Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Illumination ❯ Mission 11: Roughing It ( Chapter 18 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Disclaimer: Dragonball Z belongs to Akira Toriyama and numerous other companies. This fanfic is only for fun, no monies are being made.

-+-

A young woman with short orange hair stood tall in front of the men before her. They were in full-dress, carrying their weapons slung over their backs. They hoped to intimidate her, but they were about to be disappointed. She took a slow, deep breath before speaking.

“I want a year's worth of supplies for the village. Food, water, clothing, temporary shelter—all of it.” She stood as tall she could, staring the commanding officer in the eyes. She wouldn't back down.

“First, your demands are ridiculous,” the officer began. “Second, there's nothing stopping me from killing you and retrieving the item myself. You might want to make yourself useful to avoid such a fate.”

The woman wanted to laugh. She settled for a slight smirk. “Fine, kill me. I'm the only who knows where it is. You could spend years looking and never find it, especially with how overgrown the jungle is. I know your instruments don't work properly here because of the leftover radiation, otherwise you'd have scanned the planet and found it by now.” She paused a moment for dramatic effect. “So I don't need to make myself useful. You're the one who needs me. Or,” her smirk grew, “you can return home with nothing, like all the others.”

The officer sighed as he thought for a moment, his brown eyes narrowing at the young woman. “You will not die today. But I am not willing to negotiate.”

“Neither am I,” the woman replied sharply. “I gave you my price, if you don't want it, then leave.”

“We'll be back,” the man said sullenly, “when I have authorization to bring you your supplies.”

“I look forward to it,” the woman said, her smirk shifting into a smile as the military men turned and left her home.

-+-

Illumination

Mission 11: Roughing It

-+-

A week after leaving Farleh, Trunks was finally back on Bmyhad. It was night when they arrived, so he only took a quick walk before returning to the ship to go to bed. The following morning, he and Laiserta went out to get supplies and food. She was surprisingly fun to shop with, and had a wealth of knowledge on different ingredients. Then again, she was a self-proclaimed chef in her spare time, so he supposed it was to be expected.

Once they returned to the ship and put all of their groceries away, Armada called them all to meet in the bridge. Sitting in the pilot's seat, Armada brought up a map on the main display.

“A journalist from Ceva wants the flight recorder from what they suspect is a Tyrian fighter that crashed on Euphoria during the Dreyfus War,” she started bluntly.

“Well that's kind of a big deal, if it's really there,” Laiserta said, leaning against the back wall of the bridge next to the door to the lounge. “What's this guy gonna pay for it?” she asked.

“Four hundred and sixteen thousand betas,” Armada replied.

Laiserta whistled. “A nice chunk of change for an ancient flight recorder,” she added.

“Through his own research the journalist has narrowed down the location where he thinks the wreckage lies. It's an area about forty square kilometers on the surface of Euphoria near the planet's equator,” Armada explained. She pressed another button at the ship's console and the monitor changed to a three-dimensional map of Euphoria with a small area highlighted on the surface.

“Wait, they can't find it?” Trunks asked, suddenly confused. His comrades immediately looked to him. “Can't they just scan the planet for what they're looking for?” he asked. He knew the Bmyhadians had those kinds of capabilities from when he had worked with them on projects involving the Earth. How could this be so different?

“No,” Armada answered flatly. “Nothing can scan accurately through the radiation,” she explained.

“Radiation?” Trunks repeated, his eyebrows rising up on his face.

“You don't know?” Laiserta cut in, eyeing Trunks with a wary visage. His clueless expression answered her question. “Den muole,” she muttered under her breath in Taydran. “The Dreyfus War occurred almost five hundred years ago between Euphoria and Stapel, neighboring planets in the Fualto star system. It ended when Stapel fired nuclear bombs at Euphoria, who responded with their own nuclear arsenal. In the end, both planets obliterated one another, killing everyone on both worlds,” Laiserta explained. “Well, everyone was thought to be dead, until about eighty years ago when researchers found that there were some people still alive down there,” she added.

Trunks felt both shocked and ill. He couldn't imagine how many people had died. He thought about the Earth, and all of the people he had failed to protect from being murdered by the androids. At least the survivors weren't living in an irradiated, poisoned environment. But it did nothing to quell his own guilt at how many people died before he was able to finally stop Seventeen and Eighteen.

“The radiation isn't strong enough to cause us any damage if we visit Euphoria for a few days,” Armada spoke up. “We'll be fine to go planet-side and search the area for the shipwreck,” she explained. “We'll need your help most of all Laiserta,” she said and looked to her Taydran comrade, “because the area the journalist has identified is in a dense jungle.”

“We're still gonna have to search on foot quite a bit,” Laiserta replied. “I can't see through an entire area that big.”

“That's fine,” Armada stated and stood from her seat. “I need to do some maintenance on the engines before we leave, but as soon as that's done we're heading out.” With that, Armada walked out of the bridge and headed for the cargo bay.

-+-

Two days into a five day trip to Euphoria, Trunks was sitting back in his bed in his room, researching information about Stapel and Euphoria on a tablet he'd picked up in Ute. Laiserta's explanation of the Dreyfus War was sadly accurate. He'd spent his time since they left Bmyhad to learn everything he could about the war and the results of that war on both the environment and people of Euphoria. Extensive research was being done on the population in an attempt to figure out both how they survived and why they seemed to have adapted to the irradiated environment.

The fate of the people of both planets was horrific. Even now, most people died before the age of thirty from various types of cancer and genetic defects resulting from the radiation. Those that did survive that long, would maybe make it to fifty before passing away. Society had been completely destroyed, and the people of both planets had to revert to an almost prehistoric civilization. Despite the research being conducted, there was no clear history for either planet as to what happened when the war was over. And with so many years passing in between the end of the war and when first contact was made with the people of Stapel once again, the task of reconstructing those missing years of history seemed insurmountable.

Trunks's eyes were starting to bother him from staring at the screen of his tablet too long, so he turned it off and set it down beside himself in his bed. He rubbed at his eyes, not sure if his headache was from straining his eyes or the distress he felt while learning about the Dreyfus War. Perhaps it was both. He let out a sigh before lying down completely and staring up at the metal ceiling of his room. He'd thought that he had failed the Earth spectacularly over the years. But reading about Euphoria made him feel that he should be more thankful for the planet's environmental survival. While he'd barely stopped the androids from killing all of humanity, at least the Earth itself had not been destroyed. At least the people wouldn't suffer from a nuclear winter.

It would take a lot of work over many, many years to get society on Earth back to where it was just thirty years ago. Despite that, it was a task the people were willing to take on. Thankfully the Bmyhadians came along, as they were able to speed up the process. But that bothered Trunks in a way that made him feel uneasy to his core. Why would the Bmyhadians help the people of Earth, and yet ignore two devastated planets in their own country? Some of what Trunks read about the two destroyed worlds was about the politics on how to deal with Euphoria and Stapel, and it wasn't good. The highest estimates of people left on either world were under five million, each. Why wouldn't Bmyhad, or other nations like Taydr and Virda, step in to help those people? Instead, the people of Euphoria and Stapel were left to rot and die.

