing him to crash his speeder into the shield, and it exploded. Tendril and Hammer were blasted out of the water.
The soldiers turned to Tidal , more orange lasers, more explosions, and a force pushing him away. Blade frantically swam up from below, toward Tidal , closely followed by another squad of soldiers. He saw the curved shield, and the fact it was moving in front of the soldiers. “Can you do that?” He flashed.
“No.” Tidal responded. Another orange explosion blasted them back. “These guys are trying to push us to the surface.” A glowing orange torpedo exploded below them, and vines pulled them out of the water. The alien with the vines swung the aquiri over her head, and slammed them into the ground.
Tidal floated to the window of the pod. He could still see the battle happening on the surface. Despite all the shooting, he didn’t see many people die. But not everyone was so lucky.
Tidal and Blade slammed onto the ground. Immediately lasers rained on them. And a few laser shots hit Tidal. Tidal erected a shield before kicking the alien into the water. The previous army started coming out of the water. Blade got up and shot at them, pushing them back, as Tidal shot at the aliens on the other side of his shield. However, eventually they got swarmed by the soldiers exiting the water. Tidal grunted. “Jump.” Both of them jumped, and a shield appeared below their feet. They ascended like this a couple times more and got into position to shoot back, before an alien with glowing orange eyes was thrown into them. The alien punched the shield, and it shattered. The two landed right in front of the army, a shield already up before they stopped moving, and multicoloured bullets curving around said shield.
Tidal heard a grunt of pain. He turned around, Blade was smoking. Blade fell to his knees, and two more shots were fired into his chest from behind them. Tidal watched the life leave Blade ’s eyes, and him fall to the ground. He stood there, frozen in shock, his best friend in the whole world, dead, in an instant. He went over to him, and tried to heal his wounds. Green magic coalesced on his hands, refusing to flow into Blade’s body, it was too late. Tidal cried.
He looked up, up at the army that killed Blade . For some reason, they seemed confused, and they stopped firing. It almost seemed like they were about to walk away. Tidal didn’t care, they killed his friend. He saw red.
Tidal’s marking shone like the sun, his gun already aimed at a soldier. The shot alerted everyone else of the Aquirus. He jumped out of the way of more lasers, and shot a couple more aliens, before the gun was shot from his hands, Tidal scowled. The alien who shot his gun breathed a sigh of relief, and then a gasp of panic as Tidal ran at him with his knife. The alien let loose a few shots, hitting Tidal in the arm and leg. Tidal felt no pain, before he sliced at the alien. The rest of the army was shocked, frozen in fear as Tidal threw away his knife, and wrestled the soldier’s gun away. Tidal shot the soldier, and they stopped moving. He then turned his attention towards the rest. Finally broken out of their stupor, they ran. As Tidal was shooting them, one alien emitted a noise into a weird device, and seconds later, a magical force pulled Tidal to the side.
He went flying through the air and struck a big, beefy arm. It smacked him out of the air. He flew a few more feet on momentum alone before finally landing and skidding to a halt. Tidal pushed himself to his feet, beside him he saw Hammer and Tendril laying on the ground. He looked over to the alien who clotheslined him. He was big, green, scaly, and carried a bazooka. He also had a pointed head, and blue eyes. The alien blinked, his eyes blinking sideways, as his forked tongue shot out and back into his mouth. A mess of sounds emitted from it, another noise-maker. Tidal was again pulled toward the alien. ‘Gravity manipulation’, he figured. He made a shield underneath himself, and shot the alien, blue light flashed where the shots hit. Tidal’s gravity returned to normal, causing him to slam on the ground. Without warning, a loud crack sounded from the opposite end of the island, a ship had just appeared there. The alien raised his bazooka towards it. Tidal looked toward the ship, then the alien, then his friends. He ran over to them as a boom sounded from behind, and he placed his hands on Tendril. His hand glowed green as Tendril’s wounds closed and he regained consciousness. “Tendril, are you alright?” Tidal said.
