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Falling… spinning… innumerable white lights rotating in all directions. Kira tried to scream but couldn’t find any air. Was this the end? Flexing all of her muscles she found that she had great strength, abnormal strength; more than she could have ever imagined. Gritting her teeth she managed to slow the spin; the blurring lights twisted less quickly and she was able to get some bearings. She could see something below her now, a large blue and green sphere. It floated silently in the ocean of stars and fabulous colors of the nebula behind it. She remembered back to her dream so long ago. Now she understood where she was and why the planet looked familiar. Straining with all of her might, she was able to stop the spin, but she was still falling, and gaining speed by the second. She knew this wasn’t good; she knew that she had failed.
Hopelessness filled her stomach as she watched the large blue-green ball grow larger and larger as she fell towards it. She knew she wouldn’t survive the fall, so she stopped fighting and let go. There was nothing she could do but accept her demise, so she closed her eyes and prayed, Spirits, if you do exist, please don’t let her kill Kaya. She is just a child...
Tears welled in her eyes. First she hadn’t forgiven her father, and now she had failed her sister. It wasn’t fair! She’d done everything she could, but somehow it wasn’t enough. She looked up and saw the Trident floating just behind the cargo ship she’d fallen from. The sight of it did something to her and she knew she couldn’t give up. The hopeless feeling in her stomach turned to rage and anger boiled in every fiber of her being. Somehow there was air again and she was able to find her voice to roar, “NO!! Not like this! I will not let you take her!!!!!”
Remembering her training, she knew the armor would react to her thoughts, as it must have already done. She didn’t know how she had managed to create air, but there was no time to question it. She was falling faster and faster towards Tython’s atmosphere and would soon be feeling the heat from her re-entry. If she didn’t do something the friction from the atmosphere would burn her to a crisp. She closed her eyes and tried to think of a way to protect herself. How did ships enter the atmosphere unharmed? And then she had it. With just a few seconds to spare her armor shifted and morphed around her until it completely encapsulated her, forming a metal barrier.
Just as the armor finished molding its spear-like shape, Kira felt the friction from the atmosphere start to pull against her. After a few seconds the metal around her was so hot she was certain she would be roasted alive, but somehow the armor managed to reduce the heat. Sweating profusely, she tried to keep her senses about her, knowing that once she passed through the upper atmosphere she would still have to worry about how quickly she was falling.
Without warning the heat and friction of the atmosphere came to an end and she could feel the metal around her cooling off as she entered the colder sections of the upper stratosphere. Knowing that she needed to start slowing her descent she closed her eyes again, causing the armor around her to morph back to its original form.
She could see the surface of Tython growing larger and larger as she plummeted towards it, but she had no idea how to slow down. Tython’s ships all had inertial dampeners that allowed them to slow down, but she didn’t think her armor could replicate that. Trying to think, she closed her eyes again searching for something helpful, when an image came to her. It was brilliant! With a bit of a smile she willed her armor to change again.
After a few seconds she opened her eyes and to her great surprise and satisfaction the armor around her arms had become like the wings of a bird, with metal facets forming individual feathers. Looking down at her legs she saw they had also changed, locking her feet together and forming long tail feathers that she could move with her thoughts.
Stretching her arms out she felt the air catch under her metal wings, and start to lift her, slowing her descent. With a wide smile she called out in excitement. She had always wondered what it was like to soar like a bird, and now she knew. Working her arms and flapping the metal wings she found that she had great maneuverability, and started to glide from side to side, flipping and rolling in the air. For a minute she completely forgot that she was plummeting to the planet surface, or how she had been thrown from the shuttle by Aeria.
Coming back to her senses, she realized there was no time for games. If there was any hope of rescuing Kaya, Kira needed to focus. She was still high in the air, but she could start to make out the land below her. She could tell she was soaring over an enormous jungle that stretched as far as she could see. She remembered Master Yu-On talking about the wild lands of the other side of Tython but Kira had no idea they were so huge. Aeria must have thought this would be a good place to dump Kira’s body, as no one was likely to ever come looking for her here.
Gliding lower and lower, Kira was able to make out the individual trees and could see an open field a few hundred yards ahead of her. She knew she was moving too quickly to land directly so she angled her arms in such a way that she started to circle around the field, losing altitude and speed as she did so. A few seconds later she was able to slowly land in the center of the field, her armor changing back to its original shape as she approached the ground.
She breathed a sigh of relief as her feet gently touched the ground, but now what? She was marooned on the opposite side of the planet, with no idea how to get back to Ishkur or the others. She looked around at her surroundings, noting that the dense jungle seemed to be brimming with life. Birds were calling, and there were bugs everywhere. Swatting away some insects that resembled mosquitoes, she remembered something. She still had her holodisk!
Reaching into her armor she fished the device out, and readied herself to call her emergency pod, but stopped before she did. If she called for the pod then a distress beacon would be activated, and if Aeria was still up there she might see it. In fact she might very well be searching for one, just to be certain that Kira wasn’t still alive. Damnit! Kira swore silently. She couldn’t risk trying to communicate with any of the others either for the same reason. Her only option was to use the mapping system to find the right direction to go and make her way on foot.
Opening the map, she searched for the nearest settlement and was disheartened to find that it was nearly a thousand miles away. Even if she could maintain a full sprint, which she knew the jungle wouldn’t allow, it would take her several days to cover that much ground. Time she couldn’t afford to spend, but what other choice did she have?
Shaking her head in disappointment she found the right direction and started heading towards it. The armor gave her great speed, but even with all of its advantages, the terrain she was covering was unfriendly at best and downright perilous at worst. It would be a long trip.