It had certainly colored Trunks's opinion of Bmyhad... and people that he had considered friends. Were people like Devan and Murtole only helping the Earth because it would further their careers? They would save an unknown race of people from extinction, and win accolades and grant money within the scientific community. From what he read, some politicians argued that clearly the intergalactic community did not care about Stapel and Euphoria. Based on results, Trunks was starting to agree with that sentiment.

Trunks closed his eyes and tried to relax. After twenty minutes of unsuccessfully trying to wind down, he figured he would get up and try to eat something. Several minutes later, he walked into the lounge from the galley with a few pieces of fruit and bottle of water. Laiserta was sitting at the table in the lounge, leaned back in her seat with her legs crossed and propped up on the table. Trunks didn't have the wherewithal to argue with her at that moment, and simply sat down next to her, saying nothing.

“What's eating you?” Laiserta asked, her eyes still staring across the room at the monitor on the other wall. She was watching something on the network, with the volume set low.

“Why do you...?” Trunks started to ask, but stopped himself. He shook his head; “Nevermind,” he said, turning his attention back to his food.

“Your blood pressure's up but your heart rate is down,” Laiserta said flatly. She finally turned to her left to look him in the eyes. “Signs of someone who is distressed about something,” she added.

Trunks looked at her for a moment before his eyes fell away from hers. “I was reading about the Dreyfus War,” he began.

“Ah,” Laiserta cut in. “A bleeding heart like you can't deal with something like that,” she added, her tone indicating that it was a statement of fact. Trunks looked back up at her, his face plainly showing his confusion at her words. He opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off before he could start.

“Come on wonder boy, you're easy to peg. Naive to a fault, sure; but you've got a good heart,” Laiserta explained with a small smile on her face. She reached over and took one of the 'apples' he had sitting on the table, immediately taking a bite. “You don't have to pretend to be some badass to me; I'm not that judgmental.”

Part of it was that he was tired, and part of it was that Laiserta seemed to be genuine at the moment, so Trunks let down his guard. “Why isn't anyone trying to help the people of Euphoria and Stapel?” He paused a moment and continued. “I mean reallyhelp them, not sending tiny amounts of supplies that won't have a real affect. Why not just evacuate them from the planet? There aren't that many people left on either world, right?”

Laiserta smiled sympathetically. “Your heart is really too big, you know that?” she said sadly. “There are what, maybe ten million people between both worlds? Where would they go?” Laiserta asked. “They've been unplugged from interstellar society for hundreds of years, and they have no skills to help them survive on any modern planet. And who would take them in? Do you have any idea how much time and money would need to be invested in protecting and caring for all of those people, since they won't be able to do it for themselves? Not to mention their medical needs since all of them are sick from radiation poisoning.” She paused a moment and let out a dark laugh under her breath. “The universe is a cruel place. There's nothing wrong with wanting to protect people, Trunks, but you've got to know that you can't save everyone.”

Trunks didn't reply to Laiserta right away, and instead let her words sink in. She was right; he couldn't save everyone. That much could be proven by how many people he had failed on his own planet. Still, while not everyone could be saved, did that mean people could turn their backs and not even try? Not to his mind, but he understood that the issue was complicated. Laiserta wasn't wrong when she said that the people of both planets would need to be cared for, probably for the remainder of their lives. But did that mean that the rest of the universe could just turn a blind eye to a people's suffering?

Trunks wasn't paying attention, and Laiserta had already stood up from the table. “Chin up; we won't be on Euphoria very long,” she said while placing a hand on Trunks's left shoulder. She shot him a small smile before turning and heading out of the lounge, leaving her comrade to his thoughts.

-+-

The rear cargo door to the ship lowered slowly, settling into the ground and providing the ramp the mercenaries required to disembark. Laiserta quickly headed down first, and Trunks followed behind. The warm, humid air was a departure from anywhere else Trunks had been in the last several months. Once he had his feet on the ground, Trunks could get a better look around. The ship had landed in a small clearing in a dense jungle. There was an odd, low buzzing of noises that Trunks chalked up to wildlife in the jungle.

Armada finally made her way down the metal ramp to join her comrades. Once she was clear of the door, she pressed a button on a small silver remote in her right hand, and the cargo door rose and retracted back into the ship. “Let's get going,” she said flatly, looking pointedly at Laiserta.

“The village is straight ahead, let's see if you two can keep up,” Laiserta replied with a smirk before walking in the direction of their destination. Trunks quickly fell into step behind Laiserta, Armada a few paces behind him. One thing Trunks had not learned in his research on Euphoria was that the world had a 'natural Minovsky field,' to quote his blonde comrade. Apparently a few rare planets in the universe produced Minovsky particles, not unlike the Earth's own magnetic field. So for this mission, he and Armada would look to Laiserta to lead them. He felt uneasy about being so vulnerable on a world like Euphoria, but reminded himself that this should be a quick job. Or so he hoped.

-+-

Just under an hour later, the mercenaries found the 'village' that their Cevan journalist had directed them to. Trunks thought the word village was a bit of an overstatement, as what he now found himself walking through was a few rows of old destroyed houses and patchwork tents. The few people they saw would turn away from their gazes or go inside of a building or hut to hide.

Laiserta stopped walking when they reached what appeared to be the center of town, with a haphazard well dug into the ground. “Well, the locals don't seem very friendly, do they?” she asked, her hands on her hips.

“They have no reason to trust us,” Armada replied. “Some of these people may never have seen someone from off-world before,” she added.

Trunks glanced around, his visage distressed. He noticed a small boy with dirty brown hair looking at them from behind a damaged door. When his eyes met Trunks's, the boy gasped and ducked out of sight. Trunks grimaced. “I don't think we need to scare everyone like this,” he said before turning to look back at his comrades.

“Sorry, almost everyone here has never seen an outsider before.”

The three mercenaries turned toward the sound of a light, feminine voice. A young woman with short orange hair and light blue eyes stood before them. Trunks wasn't sure what to say, so when he opened his mouth to speak he hesitated long enough for someone else to cut in.

“You speak Ferian? That's a surprise,” Laiserta said and shifted her weight on her feet.

“Not everyone here does, but I do,” the young woman replied. The more Trunks studied her, the more he thought she seemed younger than she carried herself. Perhaps she was only a teenager; he couldn't be sure. Her clothes didn't offer any help as to her age, because they were dark and worn, maybe even older than she was.

“We're looking for the wreckage of an old Tyrian fighter, specifically we need the flight recorder” Armada cut in. “Information given to us indicated that the people who live in this village might know where it is.”