“I was about to ask you the same thing.” Tendril replied. Tidal looked down at himself. There were quite a few laser burns from the fight earlier. Tendril grunted, then said, “Look out!” Tidal looked back, the alien was pointing his bazooka at them. Tidal raised a shield just in time, before it shattered from an explosion, launching them back as well. Tidal got to his feet and looked at Tendril. “I’ll distract him, you go help Hammer”, Tendril said before he disappeared. In response the alien yelled something, and the gravity all around was increased tenfold, even catching some of his allies in the field. He then scanned the sand, before sprinting at a set of footprints. He charged and punched Tendril out of his invisibility.
Tidal , now free, stood up and dashed towards Hammer , before his friend started floating, no, falling upward. The alien must’ve heard him and didn’t want him to heal Hammer . Tidal had to save him, stop his fall, but how? He remembered something that was in the GA info dump, some advanced magic that barely anyone had even started to practice, but he had no other choice than to try. He grabbed his gun off the ground, focused his will into it, and shot Hammer. A shield appeared behind him, it worked.
The alien grabbed the aquirus and slammed him into the ground. He peered over his shoulder at the other one. He had been watching these aliens, and that one had only ever created one shield at a time. ‘Let’s see how he handles this.’
Tidal looked up, how would he even get to Hammer ? That question was quickly replaced by another one. How would he stop his own upward fall?! If he made a shield for himself, Hammer ’s would disappear, and his friend would die, but if he didn’t, he'd die himself, and Hammer’s shield would still disappear. Tidal’s panic gave way to a smirk, he had a plan.
Tidal waited till he was a little higher than Hammer, then made a shield and jumped off of it. Hammer plummeted, right into Tidal’s path, now both in free fall. As Tidal healed Hammer, they started to slow down, “We must be out of his range.” Tidal thought, before they plummeted back down. Hammer woke up, and his markings immediately blinded Tidal. Tidal tapped his shoulder. “Don’t worry.” He said. “But get ready”
Tendril got knocked down again. He rolled to the side, avoiding another punch. He jumped to his feet, grabbing a gun off the ground and shot the alien. Despite the brute’s magical shielding, it still did plenty of damage.
The alien picked himself off the ground and looked around. He sighed, apparently Tendril ’s disappearing act was getting old. Before he could raise the gravity however, a rapid, obnoxious noise, like thousands of glass panes shattering in quick succession, came from above. He looked up to see Tidal and Hammer falling through rapidly created shields, before creating a cloud of purple sand upon landing.
Hammer shot out of the cloud, and right into the alien. He grabbed him, flipped, and then threw him. Before he could get far, Hammer gripped his leg, the alien screaming in agony from the sudden halt, before being swung overhead and slammed into the ground. One wishes one could feel agony.
The sand cloud cleared up, and Tendril ran over to Tidal . “Are you alright?”
“Yeah.” Tidal replied. “Just tired. I must’ve made like a hundred shields back there.” He turned his eyes back to the battle, Hammer was floating in the air, holding onto the alien's arms so tight, the alien’s armour was breaking. Hammer then swung down and kicked him in the chest. Tidal picked himself up, then looked back to Tendril. “How’d you lose to this guy before?”
Hammer punched the alien again, the alien then got shot in the back. Hammer gave a nod to Tendril before he hit the alien again. Tidal was right behind him, ready for the alien to crash into his shield, as the three Aquiri landed blow after blow, shot after shot on the alien, keeping him off balance. Suddenly, the alien shot into the air. Finally getting some breathing room, he pulled the bazooka off his back and fired it at the two closest Aquiri. Tidal and Hammer jumped out of the way, as the explosion clashed with Tidal ’s shield. The alien landed, battered and bruised, but still standing. Hammer sped toward him, markings like the sun, before he flew backwards. He clawed at the sand trying to keep himself from flying further. The alien looked at Tendril , who had just taken aim again, before he flew to the side, the gun pulled from his grasp by the alien’s gravity manipulation. Then he turned to Tidal . A green light shot down Tidal ’s legs to the ground before he was thrown back too, however, his feet remained planted where they were. His gravity went all over the place, left back, up, forward, the alien was trying to throw him away. He rooted his hand to the sand too, and his other hand to his gun. He felt his gravity and the gun’s gravity go wild, and he shakily aimed at the aliens face, and fired. The laser almost shot true, right on the side of his head. The alien roared in pain as Tidal slumped down on the ground, exhausted. His gravity was back to normal. He didn’t even notice the alien aiming his own gun back at Tidal.
