Starship

The pirates dashed toward their spaceship, leaving the crowd behind. The bystanders quickly recovered and gave chase, their fear pushing them to move faster.

"Get down!" Yuri cried out, spotting one pirate turning to aim his gun at them.

Gunshots rang out. The pirates were firing normal bullets that created gruesome injuries instead of instantly vaporizing their targets.

The crowd froze, their bravery wavering.

"To the mines!" Yuri quickly decided, lifting Tuss onto her back and sprinting toward the mine entrance.

At her instruction, everyone else spun around and rushed toward the mine. As Yuri carried Tuss through the crowd, she was jostled and nearly lost her footing. When she finally regained her balance, she found herself at the end of the line.

The mine entrance was crowded with people. With Tuss on her back, Yuri found it impossible to squeeze through.

"There are insectoids coming," Tuss murmured, his gaze fixated on the sky and the space beyond.

Yuri spun around to see the ugly creatures descending. They varied in size, some as large as mountains, others just the size of human heads. Some had mouthparts oozing with goo, some had sharp teeth and claws, others had wings or numerous legs... Yuri felt overwhelmed and asked out loud, "Do these insectoids have names?"

Given their vast diversity, even if they had names, it would be hard to tell them apart.

"Yes," Tuss answered, accustomed to her lack of understanding. "Only experts who study insectoids bother with their names. We typically group them by rank, from level one to nine. The higher the rank, the stronger the insectoid."

Yuri wanted to ask how these ranks were established, but the harsh smell of the insectoids was getting closer.

As another group descended into the mine, only Yuri and Tuss were left above.

Staring at the insectoid horde less than a hundred meters away, Yuri narrowed her eyes and said quietly, "We're running out of time."

"Put me down," Tuss instructed.

"Quiet," Yuri snapped back. She shoved her way to the mine entrance, still carrying Tuss.

"Why's she trying to get in with the injured guy? The lift just left, you won't—" a man started to protest, but stopped short.

Yuri had grabbed the thick iron cable and was sliding down.

She seemed unbothered by the heated cable as thick as a man's arm, and the fact she had a grown man on her back!

Yuri moved so fast that before Tuss could react, they were already sliding down with the wind whistling past, making it hard to talk.

In no time, Yuri had touched the ground, beating those who had taken the lift.

The insectoids were almost upon them. The man who had complained about Yuri moments before closed his eyes, wrapped his hands in his sleeves, and grasped the iron cable, mimicking Yuri.

Seeing this, the others had no choice but to follow suit.

Faced with the threat of being eaten by insectoids or potentially falling, they chose the latter. It was a risk, but at least it offered a faint glimmer of hope for survival.

Yuri's landing was clumsy, causing Tuss to slip from her back and tumble onto the ground.

Surprised, Yuri quickly spun around and asked, "Are you alright?"

Tuss felt something odd in his nose. He thought, "Shouldn't she be more concerned about her own hands? I've only fallen from a small height, what damage could that have done?"

"I'm okay," Tuss whispered, his eyes locked on her hand.

Yuri held out her hand for him to see, "See? I'm fine."

Besides being dusty, her hand looked perfectly fine. Tuss let out a sigh of relief, but at the same time, he was puzzled about how she managed to glide down a two-hundred-meter iron cable without any injuries.

"Should we look for Zeek first?" Yuri wondered.

Tuss shook his head, "We need to find a safe place to hide first."

Yuri was still worried about Zeek and was about to speak when something landed on her face.

"We need to move," Tuss said, his face suddenly turning white.

This time, he didn't ask Yuri to carry him. He propelled himself forward with his arms. His speed was surprisingly fast, not any slower than an average person.

Yuri followed him, always on the lookout for danger.

Just as she felt a gust of wind about to hit her, she saw Tuss leap forward, his long and strong arm coiling around someone's neck.

"It's you."

Another figure stepped out from a corner, noticing his friend struggling in Tuss's grip. "This is totally misunderstanding, we thought you were pirates," he quickly explained.

Yuri glanced at the strange pair and extended her hand to Tuss. He let go of the man and landed safely on the ground with her assistance.

"The insectoids have taken over the surface, and the pirates have run away," Yuri informed them.

The two men's faces turned pale at the mention of the 'insectoid army'.

Before they could ask for more information, the harsh smell of the insectoids filled the air. They had arrived.

"Run!"

Yuri grabbed Tuss and swung him behind her.

As she started to sprint, the two men fell into line behind her.

In the skies above the planet, the pirate spaceship appeared, only to be surrounded by several Alliance warships. A volley of photon cannons was fired.

"F*ck! Get down now!" a pirate screamed.

"It's too late."

"We're doomed."

The desperate cries of the pirates echoed as they were vaporized by the intense heat.

The smoldering spaceship fell from the sky, landing right in the middle of the insectoid horde.

A thunderous explosion echoed, shaking the earth and scattering debris and body parts.

Yuri stumbled, forced to stop and lean against a wall to stay on her feet. "What just happened up there?" she asked.

"Seems like something blew up," Tuss answered.

"Could the pirates have come back? But why?" Yuri couldn't fathom that the pirates would be so selfless. "Perhaps they couldn't stand to lose the Blue Keystone?"

Shaking her head, she thought how foolish it was to choose wealth over life. The insectoids were far too many for the pirates to deal with.

Regardless, with the pirates distracting the insectoids, their own chances of survival had increased a bit.

On the spaceship hovering above the planet...

"Commander, the pirate spaceship just crashed. Should we head down and check it out?"

"What does the crash site look like?"

Hearing the commander's question, a crew member zoomed in on the holographic map. The images on the ground popped up in front of the boss and the rest of the crew.

"There are insectoids."

"Huh, those things on the ground look like mining gear."

"Pirates doing mining?"

"Commander, do we touch down?"

The tall, confident commander looked deep in thought as he stared at the screen. After a moment, his serious eyebrows knitted together, "There are people still alive in that mine."

The others were surprised and quickly swung the camera over to the mine entrance, just in time to see a horde of insectoids flooding into the mine.

"The pirates probably bumped into these insectoid and freaked out. The ones they left behind must be kidnapped folks from the Alliance."

"How many survivors do you think there are?"

"Should we head down to see?"

"I wonder what they were digging up."

"Maybe it's some sort of rare metal, or maybe that super popular Blue Keystone everyone's been talking about."

"Whoa, your imagination is running wild. That stuff goes for a hundred thousand space bucks a gram."

"You think?"

"....."