The young woman smiled. “I do know where the wreckage is, and I'll take you there... for a price,” she replied. Laiserta shifted awkwardly and caught Trunks's attention for a moment, but neither said anything.

“You want supplies, right?” Armada guessed. “Money isn't going to get you very far,” she explained. Trunks quickly realized that Armada was right; it wasn't as if Euphoria had a bank they could transfer betas to, at any rate. “We have medical supplies, enough to treat serious wounds and some diseases. How about ten crates?” Armada offered.

The orange-haired woman smiled brightly, her lopsided bangs blowing in the slight breeze. “I have to run it by the village elders, but I think they'll accept. Stay here, I'll be right back,” she added before turning toward the singular two-story building in the small settlement.

“Good call on the medical supplies, that's definitely something they won't have,” Trunks said, turning to Armada.

“We can replace those ten crates for under twenty-five thousand betas total,” she answered, explaining the quick cost-analysis she'd done in her head.

Laiserta crossed her arms over her chest and watched the young woman closely as she disappeared into the dilapidated house. “There's something wrong with her,” Laiserta said, her tone distrustful as she scowled.

Trunks looked at Laiserta, his eyebrows raised. “What's up?” he asked.

“She wasn't nervous at all,” Laiserta replied, still staring at the house – or presumably the woman inside. “No increase in heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, nothing.”

“People who spend many years in high-stress environments can adapt to the point that they don't respond to stressful situations in the same way as others,” Armada cut in. “I wouldn't read too much into it if I were you, Lai.”

“Yeah, right,” Laiserta scoffed, briefly glancing at Armada before turning back toward the house.

“What's going on now?” Trunks asked, assuming that Laiserta was following the young woman's movements.

“She's talking to a group of old geezers, like she said,” Laiserta replied. “Looks like they're about to finish up,” she added.

A few moments later, the woman appeared from the house and met up with the mercenary group once more. “I've received permission from the elders to take you to the wreckage,” she began. “It's not far from here, but it will take several hours to get there because of the thick jungle.” She paused a moment and smiled broadly with appeared to Trunks to be a genuine smile. “I'm Marice, it's nice to meet you.”

“I'm Armada, this is Toran and Lai,” Armada immediately replied, pointing to her comrades as she introduced them. Trunks nodded to Marice while Laiserta merely grunted, still carrying a deep scowl on her face.

Marice only continued to smile in response. “Okay, everyone follow me.”

-+-

Two hours later, the mercenaries led by Marice slogged through the thick Euphorian jungle. In his time away from home, Trunks hadn't seen much in the way of alien vegetation and wildlife. So the trek on Euphoria was wild to him; to see so many strange and fascinating plants and animals, it was like he was dreaming. Little groups of what looked like butterflies but with sharp diamond shaped wings would frequently fly up from under his feet, and they left a trail of glowing dust in the air as they went. Hanging vines that looked like parts of a tree would suddenly curl up and move away when the mercenaries got too close. There was too much for Trunks to look at; it was hard to follow Marice's exact path through the jungle with everything around him causing a distraction.

The group followed in a line with Marice in the front. Several meters behind her was Laiserta, who wanted to stay the closest to their Euphorian guide. Trunks was falling behind at nearly ten meters behind Laiserta, with Armada trailing behind him by an even greater distance. Marice used a large stick to brush things aside as she walked, taking care not to really damage anything. She didn't explain why, but Trunks guessed she was trying not to disturb anything unnecessarily. Who knew what kinds of things could be provoked in this wild landscape?

Just then, another group of 'butterflies' flew out of a nearby bush in front of Trunks. He tried to shorten his next step to stay back from them, and when his left foot hit the ground it slid off of something. He stumbled slightly, his weight falling forward onto his left foot. He turned in time with his momentum, to keep from falling over completely. Suddenly something moved in the weeds around his feet. Before Trunks realized what was happening, something with a very strong grip had wrapped around his right leg and started climbing.

Trunks tried to step back but couldn't move. A large, strong snake had wound itself around his right leg from his ankle to his knee. The head of the bright purple and magenta snake stood up from the body in front of Trunks, its face aligned with his. Trunks's eyes widened and the snake hissed, revealing a large set of black-tipped fangs inside of its mouth.

Armada looked up to see something holding onto Trunks in the distance ahead of her. She quickly realized something was wrong. “Toran!” she shouted before sprinting toward him as quickly as she could, despite the thick foliage.

Laiserta and Marice's heads both snapped around when Armada shouted. With his back toward her, Laiserta could see something just over Trunks's shoulder and it was disturbingly close to his face. “Shit!” Laiserta shouted, immediately reaching for the pistol in the holster at her right hip.

Marice's eyes widened in shock. “No!” she shouted in a panicked voice. She dashed forward toward Laiserta while reaching for something from behind her back. Marice threw the item as hard as she could at Laiserta's right hand, then took a dive toward the jungle floor.

Laiserta had lined up a shot and was ready to fire when a piece of metal slammed into her right arm, causing her to lose her shot as she dropped the pistol she held.

Trunks was frozen in fear; the snake's mouth faded from a deep fuchsia to a pale blue at the end of its nose. It hissed a second time, and this time kept its mouth open. Then the sides of the snake's mouth pressed out from the center, widening the creature's mouth further. It stared into his eyes with bright orange eyes of its own, and Trunks wasn't sure he could move in time if it tried to strike him in the face.

Marice had rolled when she took a dive for the forest floor, scrambling to grab something with her right hand. Laiserta turned toward the young woman, drawing her other pistol and leveling it at the Euphorian. Marice didn't bother to look at Laiserta; she picked up a small round object and lobbed it through the air toward Trunks.

Just as the snake-like monster seemed ready to strike, a small brown sphere the size of a ping-pong ball landed softly against the snake's head, just between the eyes. The rough sphere was full of holes, and when it hit the snake a dust-cloud of pollen poured forth from the holes. The fuchsia monster's eyes twitched, and it immediately shut its mouth. Before Trunks could breathe, the snake rapidly unwound itself from his leg, lowered itself back down to the ground and disappeared into the jungle floor with a speed that was downright frightening.

“Are you okay?!” Armada shouted, closing the last bit of distance between them.

The creature had squeezed his leg pretty hard, and Trunks bent over slightly to rub at the sensitive areas around his knee. “Yeah, I think so,” he said, letting out a harried breath.

“What the hell was that?!”

The two mercenaries turned to see their comrade Laiserta holding up Marice by the collar of her white shirt, the Euphorian's feet dangling above the ground. The pair dashed forward, trying to figure out just why their comrade was now assaulting their guide.

Marice held onto Laiserta's right forearm, since the Taydran's right hand was holding her up by the collar of her clothing. “You can't shoot a narateurl, they have armor plating on their skull!” Marice shouted back at Laiserta. “You would have only made it angry!”