Hammer and Tendril saw it though. Both Aquiri shot up and ran over to Tidal . Hammer lept toward Tidal, grabbed him, and threw him away, before a rocket was shot right in his back.
Tidal snapped back to the present, and drifted away from the space pod’s window. He looked to the back of the pod, towards the strange alien. What was it doing here? It probably came from the ship that appeared, but why Pelago? It certainly wasn’t here to help, based on what it did.
The blast from the alien’s bazooka launched Tidal into a nearby bush. He couldn’t see much, but he saw enough. The alien was unconscious, and Hammer…
He looked away, Hammer was dead. Tidal almost threw up. He looked down, and realized he had landed on something, something not even in the GA’s info dump. He found himself face to face with an alien in a strange suit, almost civilian, definitely not one of the attackers, and most certainly not an Aquarus. He stared at it for a moment, readying himself for a fight.
Tidal immediately switched to flight as a glowing orange bullet hit the ground beside them. Tidal and the strange creature leapt out of the bush, and an explosion sounded behind them as it and Tidal ran. He put up a shield as a thousand lasers were fired his way. ‘I guess they finally see me as a threat.’ His shield started to crack. He looked and saw the other alien leaping into a GA drop-pod, and more soldiers closing in. Tidal had lost everything here, and the little he had left these attackers had taken from him. Mana was gone, Blade , Hammer , and maybe even Tendril were all dead. He might have nothing left here, but maybe he could protect that creature, and get answers in the process. The cracks in his shield disappeared as he made another one behind him, jumping off it and rolling toward the pod. He leapt in too, and immediately tried closing the hatch. He rooted his hands and feet to the pod, but he still wasn’t strong enough. Suddenly, it slid closed with ease. He looked to his right, the person was staring at him.
Tidal backed up as he heard banging on the door, before it stopped. Apparently the door was too strong for them to break down. His adrenaline dying down, all the exhaustion of the day finally caught up to him. He plopped down on the floor and turned around to see his companion already drooling over the controls. Tidal grunted, causing the alien to bang its knee and fall on the panel itself. Tidal covered his eyes in annoyance, his markings flashed, “I was going to say be careful.” The alien’s eyes widened. Tidal felt the pod starting. “Oh no.” he said before losing consciousness.
After reminiscing, Tidal looked over the alien again. He noticed it had no markings. How did it communicate? He hoped it wasn’t another noise maker. He heard it groan, not good for Tidal’s hopes, before it held up its hand, and moved it around. Tidal was confused by the gesture, but he mirrored it. “Uh, hello?” Tidal said. The alien’s face lit up (metaphorically). He did the hand thing again. “Hello.” Tidal repeated. The alien traced a line down its arm. What was it doing? Wait, that was how he just lit up his markings. Tidal smiled. “Hello.” He said again. The alien traced his arm again. Amazing, it was trying to communicate. Is this how its species normally talked? It seemed a little inefficient. That would be because that's not how they talk.
Suddenly they fell to the ground. Tidal shot up and looked around, heart racing. ‘Oh. It was just the ship.’ His companion was already up and looking out the window. He joined him there. The sight outside amazed him. He saw a giant asteroid, as well as the brilliant blue of Pelago. They were so far up, he didn’t even see any islands. He finally understood why Mana wanted to go to space so badly, this was always his dream. ‘At least one of us got to go to space.’ He thought. ‘I promise you Mana , I’ll make sure to have enough adventures for the both of us.’
He felt the shuttle rumble. What he first thought was a giant asteroid, he now realized was the attackers ship, and the pod was dragging them in. Pitiful