It took Four-Seven less than a minute to decimate the entirety of the Fei troops that were after me. His body still in that awkward, exposed state where he moved about like a spider and his stomach…or his back spat out weapons of destruction ready to fire at the next poor sob to come near us.

There isn’t anyone left in the facility, at least, I think so. I hope so too.

I get up to my feet, wobbling as I do; my hands and feet have been bound. Four-Seven sees this and morphs back to human form, every bit of his mechanical body shaking and clicking as he does.

He jogs up to me and frees me from my bonds with well placed flames from the tip of his finger, “Are you alright?”

There’s almost genuine concern laced in his robotic voice, but his eyes tell a much different story.

“I am, we’ve got to get out of here though, the Drill…” the threatening hum of the Drill has gotten louder since I sabotaged the controls, by this point, I’m certain that wormhole no longer exists.

“Yes, we don’t have long until the Drill destroys this place. However, you shouldn’t have sabotaged the Drill, Miss, the Council will not be pleased.”

He picks me up while I still wide-eyed take in what he’s just spat out. The Council?

In his arms, safe and sound with my arm wrapped around his neck, I ask, “Four-Seven, do you think the Council still exists?”

No, no, no. That shouldn’t even be the question I ask, “Four-Seven, do you understand what the Fei had turned my Drill into? Do you understand the implications?”

I can see and hear his mechanisms wiring for a response to these questions, as we speed through the broken facility his eyes glow as he hopefully begins to compute what I’m saying.

“No, Miss, there are no implications stated in the contract you signed stating that should the Fei turn the Drill into a weapon for their own uses you should destroy it. The right for manufacture, distribution and destruction of the Drill belongs solely to the Council.”

Yeah, he doesn’t get it.

With a sigh I let it go and look ahead. Four-Seven has been leaping over fallen catwalks, temporarily jet packing over caved in pieces of the facility, all in one direction.

“Shouldn’t we head to the pods?” I reason.

“The pods have been compromised.”

Shoot, that’s right, I saw that on my way in. “I have a Strike Craft at over that way.” I say, pointing to where I’d…busted through earlier.

“A Strike Craft does not carry the required materials for this trip. It also doesn’t have enough space for two.”

And then we land. With a great thud, Four-Seven lands right in front of three hovering Fei crafts. “These however, do.”

And then he drops me.

“Ugh!”

The sound of continuous fire prevents me from protesting the inglorious landing.

The three Fei crafts- likely the ones that brought in the Fei troopers who just go decimated- begin to circle around Four-Seven, firing continuous rounds of plasma at him.

Their attacks aren’t enough to faze the Saeon though, his built-in shield generator allows him to take the brunt of their attacks without worry and put his body in front of mine.

His arms steam open and the clicking of mechanical gears and cogs I’m not privy to begins and in a moment, he fires back.

He is merciless in his attacks, felling one of the Crafts by shooting straight at the pilot and another by taking out the engine, letting it spin and drift until it implodes and falls down dead in space.

As the second one implodes and bursts yet another hole through the hull of the facility, the cruel nature of space shows itself once again.

“Four-Seven!” I scream as I’m dragged into the vacuum, I manage to hold onto one of the fallen catwalks rails as I scream but the pressure…it hurts a lot.

“Miss, I will be with you shortly.”

“Shortly? I’m about to die Four-Seven!”

The Saeon leaps off the rails, having the luck of being made with magnetized boots and lands on the last Fei Craft. He hops into the Craft and in less than a second tosses the pilot out screaming curses into the vacuum.

Just as I lose my grip Four-Seven pilots the stolen Craft into just the right position so my body slaps the hull of the Craft rather painfully.

I’m saved, but I’m in a lot of pain.

He soon comes out of the Craft and picks me up once more, bringing me back into the Fei craft where everything is as safe as it can be.

Shutting the doors, Four-Seven begins piloting the Craft away from the Facility, the hum of the Drill still audible, while I look around the alien craft.