“Lai, put her down,” Trunks called out as he and Armada approached. Trunks tripped over some roots sticking out of the ground, and took several steps to catch his balance and stand upright again. “If she threw that at that... thing, then it worked,” he explained, hoping to calm down his comrade.

Laiserta narrowed her eyes at Marice, cutting through her with an icy glare before finally releasing the young woman. Marice dropped to the ground, landing in a sitting position on the jungle floor. “Narateurl are highly allergic to bara seeds,” Marice explained. “You just need to hit them in the head with the seed to knock the pollen out of it, and it'll drive the narateurl away. If you shot it, it would have killed him!”

Laiserta holstered the pistol she'd been holding in her left hand. “Clearly you've never seen me shoot,” she said lowly, still fixing the young woman with a steely glare.

Trunks reached down and held a hand out to Marice. “Thank you,” he said with a genuine smile. Marice nodded to him and took his hand; he helped her rise to her feet.

“Why didn't you tell us we needed to watch out for those things?” Armada demanded tersely.

Marice let out a breath and shook her head. “They're only active at night and they sleep in the trees during the day. If that one was wandering around, it was probably sick,” Marice answered.

“Like everything else on this shithole,” Laiserta muttered under her breath.

Armada reached down and picked up something from the ground. Trunks's eyes widened a bit as he recognized the black metal weapon in her hand as a sai. Gohan had shown him various weapons at one point, from a book, as part of their training. He had never used sai himself, but Trunks knew one when he saw it.

“This yours?” Armada asked, holding out the weapon toward Marice.

“It is, thank you,” Marice answered. She took the sai from Armada's hand and slid it into place behind her back on the over-sized belt she wore, next to it's twin. Trunks had noticed that she carried something on her back when they left the village but didn't look closely as they were quickly caught up in the jungle. Now he could see clearly that she carried a pair of sai.

“Yeah, hit me with that thing again and I'll break your hand,” Laiserta said bitterly, her arms crossed over her chest.

Before anyone had a chance to reply to Laiserta, Armada spoke up. “Let's get going,” she said flatly. Marice nodded to the blonde mercenary before turning away and resuming their path through the jungle.

Armada immediately fell into step behind Marice, who reached down and picked up another stick. Trunks walked after them, stopping next to Laiserta. “Did she really hurt your ego that bad?” Trunks chastised Laiserta with a smirk.

“Nope,” Laiserta said, her voice losing its vitriol from moments ago. “But she did hit me harder than I thought anyone on this planet would be capable of.” Laiserta turned away from Trunks and followed the rest of the group. Trunks was slightly surprised at her statement, but wasted no time mulling it over. He joined the others in resuming their journey.

-+-

Several hours after Trunks's close encounter with Euphorian wildlife, the mercenaries were close to their destination. Marice pushed through some thick foliage and the mercenaries followed. Once Trunks pushed through to the other side, he stopped with the others. “Whoa,” he said without thinking. They stood on the top of a slight hill, and at the bottom of the hill was clearly a metal structure protruding from the ground.

“This is it,” Marice said, turning to the mercenaries as she motioned toward the wreckage.

“Lai,” Armada immediately called for her comrade, glancing at the Taydran.

“Already on it,” Laiserta replied as she stared down at the wreckage, her irises moving in her eyes unnaturally. “It's mostly below the ground, which isn't a huge surprise,” she began. “I don't see any obvious logos, but it's pretty damaged on the outside, there may not be any left. Overall,” she turned her attention back to her comrades, “this looks like it's what we're here for.”

Armada nodded and started descending the hill, moving in between the thick overgrowth with some difficulty. The rest of the group followed, Marice bringing up the rear. When they reached the wreckage at the bottom of the hill, they stood before a large open door.

“Must have been the cargo bay,” Trunks surmised as they looked down into the ship from the huge open door, into the darkness below.

“I think it's upside-down,” Laiserta added as she scanned the shipwreck beneath their feet. “Hard to tell because it's so busted up,” she added.

“Lai,” Armada said again, this time not as sternly as before.

“Yeah yeah I got it,” Laiserta said, walking away from the edge of the opening and over toward a large tree growing up from the ground at the right side of the door. She pulled a black rope from her trench-coat and began unwinding it.

“How long do you think you need in there?” Marice asked, looking to Trunks and then Armada.

“Shouldn't be more than a few hours,” Armada quickly replied.

Marice nodded. “Okay. I'll just wait here then.”

“Thanks again for your help,” Trunks said to Marice, smiling at her.

Marice smiled back. “You're welcome,” she said jovially.

“All right, I'm ready,” Laiserta called to the others. She had tied her rope around a large branch of a tree right next to the wreckage, which they could use to lower themselves down into the ship.

Armada walked over and took the rope from Laiserta's hand, and began climbing down the rope into the darkness below. Trunks followed next, and Laiserta went last. Despite not being able to see the distance to judge it, Trunks guessed they had traveled at least twenty meters down before they hit the 'floor' of the ship. Just as Laiserta's feet met the ground and she released the rope, Armada pulled a few items from her belt the size of large pills. She snapped hers, causing it to light up with a small but bright white light. She pinned it to the black fabric of her armor on her chest before handing the other two to her comrades.

Marice watched as the mercenaries turned on lights down below. As their lights came on, she could finally confirm that the three of them were down there and no one was still on the rope. She walked away from the edge of the door and over behind the tree where the rope was tied. She brushed away some moss on the side of the ship, revealing a small panel. Marice opened the panel and reached inside, placing her hand on a small lever. She pulled the lever out and twisted.

A sudden noise above them drew the mercenaries' attention, and their heads all snapped up toward the opening they used to enter the ship. Before any of them could react, a large metal door extended out from the 'top' of the ship above ground, and slammed down on the opening.

“Son of a bitch!” Laiserta yelled and ran over to the rope that was still dangling into the cargo bay.

“What just happened?” Trunks asked, completely bewildered. Armada glanced to him, apparently just as confused as he was.

Laiserta grabbed onto her rope and pulled it as hard as she could while still shouting. “The next time I see you, you're dead!” She struggled while pulling the rope, even leaning back with the full weight of her body while yanking on her rope. Finally she growled and stood up, releasing the rope. “Goddamnit!” she shouted before punching the metal wall of the ship, leaving an indentation the size of her fist.

“Lai what's going?” Armada asked, her face barely visible from the minor ambient light generated from the light packs the three mercenaries were wearing.

“What do you think?” Laiserta snapped, turning toward her comrade. “That Euphorian brat just trapped us down here.” Trunks's eyes widened in surprise. Marice had closed the door on them? Why?

“Before anyone tries to say anything, I looked up to see her standing next to what appears to be the emergency release for the door control. She pulled it, on purpose,” Laiserta explained. Trunks couldn't see her face but tell from the tone of her voice that she was angry.

