Chapter Text
“Is everyone alright?”
That was Dan Heng’s voice, echoing off the crumbled metal and splintered wood of the crashed express car. He’d pulled himself free of the wreckage, once the dust had begun to settle, and began searching through it to find his companions. They’d all been fairly close to one another when the small planet’s gravity field had dragged their car into its orbit and flung it toward the surface, but the rough landing, putting it lightly, had ended up tossing the four of them around the car before the crash.
March 7th was the first to be found, and Dan Heng used his spear to pry away the bit of metal that had trapped her leg and twisted her ankle in the crash, but she assured him that the swelling would go down in an instant with the help of her six-phased ice. Caelus and Sunday had both been flung toward the back, and despite Sunday’s attempts to hold onto Caelus with the golden vines he conjured, he’d still ended up hitting his head on the roof of the car, just hard enough that he didn’t quite lose consciousness. Sunday himself didn’t seem too beaten up, aside from a bit of pain and a tingling sensation in his neck, and a faint ringing in his ears— and, of course, the bruises that all four were practically covered with.
“Well, Sunday, at least you can’t say your first Trailblazing expedition wasn’t exciting,” March 7th pointed out, wincing a little as she tried to put weight on her injured ankle, then decided against it.
Sunday released a slight, awkward laugh, reaching up to rub at his neck and immediately flinched at the soreness, his wings folding in tightly. “Perhaps a little too exciting, Miss March.”
Plumes of smoke were still rising up from the car, which seemed like it might burst into flames at any moment, so once all four had gotten free from the wreckage they climbed out of the car’s battered skeleton and tried to put some distance between them.
That was when they realized that they’d landed in what seemed to be a massive crater, with sheer walls stretching up high above their heads.
“Be careful,” Dan Heng’s voice had dropped to a whisper. “They’re watching us.”
“They?” Caelus asked, then he looked up. His face turned a little paler, making the blood running down his forehead look all the more garish. “Oh. Them.”
Along the edge of the crater, several dozen pairs of glowing eyes could be seen through the smoke and the gloom.
“Do you know anything about this world’s native inhabitants?” Sunday asked Dan Heng, who shook his head.
“This planet was cataloged in the Express’ data banks many centuries ago, but it was an uninhabited world back then. As for who sent that distress call, and whether or not they’re the same as these people here…”
Sunday briefly closed his eyes, reaching out with tendrils of the Harmony toward the strangers— but before he could brush up against their consciousnesses, he felt a sharp, stinging pain in the back of his neck, a loud ringing in his ears as colors flashed behind his eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Dan Heng asked as Sunday grit his teeth, pressing a hand against his brow.
“It’s nothing,” Sunday replied, shaking his head— but that just made it hurt more. “I couldn’t quite reach them, but I doubt they’re the ones who sent out that call. There’s far too much hostility.”
“Mn,” Dan Heng nodded. “I agree.”
“So, what do we do now?” March 7th asked. She’d taken out her bow now and was holding it tightly, staring up into the haze of smoke and fog above, waiting for any sign of movement from the ones watching them.
“We wait,” Dan Heng replied. “Our position may not be ideal if they decide to attack, but there’s not much we can do about that. We’ll have to see which of the supplies we brought survived the crash once the smoke has stopped rising. If the car does end up catching fire, I can put it out with my Cloudhymn, so we shouldn’t need to worry about that.”
Then, he turned to Caelus, brow furrowed deeply as he reached out to wipe the blood away from the grey-haired young man’s face.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” he asked.
Caelus reached up to take hold of Dan Heng’s hand, trying to give him a reassuring smile. “I’m sure,” he said, “I just got a cut, and head injuries bleed a lot. I feel fine.”
Dan Heng didn’t seem entirely convinced. Still, he wasn’t going to press the issue, and Caelus was walking just fine, and talking without slurring his speech… maybe he was alright.
“March, once your ankle is a bit better, please help Caelus and Sunday with their injuries as well,” he said. “And keep watch on the ones above us. For now, I’ll go back and see what can be salvaged— be sure to call out to me if anything changes.”
The glowing-eyed creatures that had surrounded the crater didn’t make any move, however— but they also didn’t relent in their close watch over the stranded Trailblazers even as Dan Heng pulled a few panels loose from the wreckage and used them to create a makeshift shelter. Most of the food and medical supplies, as well, were undamaged, so they’d be able to last a while under siege if necessary.
