"I'm confused, you guys thought I was giving you these suits so you could go and open a little metal door, glance inside it, and then come and tell me what you see?"

We continued to stare at her for a few seconds before Astra nodded slowly. Tempest snorted "If I wanted to know what was in it so badly I would just get Deimos to rip it out of the ground and bring its remains," She raised an eyebrow "Of course, you were going to get into the dome!"

"I didn't sign up for that," I told her honestly, "I'm tired, haven't eaten in hours, and because of this?" I held up my wrist "Weak. I was barely in the right shape to walk here much less infiltrate a hostile alien settlement."

"I wouldn't ask you to do it if I didn't believe you could," Tempest assured us. Astra frowned.

"If it's so easy why haven't you done it?'

It's like she'd stolen the words right out of my mouth. Tempest was bold, far from helpless, and was armed with a pet that looked like it devoured planets as it was past time. If all her people were like her then it was a wonder they'd been killed off in the first place.

So it either there was something she wasn't telling us or she was-

"You're scared," Astra blurted, her eyes softening. "Don't even try to deny it, it's written all over your face. That's why you live like this and haven't made an attempt to take your home back, settling for making their lives slightly difficult. You're petrified of them."

"I would be stupid not to," Tempest said, hanging her head "And you would be too. You-" She let out a breath "You have no idea what they can do, what I have seen them do."

Astra opened her mouth but closed it sharply. "So you'd rather risk our lives then?" I asked her, feeling less sorry for her by the minute "We just look like the perfect test dummies to you?"

Tempest shrugged "It's not like you have a choice," She tilted her head "You hope to leave this place, don't you? See your families again? Unfortunately for you, your freedom lies in the walls of that dome. And I'm not going into it."

"And that's the plan?" Astra was now looking at me "We're just going to risk our lives for the small chance we can pull this off?"

I kept my eyes on Tempest, her feathers still pointed at the sky defensively "Do you have a better idea?"

Astra put her head in her hands "I'm going to die."

"No curly, you're getting off this planet," Tempest promised, her eyes glancing at her before connecting back with mine "We all are."

"I'm not comforted by empty promises," I said, turning my eyes to the dome before us "And I don't like this plan and I don't like that it's the only one we have and I don't like her," I gestured to Astra with a nod of my head "But, I cannot die on this planet."

She nodded "I will not either."

"The suits I've given to you are from a set which means we can communicate via our helmets, privately," She pointed to the buttons that lined my forearm "I'll be talking to Sol back on forth, Astra's communicator is damaged so once we get too far I won't be able to talk to her," She ran her fingertip over the only black button "This one will mute you, under no circumstances and I mean none are you to press it, do you hear me Sol?" My wandering eyes met hers again "If we cannot communicate we have nothing. If we have nothing, we are already dead."

"Way to cheer us on Tempest," Astra grumbled tucking her hair into her little head sock.

"I don't want you to be confident, I want you to stay alive," She deadpanned.

"These humans, do they have weaknesses?" I asked.

"They're weak creatures, they would be harmless if not for their weapons," Her dark eyes rolled back "But I must warn you, they are a lot."

"Like a lot to handle or a lot of people," Her eyes told me the answer "How many?"

"Millions."

"Millions?" Astra sounded confused.

"How on Mars are millions of people fitting in there?" I muttered.

"In theory, they should've been simple to beat but they are just," She rubbed the bridge of her nose "So many of them, like vermin, pests. Easy to find, harder to get to leave."

"So get the guns away from them, sounds simple enough," I corrected myself "Considering we're only taking down two people."

I looked at Astra, her little head sock and her sling, and sighed "I mean considering I only have to take down two people," Her pale cheeks glowed as she gave me a sheepish smile.

"Please make sure she doesn't die Sol."

It had been a few hours now and we were waiting for them to show up a second time. I wanted to mention to Tempest that this was hours after she insisted they tend to come out but decided against it after seeing how nervous she seemed about the whole ordeal. Astra had gone to sleep hours ago, I hadn't mentioned that to Tempest either.

She jumped to her feet as soon as the door opened and familiar dressed people walked out of it. "Okay this is your-" Her eyes fell on a snoring Astra and the words died in her throat. When she moved to wake her up I stopped her.

"Let her rest, there's always tomorrow," I leaned back into the sand, stretching my feet out a bit.

Tempest slowly sank back to the ground "Yeah I guess there is." Her eyes ran over Astra before looking at me. "You never mentioned how you two met."

I watched the humans open up their little latched door, they were dressed differently this time. They had things strapped to their back, weapons probably, but why now? "You never asked," I shrugged. "It's not like it's anything to make a book about anyway, I've known her for probably only a few hours more than I've known you."

I felt her eyes fall on our wrists "And you are criminals?"

"Something like that."

"She looks nothing like any alien I've researched," Tempest commented lowly. "Has another civilization popped up?"

"I would be the wrong person to ask, But," I glanced at Astra and her strange features "I have a feeling she's not anything we could guess."

"You've not asked?" She cleared her throat, "I mean you're not even slightly curious?"

I shook my head "She'll tell me if she needs to. It's not important as of now," The humans disappeared back into their dome once more "She's running from something, that's all I know."

"And are you?"

I picked the sand out of my fingertips "All that I have ever run from has caught me."

"Yeah that tends to happen," She muttered softly "We're going to make it though, I can feel it."

"What are we risking by getting caught?" The evening wind shook her feathers as it passed, or maybe she shivered, I wasn't sure. "Surely you can't just be afraid of death."

"There are fates worse than death," She agreed "The humans killed no one but those they had to, the rest of us were just thrown into empty white rooms," Her hand touched her wrist gingerly, grazing her knuckles over the indents in her flesh where her feathers were scarce as if having been rubbed off from tight binding "We went from their enemies to their greatest fascination."

My eyes ran over the slight skin that was showing on her neck. The silver lining from the suit neckline reflected onto her flesh making it easier to see the scattered dots all over her, scars, some had a slight concave as if caused by tugged skin but the others were much more sinister.

Noticing where I was looking her hand shot out to cover the marks. "Most of us were plucked, not completely but just enough so they could stick their needles in us without having to pull our feathers back," Slowly her hand fell back to her side "They wanted to know everything about us and they certainly weren't in the mood for asking."

"Forgive me for being in such disbelief of your circumstances," I shook my head "I just thought we were well past a time of conquering planets, that's what that Council was made for...um the," I snapped my fingers, failing to recall its name.

"The Council of Protection for all Sentient Life," She grumbled.

"Yes! That one," I squinted my eyes "I think it was brought together when I was just a child, it has some of the strongest life forms we're aware of."

It was created in necessity because of the Ocleon's little hobby of invading peaceful planets 'in the name of research' and leaving it in pieces once they had what they needed. It took many people to not only stop them but even a couple of Releteurs to convince them to keep the peace.

But I couldn't put all the blame in the hands of the smart bastards, the Qinacs had a few colonized planets under our belts, and then again...At least the Ocleons eventually let theirs go.

"Yes it does," She agreed, "We became known to them only a few years before we were invaded so I guess we just weren't worth helping," She said, an empty acceptance in her voice.

"They will get what they deserve."

"I thought you weren't fond of stupid promises," She yawned and shifted resting her head on my arm "Don't hold your breath, I've been waiting on it for years."

"Well, maybe it's time to stop waiting."

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