“Nothing we can do about it now,” Armada replied. “Let's get the flight recorder and find another way out.”

Laiserta huffed and fell silent for a few moments. “Okay, looks like there's another area of the ship that's above ground on the other side of this hill,” she said, her voice now calmer than before.

No one moved for a moment, and Trunks spoke up. “Uh, Lai, I think you're going to have to lead the way. Even with these lights it's still really dark in here,” he explained.

He heard Laiserta sigh, and the light on her jacket moved slightly as she slumped her shoulders. “Fine, let's go,” she said before walking past her comrades and deeper into the ship.

A few minutes into their trek, Laiserta sighed again. “I knew something was off with that girl,” she muttered to herself.

“What do you mean?” Trunks asked. He remembered that Laiserta said that Marice didn't appear distressed like everyone else when they first met, but he wasn't sure how that would have helped them avoid their current predicament.

“I can usually tell when people are lying,” Laiserta explained before climbing over another obstacle in her path. She stopped and reached back, holding out a hand to help Trunks. He took her hand and she pulled him up onto the crate she was standing on, before she resumed her walk through the next doorway. “Their heart rate increases, they sweat more, their pupils dilate, crap like that,” Laiserta explained. “With her, she was way too cool. There was never a time she was nervous, even when that... thing was about to bite your face off.” Laiserta paused her conversation a moment as she looked ahead in the ship, planning their next move across the room. “I could never tell that she was lying,” Laiserta explained while Trunks helped Armada up onto the crate before crossing into the next room.

“So?” Trunks asked as he caught up with Laiserta.

“'So?'” Laiserta repeated him, incredulous. She turned to face Trunks. “So, I couldn't stop her from tossing us down here! Not to mention my spare rope is tied up in this crappy old shipwreck now,” Laiserta added bitterly, stomping her foot on the metal floor and leaving a serious dent.

Trunks laughed slightly. “I know this might be new to you, but we've gotten out of way worse situations,” he said, thinking back on some of the scrapes he and Armada had been through the past several months.

“Doesn't mean I have to like being outsmarted by a pipsqueak like her,” Laiserta replied darkly.

“Well if you're done complaining, can we keep moving?” Armada finally spoke. She had asked a question, but her tone indicated that it was more of an order than anything else.

“Yeah yeah,” Laiserta said, spinning back around before leading the group onward through the ship.

Twenty minutes later, the mercenaries finally made it to the bridge of the ship. Laiserta spotted the flight recorder and directed Armada to its location. Armada knelt down at the location, using a few tools she'd brought with her to unscrew the metal panel hiding the flight recorder. Finally locating the bright orange box, Armada pulled it loose from where it had sat for nearly five hundred years. She blew some dust off of the box, and eyed it warily.

Trunks sensed that something wasn't quite right. Before he could say anything, Laiserta stepped over and looked down at the box. “Aw, shit,” she said, sounding more defeated than angry.

Armada opened the bright orange box to reveal that it was empty inside. She didn't appear to be surprised from what Trunks could see. “I knew it wasn't in here when I lifted it; it was too light,” Armada explained while still looking down at the empty box.

“Great. She knew it was gone when she led us down here,” Laiserta spat, shifting on her feet and placing a hand on her hip. “Seriously, I'm going to kill that kid when we get back. I don't even care if you guys call me a baby killer for the rest of my life, she has it coming,” she explained.

Dismissing the latter half of his comrade's statement, Trunks focused on the more important part. “If Marice knew that, then she must know where the flight recorder is now, right?” Trunks asked. “So we go back to the village and get it.”

“Yeah,” Laiserta scoffed, “and then what? If she won't tell us where it is, we beat it out of her?”

Trunks felt uneasy at Laiserta's suggestion. Sure, Marice had lied to them, but she looked like she was just a kid. The thought of anyone hitting her bothered him.

“If necessary,” Armada said and stood up after setting the empty orange box down. “But I don't think that will work,” she added, sounding as if she was thinking about their next move. Trunks felt relieved at her words; it didn't sound like Armada favored violence in this scenario.

“Anyway, we've got to get out of here first, right?” Trunks broke in.

Laiserta nodded, the light on her jacket bouncing slightly with the movement. “Everyone follow me,” she said in a nearly exasperated tone before turning away from her comrades.

A few minutes after they started the back half of their tour through and upside-down Tyrian frigate, Trunks couldn't help but ask the question that had been plaguing him for a while now. “Why is this shipwreck so valuable, anyway?” Trunks asked. In all his reading on the Dreyfus War, he never came across any mention of Tyron.

He heard Armada's voice respond from behind him. “Because if Tyron was involved in the war, and it can be proven, it'll be a huge scandal. Our journalist wants it because unearthing something this huge will make his career,” she explained.

“Yeah, and Tyron would prefer that it stay buried,” Laiserta added from ahead of him. Trunks nodded to himself and kept moving, hoping they'd be out of the ship soon.

-+-

The trip back to the village for Marice was much quicker than the trip out to the shipwreck. She had led the mercenaries out in a slight semi-circle, through an area she didn't normally trek through. So the jungle was thick and it took them some time to get there. On her return to the village, however, she took a path that she knew well; part of that path included following a stream that ventured underground. As a result, she made it back in less than one-third the time it had taken her on the way out to the crashed Tyrian ship.

When Marice got back to her house, she dashed upstairs to her room. She dug around underneath the lumpy mattress of her bed until she found what she was looking for. Pulling her hand out, she held a shiny black object that clearly didn't come from Euphoria. She flipped it open and pressed the button on the side as she was shown several days ago.

“Captain Kozuki,” she said into the radio, “ I have something you might be interested in.”

-+-

It took the mercenaries another two hours to make it to the exit that Laiserta found. Part of the issue was, with the ship being upside-down relative to their position, the way out was far above their heads. With no tools on hand to climb, they had to improvise. After finding some old crates and ties, they managed to stack a group and tie them together. The pile of crates was far from stable, so Armada stayed down on the ground and pulled against one of the ties to help hold them in place.

Laiserta had climbed to the top of the stack, and turned to pull Trunks up behind her. “We're still a bit short,” Laiserta said as she looked up at the emergency exit hatch above their heads. He head snapped around to look at Trunks. “Wonder boy, jump up on my shoulders, you should be able to reach it.”

Trunks sighed, but agreed. “Okay,” he said, and Laiserta turned and took a knee in front of him.

He hesitated, and Laiserta sensed it. “Come on,” she chided him, “you don't weight nearly enough to bother me.”

Trunks reluctantly climbed up onto his comrade's shoulders. Laiserta grabbed his ankles and started to stand up, and Trunks nearly lost his balance because she moved so quickly. He flailed his arms for a moment to recover, and leaned forward.

“You ready?” Laiserta asked, still crouching but up off of her knees.