Once they’d made camp, Dan Heng attempted to contact Welt and Himeko to inform them of what had happened, but the gravity storms in the planet’s atmosphere that had caused their car to crash also seemed to be interfering with communication signals. If nothing else, it explained why the distress signal was so intermittent and faint, and why the space anchors didn’t seem to be working… and it also meant that for now at least, until the gravity storms in the atmosphere let up, they were on their own.
Hostile though the ones looking down on them might be, they at least seemed to be relatively cautious. Even two days later, they hadn’t left the edge of the crater. The Trailblazers stayed in their makeshift shelter as a thin rain began to fall— a good choice, considering the way the rain seemed to sizzle a bit as it hit the metal panel stretched over their heads. The Trailblaze would allow them to go for many days without sleep, so even though they were surrounded, they were able to keep watch on all sides, rotating out every few hours to keep their senses sharp and their minds alert, each taking turns resting under the shelter— though never fully going to sleep, since by this point any one of them who drifted off would prove very difficult to wake.
Dan Heng took a moment to wrap Caelus’ head in a bandage, despite the latter’s insistence that he was fine, and Sunday shivered as March 7th, on her feet again despite Dan Heng’s admonishment, held an ice pack to the back of his sore neck. By the second night, they were all fussing over one another in between keeping watch, and fortunately, most of the bruises had started to fade, cuts had healed over, and even the more serious injuries of Sunday and March 7th’s sprained neck and ankle seemed to have improved.
Though they were trying to make the best of the situation, it was perfectly clear that all of them were on edge. The ever-present glowing eyes through the rain above them were a constant reminder of the precariousness of the situation. Twice more, Sunday had attempted to use Tuning to either drive the watchers away or make them more amenable to reason and negotiation, but each attempt only caused him to recoil in discomfort again. Either it was his injury affecting his Tuning abilities, or the creatures watching them were of a species resistant to the Harmony’s powers.
“Apologies,” Sunday whispered, a bit breathlessly, after his third attempt failed. “It seems I won’t be of much use after all.”
“Don’t say that!” March 7th insisted, but then, she paused, her gaze lifting up toward the roof of the shelter. “Uh… guys? We might have to find another shelter.”
The others looked up as well.
The seams of the panel had turned dark, and a few drops of sizzling rain were falling through once every few seconds. It seemed that the rain had begun to eat through their roof— and since it had been coming down harder for the past few hours, the little raised area in the crater upon which they’d built their makeshift shelter had turned into an island, surrounded by dark grey, foaming water.
“What should we do now?” Caelus asked.
There was no telling what that rain would do to their bodies, whether it would burn them, or if it was simply toxic, or even if it was harmless— no one had visited this planet for a thousand years, after all, and it had changed a great deal in that time. Dan Heng couldn’t recall any mention of toxic rains.
“March, can you freeze the surface of the water?” he suggested. “There’s an overhang on the side of the crater furthest away from the express car. We should be safe from the rainfall there, if we can reach it.”
March 7th nodded, and within moments, a sheet of six-phased ice spread out around their little shelter.
“There, how’s that?”
Dan Heng nodded, and took a breath, exhaling before summoning forth a current of water and weaving it into a canopy over March 7th’s ice, catching the falling raindrops. “Everyone else, hurry and cross over. I’ll stay here to maintain the barrier, then once you’ve reached the other side, I’ll follow you.”
The other three did as he said, Caelus looking over his shoulder at Dan Heng, who stood with a hand outstretched, focused intently on maintaining the canopy of water that protected them from the acid rain. Once they were all safely on the ledge above the water level at the side of the crater, Dan Heng also stepped forward onto the ice bridge, allowing the water canopy to fall down behind him as he went.
During the crossing, though, a rumbling rose up from the crater walls, quiet at first, but slowly growing louder.
“Look out!” March 7th shouted.
The six-phased ice cracked beneath Dan Heng’s feet.
A torrential rush of frothing, grey-black water poured into the crater as Dan Heng kicked up off the ground. Sunday caught hold of him with a golden vine just in time to pull him over to the ledge, and then all four clung tightly against the wall as the waters rose up, hungrily slashing and gurgling as they swirled around, lapping menacingly toward their feet.