It’s entirely different from human Crafts, there’s only two seats in the large thing for the pilot and the commander I suppose. And there are helmets fitted for their peculiar phenotype, from the looks of it, they may hook-up to the ship with these helmets and stand in-flight.

Most noticeably, there are weapons everywhere, but no chairs for the troops…these guys are really all about war huh.

Stumbling over to the front, leaning on the side of the Craft as I do, I get over to the front and seat in the free chair next to Four-Seven, “Do you think you’ll be able to get us through that blockade?”

In front of us, displayed in their full glory and might is the naval force of the Fei. The two that’d been sent to the Dyson Swarm have made it quite far in their journey, power would soon be going out worldwide on Rim.

And to make matters worse, the Cruisers that hovered over the planet still bombarded the red rock. Rim is on fire, in chaos. The planetary shields that protected us...it’s all gone.

Seeing this, in this moment…I’m overcome with hopelessness.

“Tzzch! Hello! Tzzch! Hello, I’m assuming you’re the one piloting this Craft, Xerai Black, you’ve done well, the impossible in fact.”

It’s Scrakna. She’s gotten on the radio feeds of the Craft we stole.

“You’re probably wondering if you should deign me an answer, a response to my…drivel.”

I am.

“But I’m here to tell you it doesn’t matter. There’s no where for you to go, Xerai. You may have disturbed this Drill but that doesn’t mean your Planet doesn’t have any others and if we don’t find any on your…now charred world, we will simply make one of ours.”

She takes a break to laugh manically.

“You may have destroyed this Drill and halted our advance through the systems, but we both know the Sildor have no chance against our military might. But there’s hope for your people yet, I’m sure you saw what was wrong with the Drill up there,”

I didn’t notice anything really.

“Help me fix it and we will spare your people, the Sildor will be our most respected vassals in the Galaxy.”

Oddly, Four-Seven doesn’t say a word to this, instead he keeps manoeuvring the Craft through blockade after blockade. They wouldn’t dare shoot me down so all they could really do as of now was slow our escape.

Escape where though? Rim? To be blunt it is charred. There’s barely anything left on the planet now.

And even if we landed there, how would I survive? There’s no power, there’s nothing preserving life anymore. The Red of the planet, it’s being burnt to a crisp.

Her words only gave life to what I’d been feeling all this time. Where do I go now?

“Miss, once we get through this block we’ll be on our way to the Council, they will judge you appropriately for your violation of the Contract.”

I snort at Four-Seven. His AI really is all brawn and no brains.

Tapping a button, I speak into the mic and to Scrakna, “You don’t have the rank to make that promise Scrakna, get me someone with more power or I’ll go right ahead and die on Rim, with the information you need.”

I can hear her growl over the comms, but the truth is, I have no idea what’s wrong with the Drill, I didn’t see anything up there while I was smashing it, in fact, she’d improved it.

I don’t know how she continues to overestimate my intelligence, I’m the same engineer that failed to see the potential of her own design.

“Xerai, if you come aboard, I promise to get you that person. For now, as a gesture of goodwill and my intentions to see yo…our creation reach its proper completion and achieve its true potential, I’ve had the Cruisers over Rim cease fire and move out of orbit.”

It’s my turn to laugh, “You really think stopping your assault now gives you any points?” She’s true to her words though, ahead the Cruiser-class Fei Crafts move out of Rims orbit.

“The damage is exaggerated by your eyes my dear. Only about 60% of the Planet has been bombarded, but it’s a Planet, it will recover.”

“Not our people down there though.”

“True, but if you know that then you know you really won’t fall back onto a burning rock, there’s work to be done and your Civilization to be saved by you agreeing to work with me.”

“Hahahaha!” I hold onto my belly as I laugh, “I’m really sorry Scrakna, I really am. A large part of me doesn’t want to be on Rim, but you see, you’re not the only one I’ve offended by destroying the Drill.”

I can hear venom lace her voice, “What do you mean?”

“My bodyguard is also the enforcer of my contract with the Council, with the Government of Rim and the entirety of Sildor, I breached the contract and now the dumb AI is flying me into a burning planet for my trial and judgement! Hahahah!”