“Yeah,” Trunks glanced down at her before looking back up at the exit hatch. It wasn't far above him now, and if Laiserta stood up completely he might hit his head against the ceiling. Trunks ducked slightly as Laiserta stood up fully. Now the hatch was easily within his reach. He grabbed the metal lever and attempted to pull, but it was stuck.

“You're gonna have to pull harder than that,” Laiserta said beneath him. Trunks didn't need to look at her face to know she was teasing him; he could hear it in her voice.

“Fine,” Trunks said and started putting more muscle into it. “But if we both fall then it's your fault,” he added through gritted teeth, pulling at the stupid lever with all of his might. Considering the age of the ship, he supposed he shouldn't be surprised that the damn thing didn't want to move.

Laiserta leaned back slightly, helping Trunks by putting both her weight and his into it. The lever finally started inching backward, and Trunks kept pulling as hard as he could manage. After a few agonizing seconds, it finally popped loose. Luckily Laiserta dropped down to one knee, absorbing the force of Trunks falling backwards. She held onto his ankles with a death-grip and managed to keep him upright.

After regaining his balance again, Trunks let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. “Okay, take me up again,” he instructed his comrade. Laiserta stood up and Trunks reached up, grabbing the metal wheel on the door. He turned it four times and the door popped open. He stood up and pushed, and the door went up and fell aside to his left. Trunks lifted his head through the opening, squinting as the bright light of the Euphorian day filled his vision.

His eyes burned for a few seconds as he was blinded, and Trunks heard the sound of clicking all around him. When his vision came to, he realized that the clicking was from a group of soldiers pointing their weapons at him and preparing to fire.

Trunks's eyes widened as he realized they were surrounded, and there was nothing they could do. “Aw, crap,” he managed to say while lifting his hands up in surrender.

-+-

As they were marched back to the village in handcuffs, Trunks wondered when nightfall would hit Euphoria. Sure, it was the morning when they arrived but the day had felt long, as if the sun should start setting. Then again, he didn't know anything about how long a Euphorian day was. His eyes drifted back down from the sun above to the soldiers in front of him, leading their way back into the village.

The mercenaries were led to the two story house that Marice had disappeared into the last time they were in the village. The soldiers ahead of him stopped, so Trunks and his comrades behind him did the same. “Inside,” someone shouted, and before Trunks had an opportunity to move, someone shoved their rifle into his back. He fell a half-step forward and scowled.

“Take them inside and secure them with the other one,” the soldier that appeared to be in charge called out.

“Yes sir!” several men answered in unison before they surrounded the mercenaries. Two men grabbed Trunks by his arms, his hands still cuffed behind his back, and dragged him forward into the building. Inside the front door, the mercenaries were dragged to a room off to the right in the back, and Trunks's eyes widened slightly in surprise. Sitting on the damaged wooden floor was Marice, her hands secured behind her back and chained to metal hook secured into the floor. Trunks watched her as he was pushed into position, and Marice looked up at him from under her bangs with a troubled visage.

Moments later, after the three mercenaries were forced to sit with their backs each other, their handcuffs also chained to the floor with Marice. The soldiers left after being called for on their radios. There was an awkward minute of silence when Marice opened her mouth to speak. “Hold it,” Laiserta immediately said, her eyes staring out of the house and not toward Marice. Surprised, the Euphorian said nothing and looked at the back of Laiserta's head.

The building was quiet, and bits of dust floated in the air. Trunks watched Laiserta closely; she sat to his right while Marice was on his left. Trunks listened, and what sounded like several vehicles started up before pulling away.

“All right, they're gone,” Laiserta finally said, turning her red eyes toward Trunks.

“I'm sorry,” Marice immediately began but was cut short by Laiserta's bitter laughter.

“Kid, you aren't sorry now, but you will be,” she started, scoffing darkly.

“What's going on?” Armada cut in. She had her back to Laiserta and sat next to Marice, on the Euphorian's left. Before Marice could begin explaining herself, Armada added, “Those soldiers are Tyrian military. What do they want?”

“They want the flight recorder,” Marice said flatly, her face falling into more serious lines. “They promised more supplies than you. I had to do the best I could,” she swallowed and hesitated. “Everyone here is depending on me. The village needs supplies badly, and I had to try and get the most that I could.”

Trunks begrudgingly understood Marice's position. He would do anything to protect the people of Earth, even if it meant selling out some interstellar bounty hunters. Honestly, Trunks was ready to blast the Bmyhadian ship out of the sky the moment it started descending upon Earth, but his mother had convinced him not to, thank Kami.

“It's okay,” Trunks said softly and turned to look at Marice on his left. Her troubled eyes met his, but she said nothing in response. “I understand why you did it. If I was in your shoes, I would have probably done the same thing,” he added, shooting her a small smile. The anxiety on Marice's face faded slightly and she returned Trunks's smile with one of her own.

“Tch, don't be nice to her,” Laiserta complained, bumping Trunks's shoulder with hers. “She got us into this mess.”

“And I'm sure we can get out of it,” Trunks answered, giving Laiserta a knowing glance.

“Do they have it?” Armada asked, changing the conversation. After a quick few seconds of silence, she clarified “The flight recorder.”

Marice nodded and looked at Armada, who sat on her left. “I had already salvaged it myself, but they didn't know that. When I called them to tell them about you, they came back to the village and tied me up. They found it when they searched the house,” she added.

“Then why the hell are they still here?” Laiserta griped, clearly angry.

“Probably because they figured they could get a decent bounty on a few mercenaries,” Trunks answered. Laiserta huffed in response but said nothing.

“How far out of town are they?” Armada asked.

“Far enough,” Laiserta replied. “They left two guys outside the front door of this house, but they're not paying attention to us right now.”

“Then get us out of here,” Armada ordered plainly.

“Yeah yeah,” Laiserta muttered and leaned forward. She easily snapped the handcuffs when she pulled her hands apart behind her back. She stood up and pulled the remnants of the cuffs off of her wrists, and Marice stared at her in shock.

Laiserta quickly got to work and broke apart the handcuffs on Trunks, and then Armada. With her comrades free, Laiserta stood over Marice and glared down at her. Marice stared back, wide-eyed and clearly stunned by what had just happened. She had never seen anyone rip apart metal like Laiserta had just done, and so effortlessly at that. Marice knew that not all outsiders were like Laiserta, but how many more were? What kind of people were living in the universe, and what were they capable of? Marice lost herself in her thoughts for a moment.

“What's the plan?” Trunks asked and looked to Armada.

“We can't take on an entire Tyrian unit right now, so we need to go back to the ship,” Armada responded. She turned to Laiserta. “Lai, cut her loose,” Armada ordered, motioning toward Marice with her head.