Just when it seemed like the water level was going to rise high enough to break over the ledge, the flash-flood that had rushed over the side of the crater and created a momentary breach in the ring of creatures monitoring them came to an end, leaving them once more on an island, but this time pressed up against the wall.
The four of them caught their breath, in various stages of panting and sighing in relief. Dan Heng held up his arm, wincing as he saw a few red spots forming where the falling raindrops had hit as he was pulled to safety, eating through his clothes and burning his skin. It didn’t seem all that bad, though— no different than the usual acid rain he’d seen before. Unpleasant, but hardly deadly in these amounts.
“If the rain continues falling like this, the water levels will rise,” Sunday pointed out, his hand resting on the back of his neck, his expression taut from pain. It was still bothering him, and now the majority of their medical supplies had been drowned beneath the toxic waters. Even if Dan Heng could use the Cloudhymn on such an impure body of water, there was no guarantee that anything would even be left.
That went for their food supply as well.
“We’ll have to climb to the top,” he said, at last. “Even if those creatures up there are enemies, we may simply have to fight them. Sunday is right— we can’t stay here.”
“We should look for a space anchor,” March 7th suggested. “If we can find out why they’re not working, then we might be able to fix them and get back in contact with Welt and Himeko.”
“And we still need to look for the stranded spacers who sent out that distress call,” Caelus pointed out.
“So, it’s settled, then,” Dan Heng nodded. “There’s not much we can do about the rain, but between the trees overhead and the curvature of the cliff, we should be shielded from the worst of it.”
Before they could begin the climb upward, though, the tide shifted once more. The creatures that had spent the last several days without making a single move, just watching them with those eerie glowing eyes, finally began to descend the cliffs. They came all at once, a massive horde of dark green, chitin-covered figures charging down the cliffs as if it was level ground, rushing in on all sides, even descending fr above the Trailblazers’ heads.
They’d not merely been cautious— they’d merely been biding their time. All along while the acid rain fell, while the four of them grew weary from vigilance and lack of sleep, the insectoid creatures had been watching them and waiting for their guard to falter. When the flood had rushed in and forced them out of their shelter, the sudden, intense danger had taken a toll on both their mental states and their still-healing injuries from the crash.
The creatures had taken the opportunity to strike when they were weak, relying on cunning along with sheer numbers— and the Trailblazers were pinned against a wall.
They were utterly unbothered by the acid rain, darting across it as the semi-transparent wings that sprang from their backs fluttered, allowing their clawed feet to remain above the surface. March 7th took out her bow and drew back the string, sending a rain of icy arrows out into the attacking horde, but even firing as quickly as she could she only took down a small portion of the attackers. Caelus and Dan Heng beat focused on beating back the ones that had reached close range, and though Sunday attempted to weave the Harmony to their benefit, he found his efforts thwarted once more by that ceaseless ringing in his ears.
This time, though, the ringing spread outward, affecting his companions as well and briefly staggering them. The swarming creatures who had begun to fall back under their fierce defense turned as one to press the assault anew. They fell again and again under Cloud-Piercer’s spearhead, disappearing below the murky surface of the water, their bodies piling up— but the attack remained relentless, and after all this time, the four Trailblazers were beginning to tire. Adding in that high-frequency shriek that seemed to rattle all their minds, it was almost impossible for them to keep their focus and footing.
Night began to descend once more. They were far too vastly outnumbered— no matter how many monsters they felled, more came to take their place, and they continued pouring over the sides of the crater, mindless and fearless. Dan Heng’s jaw was tightly clenched as he fended off another onslaught from the right flank, and he could hear Caelus panting heavily from the other side.
“There are too many of them!” March shouted, unleashing yet another volley of arrows that froze several monsters into a single block of ice. “I don’t know how much longer we can hold on for— Sunday looks like he’s about to pass out.”
The Halovian remained behind the others, having forced himself into resonance with the insectoids’ hive-mind despite the fierce rejection, though he only managed to prevent them from descending from immediately overhead. His face was twisted into a pained expression, and from a brief glance it looked like his nose had started bleeding, but despite his best efforts, the front lines kept advancing.
It was a losing battle.
No matter how they tried, they couldn’t win— but perhaps if Dan Heng were to draw upon that power…
The waves of murky, toxic water rippled nearby as he felt the murmur of the Dragon Heart singing within his blood, destructive instincts whispering in the back of his mind and telling him to let go, to let that ancient power consume him as it had so many of his predecessors, to flood the crater with tumultuous waves and wash their foes away into sea-foam…
“Don’t lose yourself,” Sunday’s voice echoed through his mind, and he opened his eyes again, catching sight of his companions fighting alongside him, and pushing aside those whispers once more.
