"Where am I!?"

Fighting a ma.s.sive migraine Solaris' sight turned blurry and she grabbed her head in pain, accidently hitting some sort of liquid with her hand as she moved it.

"Eh?.. B-blood!"

Looking at the back of her palm Solaris found it to be dried dark red sending her mind into overdrive and focused on her surroundings. She was inside the pressurized compartment of the CAS-7A, that she realized immediately, but how she got there she had difficulty remembering. Her clothing had also changed without her realizing it, instead of the overly restricting and cramped s.p.a.ce suit or way too liberating combo of shorts and a tank top she instead wore some sort of thin synthetic grown that flowed way too freely without the effect of gravity. As she realized that and her face started heating up Solaris looked around for her normal clothing inside the pressurized compartment but them forgot her own embarra.s.sment as she felt the blood drain from her face as she was struck with despair.

"DAX!!?!"

Floating in the center of the cabin what remained of the qiton was swarmed by robotic arms that priced his flesh with unknown purpose. He appeared to have completely lost both his legs and left arm along with numerous wounds on his upper torso, but the most jarring of his wounds was a red black longsword stuck through his chest.

[That sure was a close one.]

"DAX!?"

Looking at his lifeless corpse Solaris was extremely confused when she suddenly heard his voice from all around her.

[I am glad you are awake Solaris, you slept for 35 hours.]

"Please explain what the f.u.c.k is going on!"

[You almost died, and I came closer than I have been to that in a long time.]

With Dax's words as a trigger the memories of the lunar exploration came rus.h.i.+ng back into her mind. The strange station, its upper level and that horrifying creature with the eerie sword not unlike the one stuck in Dax at the moment.

"What happened after I pa.s.sed out?"

Forcefully calming herself down after realizing the current situation Solaris ignored everything that didn't make sense at the moment and focused on filling the blanks in her memories.

[I escaped by blowing up the dome to cover my egress but apparently those creatures are completely immune to explosions, rapid depressurization and anything else that would normally kill any known creature, others than a qiton of course.]

"Qiton's don't really seem that blast proof tough, judging by the current example in front of me."

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Seeing how completely nonchalant Dax kept on being even as he was hooked up to a life support machine Solaris broke into a faint smile as she poked fun at him like it couldn't be helped.

[Oh these wounds are from the creature's attacks, I will wholeheartedly admit I can't stand up to those, not even talking about their seemingly perfect and impenetrable defenses…. Speaking completely honestly there's a part of me that don't believe I made it out of that station alive, a.s.sessing the situation tactically we were utterly and completely outcla.s.sed, nearly wiped out and failed at every objective we set out to do.]

Solaris couldn't completely figure out Dax's tone of voice as he spoke that a.s.sessment, due to him speaking through the CAS-7A's systems but felt a chill spread all over her body as the honest truth she had been avoiding since waking up finally dawned on her.

(I nearly died, we nearly died. Without any way to fight back we were nearly squashed like bugs.)

Solaris had never in her life felt so weak and powerless as she had been when she ran through those eerie halls. A mix of frustration, fear and helplessness slowly crept onto her face as tears started pooling in her eyes, failing to overcome surface tension without the help of gravity.

"Uuuuu.."

Starting a quiet sob Solaris wrapped her wings around herself in a failing effort to calm down be remembering her mother's embrace, but she kept on sinking further and further into the abyss, until she felt a hand gently place itself on her shoulder.

"Eh?"

Confused Solaris unwrapped herself to see something that would undoubtedly burn itself into her mind for the rest of her life. The countless robotic arms that were performing surgery on Dax had moved him towards her, his only remaining arm reached out and placed itself on her crying shoulder as a resolute and warm smile covered his broken face that was filled with gla.s.s and other debri from his injuries.

[But we're still here.]

Even with a sword firmly lodged in his torso and having lost all his flesh and blood limbs while being no longer able to speak for himself Dax rea.s.sured Solaris and wiped the tears from her face.

[This hurts, defeat is like that. But true defeat comes to you the moment you let it define you, so resist the temptation. Screaming, shouting, crying and clawing yourself towards survival is not cowardly, even if it might seem like it. You fought Solaris, you fought and lost, but most importantly you survived, and so did I. We're still here.]

Feeling her mind gradually becoming calm the angel blocked out everything but his voice as she closely wrapped herself around what remained of the qiton and continued to listen for his voice that spoke out all around her and focused on just that and that alone, like a sailor in the middle of a storm desperately navigating by the faint light of the north star.

[We are still alive. If you feel you can't do anything at the moment I want you to solely focus your mind completely on that fact alone.]

Following Dax's words of guidance Solaris slowly felt a small and gentle flame light up inside her, slowly corroding the abyss.

[We might have failed, but so did our enemies. We will grow from this, become more powerful than ever before, and when we face them again they will truly realize the gravity of their error.]

With his words the flame grew larger, more vibrant as it corroded the abyss in her heat, but most importantly it started growing fierce and violent.

[By tooth claw and blood we will regain our position as the strong. We will become stronger to rise and regain our position as rulers, we will dominate our opponents! We might look defeated, but that's merely a bait to invite weakness that now spreads among them! For now we have one target clearly in mind!]

Dax's words resonated deep within Solaris, her former doughts and weakness seemed no more as the fierce, aggressive flame of her heart burst out from inside and completely burned away the abyss within her.

[You finally have the right look on your face Solaris! Normal people don't seem to understand, they see us defeated and beaten, holding looks of pity on their faces but they don't understand! We like it down here! It stimulates our will to fight! To win! To dominate!]

(What the f.u.c.k have I been doing for so long?)

Suddenly everything Solaris had done before in her life seemed so meaningless, the only thing she held in her mind now was the enemy, and how to tear it apart.

[Being on the brink is where people like us operate the best Solaris, you must realize that by now! Welcome to the 125th combined ops...o...b..tal drop troopers! Welcome to h.e.l.l! I hope you find something to sate your will for hunting down here!]