Laiserta grumbled something that Trunks couldn't hear before she reached down and pulled the young Euphorian woman to her feet. Marice was snapped out of her daze as Laiserta ripped apart the handcuffs on her wrists. Marice rubbed at her wrists in surprise before looking back up at the three mercenaries standing before her.

“If you don't want to be left here for your Tyrian friends, you'll make yourself useful to us,” Armada barked out. “Understand?” Marice nodded vigorously. Armada turned her attention to Laiserta once more. “Lai,” she started.

“Yeah, I got it,” Laiserta said, rolling her shoulders as she headed for the door. The rest followed behind her as she casually strolled out into the front room and made her way to the entry of the house. She suddenly stopped short. “Wait a second,” she said lowly to herself and turned to her left. There was an old chest on the ground, and she walked over to it. Flinging open the lid, Laiserta revealed the weapons that had been confiscated from the group. She reached in and pulled out Trunks's sword, quickly tossing it to him.

Marice walked over and looked down in the chest as Laiserta picked up both of her pistols and holstered them. The Euphorian reached in and pulled out her two black sai, studying them for a moment. “Hey kid,” Laiserta addressed her, drawing Marice's attention. Laiserta was sliding the black pole she carried into the back of her trench coat when Marice looked up. “You coming?”

“Yeah,” Marice replied and nodded, quickly sliding her sai into place on the back of the over-sized leather belt she wore.

The Taydran turned away from her and walked straight toward the front door. Laiserta raised a foot and kicked the door, sending it flying off its hinges. The door flew out and slammed into one of the Tyrian soldiers left behind to watch the prisoners, who fell to the ground under the weight of the wooden door. The other soldier turned and shouted, but he was too late; Laiserta already had a pistol raised and shot him once in the left shoulder and twice in the left thigh. He dropped his weapon and fell to the ground, groaning in pain while holding onto the wounds in his leg.

Laiserta casually strolled up to the soldier under the door, and put three bullets into him as well. He stopped struggling underneath the busted wooden door on top of him, and Laiserta kicked it off. Just like the other soldier, she shot him in the shoulder and leg. She reached down and grabbed him by the collar of his uniform, and dragged him over to his comrade.

She dropped him to the ground next to the other soldier and looked at Marice. Marice did nothing but stare back at Laiserta, and after a moment the Taydran woman scowled. “Well tie them up already!” she shouted.

Marice jolted into action and ran over to the wounded soldiers. She didn't appear to know what to do, so Trunks walked over to help her. He pulled a set of handcuffs from one of the soldiers' packs and showed Marice how to secure their hands behind their backs.

With that accomplished, Laiserta picked up the assault rifle that the soldier hit by the door had dropped on the ground. She turned to Armada and tossed the weapon to her, her comrade catching it with ease. “Wonder boy, grab his gun,” Laiserta called out to Trunks. Trunks glanced up at Laiserta and Armada before picking up the remaining assault rifle that laid on the ground next to the two wounded soldiers. “I hope you know how to use that,” Laiserta added with a smirk.

Before Trunks could reply to his comrade's quip, the sound of voices approaching drew everyone's attention. A group of soldiers emerged from behind several tents across the village. “Everyone get down!” Armada shouted, and the mercenaries ran for cover.

Trunks ran over to a low, crumbling concrete wall and dropped to his knees behind it. A second later, Marice ducked behind him. Armada dropped not far from where she stood, taking a position behind the well in the center of town. Laiserta had moved away from the others and stood behind a makeshift wooden wall that was part of a shack across from the well.

The Tyrian soldiers heard the shouting and started running toward the mercenaries. Before they realized what was happening, Armada peeked her upper body out of cover and started firing on the soldiers with the stolen assault rifle. Using short bursts, she took out five soldiers in quick succession before she dove back down behind the well. The remaining soldiers fired at her, peppering the well with bullet holes as bits of stone debris chipped off into the air.

With her comrade drawing their enemies' attention, Laiserta took the opportunity to attack. She stepped out halfway from behind the wall of the shack and started firing with just one pistol in one hand. She quickly downed the rest of the group with well-placed shots in their shoulders, causing them to drop their weapons. With all eleven of the soldiers injured, Laiserta ran over to the group and started kicking their weapons away from their bodies.

The rest of the mercenaries joined her, and within a few minutes they had all of the soldiers handcuffed and tied up together in a group, sitting on the busted asphalt in the center of the village. Trunks looked up from the soldiers back to his comrades, first at Laiserta and then Armada. “Now what?” he asked.

Armada knelt down next to one of the soldiers with a curious look on her face. After searching him for a few moments, she finally found what she was looking for – his radio. She pulled the small device out of his front uniform pocket and stood up while holding it. “Your soldiers are wounded and have been captured. If you want them back alive, return to the village with the flight recorder. We'll exchange your men for the device,” Armada said without hesitation into the radio. Everyone was silent for a few moments while they awaited the reply on the radio. Several tense seconds later, the reply came.

“We will return to the village now and bring the unit with us,” a deep male voice responded.

Armada's hand holding the radio dropped away from her face. She turned toward her comrades and immediately issued orders. “Laiserta, get eyes on them as soon as you can so we know where they're approaching from. Trunks,” she turned toward the Earthling and motioned for him to approach her.

Trunks did as instructed, and Marice tailed behind him. When he approached Armada, she finished hooking the radio onto her belt, and then lifted up the assault rifle that was hanging by the strap across her shoulders. “Do you know how to fire a weapon?” she asked him flatly.

“Yes,” Trunks answered without hesitation. When he was fairly young, his mother had taught him how to shoot a rifle. It wasn't going to help against the androids, and Bulma knew that. It had more to do with looters who tried to rob their home in West City on a regular basis.

Whether Armada believed him or not, she held up the assault rifle with the butt of the gun against the inside of her right shoulder. “Hold it up against your chest to stabilize your shots,” she instructed, “and always use both hands. When you aim, keep both eyes open. And fire in short bursts to minimize the re-targeting you'll have to do to compensate for recoil.”

Trunks nodded in response, and Armada's eyes drifted to his right. He followed her gaze to see her looking at Marice, who stood a few feet away from him. “Same goes for you,” Armada said, lowering the rifle from a firing position. “Go grab one of their guns, and I'll get you set into position,” she ordered. Marice nodded before running off toward the captured soldiers.

-+-

Captain Kozuki had his men stop their vehicles short of the village. He knew he was dealing with several skilled mercenaries, and he wanted his men to head in on foot, enabling them to listen to their surroundings better. As they approached the village, everyone had their weapons drawn. Kozuki knew they wouldn't have the ability to really approach from multiple directions, and thus his men moved in one group.

Upon entering the village proper, the soldiers could easily see their comrades bound and gagged in the center of the ruined town. Despite the urge to rush forward, Kozuki signaled his men to continue their slow approach. The Tyrian soldiers followed orders and maintained a controlled and careful approach. Once they reached their comrades, one of the mercenaries rose from a position behind a low concrete barrier across from them.

Armada stood up with her weapon drawn and pointed at the soldiers in front of her. They trained their weapons on her but didn't fire. “Do you have the flight recorder?” Armada asked, completely calm despite fourteen assault rifles aimed at her.

“I have it,” Captain Kozuki spoke up. “And you'll be leaving now, without it, unless you wish to die today,” he added. This wasn't a mission that required bloodshed, but he wasn't afraid to take down a target that had fired on his men.

“I don't think so,” Armada replied. Before any of the soldiers could respond, a recognizable 'click' coming from behind them drew their attention. Several soldiers turned to see that the other three prisoners were behind them with their own Tyrian assault rifles aimed at the group.

Kozuki could have ordered his men to attack, but the resulting loss of life would be something he wasn't sure he could live with over a flight recorder that would create an embarrassment for his nation, but wouldn't kill anyone. “Stand down,” he said, lowering his weapon and raising his hands above his head. His men followed suit with a few slight grumbles under their breath, but he knew that they knew that he was right.

Laiserta laughed. “And here I thought you Tyrians were supposed to be geniuses when it came to warfare,” she said in a jovial, but mocking tone. She shot a smirk to Trunks and Marice, off to her right as they kept their weapons aimed at the soldiers.

The captain of the Tyrian squad approached Armada and handed over the flight recorder, a small metal box with some writing on the outside. Once she had it in hand and confirmed that it was indeed what they had traveled to Euphoria for, Armada nodded to her comrades. Keeping their weapons focused on the Tyrians, they made they way over to Armada.

“We'll be leaving now,” Armada said to the Tyrian squad leader. “Don't try to follow us,” she said with a warning tone.

“Yeah,” Laiserta laughed, “I can see you approaching from a few kilometers away, so don't try it.” She shrugged, showing off the two assault rifles she held – one in each hand. “You'd be surprised how far away I can nail a shot with one of these things.”

The mercenaries then slowly started to make their way out of the village, walking backwards to keep an eye on the soldiers they were leaving behind. The captain said something to his men; Trunks couldn't hear it as they were starting to get out of earshot. The soldiers then knelt down next to their injured and bound comrades, working to free them from their restraints. It seemed that Armada's plan was working.

Once the mercenaries were back into the cover of the jungle, they turned and started walking normally. Laiserta kept glancing back to make sure the Tyrians weren't following them, and they made no moves to indicate they planned to. Trunks glanced at Marice, who walked along with them, and wondered what she would do. Would she wait for the soldiers to leave before heading back? She wouldn't have the flight recorder, but would they stay to exact revenge on her? His heart was heavy with worry for the young woman, and the feeling only grew worse the farther they moved away from the village.

Finally the group made it back to the small clearing where Armada had landed the ship. Laiserta glanced back one last time toward the village. “Yeah, they're not following,” she said, the two Tyrian weapons hanging from her left shoulder banging together as she walked. “We're good to go.”

Heading toward the rear of the ship, Armada pulled the Tyrian radio from her belt and dropped it on the ground before stomping on it with her foot, breaking the device apart. She then pulled a small silver remote from her belt and pressed a button, causing the cargo bay to open and start lowering a ramp down to the ground.

Marice stopped short as the mercenaries kept walking toward the back of the ship, preparing to embark once the ramp lowered to the ground completely. Marice let out a long, shaky breath, and clenched her hands at her sides. She knew it was now or never, and with the opportunity in front of her, she knew she would never get it again. Which meant that she had to act now.

“Wait!”

Just as they had started walking up the ramp into the ship, Trunks and his comrades turned to the Euphorian woman who had shouted at them. Marice ran forward, closing some distance between herself and the others but not daring to put a foot onto the ship itself. “Take me with you!” she pleaded, her eyebrows pulled together in concern over her light blue eyes. Eyes that were full of determination and reminded him of eyes he had seen in the mirror on Earth during some of the darkest days of the androids' reign over the Earth.

“Hah! You've gotta be kidding,” Laiserta shouted back, clearly enjoying the situation. “What the hell would we need you for?”

“I'll do whatever you want; please!” Marice pleaded. “Just don't leave me here!”

Trunks felt awful. He knew this wasn't going to go well. Just as Laiserta had said, what would they need Marice for? At least, that wasn't how he would think of it, but he knew Armada would. Taking on Laiserta made sense, as she was a well known mercenary who had abilities to assist them. But Marice? Trunks wished he was already inside the ship and didn't have to watch this exchange happen, because it broke his heart.

“Do you realize what you're asking?”

Trunks was broken out of his thoughts by Armada's voice. He turned to look back up at her, as she was farther up the ramp than the rest of them. He was surprised by what he saw, though. Something about her expression was odd... he wasn't sure he could place it, but she wasn't angry or stern.

Marice took another step forward, her foot landing on the bottom of the ramp. “I don't want to stay here. Euphoria is a dead world,” she began. “Nobody here wants to help themselves or try to make things better. Some people won't even make any effort to feed themselves! I've tried to do the best I could, but I don't want to be dragged into an early grave here. Please...” she paused a moment. “Anything has to better than this.” Marice stared up at Armada, her face guarded but hopeful that something would reach through.

Trunks and Laiserta both turned to Armada, assuming it was her turn to speak. Armada's face appeared as stony as usual, but Trunks caught a glimpse of something there, in her eyes, that told him a different story. She seemed to empathize with Marice. Perhaps the Euphorian's words had reached her.

“We'll take you with us,” Armada finally replied. “But you're getting dropped off at the first refugee camp we come across,” she added before turning away from Marice and walking up into the ship.

Trunks turned back to Marice, who beamed with a wide smile across her face. She had her hands clenched into fists in front of herself, and she looked ready to jump in celebration. Her eyes met Trunks's, and he smiled brightly back at her in return. He didn't know what it was about her, but Trunks felt like he needed to look out for Marice. Knowing that she would get a chance at life off of Euphoria lifted his spirits in a way that he'd desperately needed since Quarry's murder. Marice ran up the ramp toward Trunks, and the demi-Saiyan glanced at Laiserta as she walked past him. She tried to hide it, but she had a small smile on her face as well.

Marice ran up to Trunks and pulled him into a tight hug, catching the Earthling off-guard. Marice's grip was stronger than Trunks thought it would be, and she knocked a little of the wind out of him. Marice released him and stepped back, her face turning red. “Um, sorry,” she said sheepishly, realizing she'd gone too far when she grabbed him like that.

Trunks laughed at her embarrassment. “It's okay,” he said with a smile. “Let's go,” he said, turning and heading into the ship. Marice happily followed behind him, nervous and excited about the new life ahead of her.

-+-

That's it for today's chapter! Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated; you have no idea how much it makes my day when someone leaves a review. Thanks for reading.

-Silvia