“Dan Heng— something’s changed!” Caelus shouted, then, and indeed, for the first time since the assault began, the monsters let up their attack, drawing back across the choppy waters, creating a clear pathway to the other side of the crater.
At last, breathless and exhausted, the four of them were able to relax their defense, lifting their heads to watch as a massive, many-legged insect climbed down the cliff wall, a monster riding on its back that looked similar to the drones that had endlessly attacked and fallen under their blades, but twice as large.
“Be ready for anything, we don’t know what they might do now,” Dan Heng panted, still holding his spear at the ready as the ringing in his ears finally faded to something less oppressive. The four of them tried their best to recover, but remained tired, half-frantic, their bodies drenched with sweat and covered in half-healed bruises, small burns from the toxic raindrops, and splatters of greenish-brown blood from the hundreds of monsters that formed an embankment around the ledge upon which they stood.
The larger monster stopped a short distance from them, and March 7th, visibly exhausted, raised her bow once again, catching it in her sight’s.
“Don’t come any closer— or else!” she shouted.
Until now, none of the monsters had spoken a word— but this larger one released a low, chittering chuckle.
“Little outsider, I don’t think you’re in any place to threaten, do you?” it asked, sounding like it came from myriad voices at once. “You must realize by now that there are only four of you, and thousands upon thousands of us. You’ve put up a fierce resistance, and for that I must commend you— but you will never win. Look at you all— you can hardly stand on our own two feet anymore, and even if you keep fighting back, this battle could go on forever. You may not lose, but you certainly will not win. It would be far better, and far less painful, to just surrender now.”
Dan Heng’s eyes narrowed. “You say this,” he challenged, “but what happens if we do surrender?”
“Oh, it’s nothing too terrifying— you’ll simply be brought back with us to the Hive,” the monster replied. “As for what happens there, well, that depends on yourselves. The entirety of this world belongs to the Hive. Visitors from beyond the sky have been rare indeed since we’ve established ourselves— so of course, our Queen would be open to negotiation.”
The four Trailblazers exchanged weary, wary glances.
“May we have a moment to discuss with one another?” Dan Heng asked.
“Naturally,” the monster nodded its grotesque, bug-eyed head.
So, with March 7th still keeping her bow trained upon the apparent leader of the horde, they all gathered around to speak in low whispers.
“I don’t trust them,” Caelus shook his head. “Why would they treat us as guests after we’ve killed so many of theirs?”
“I agree,” Sunday added. “Besides that, their so-called ‘Hive’ seems to share some similarities with the Family… I fear that if we were to go along with them, they may attempt to absorb our consciousnesses somehow.”
March 7th shuddered. “Not this again…” she muttered.
“Still, they’re not wrong,” Dan Heng shook his head. “We could keep fighting, but if their numbers are truly as endless as they say, then we would just remain locked in an endless battle. They know very well that we’re tiring, and our injuries from the crash have yet to fully heal. If they truly intend to treat us as ‘guests,’ then we might be able to recover. Moreover, we must restore contact with the Express and inform them of what’s happening here. That’s not something we can do while locked in an endless battle.”
Silence descended, and the impatience of the Hive could be felt by all of them.
“Perhaps there is a way to buy time, even if they do attempt to absorb our consciousnesses,” Sunday suggested, after a moment. “Caelus has also gained the favor of the Harmony. Between the two of us, we may be able to temporarily establish a bond between us four. Alone, each one of us might be easily dominated— and I cannot guarantee that even all of us will be able to stand against this Hive— but we would have a chance. Having personally witnessed the will of the Trailblaze… I think it would be a fairly good chance.”
“Heh… I guess it’s a good thing we picked you up,” Caelus nodded. “We could give it a try.”
“It’s not like we really have a better choice…” March 7th seemed far less certain, but still agreed.
Dan Heng mulled it over a moment, then gave a short nod of his head. “I agree. We don’t have many options, anyway. All we can do is put our trust in one another.”
“Then,” Sunday glanced briefly over Caelus’ shoulder at the insectoid being sstill watching them, “We’ll forge the bond later on. I doubt they’d attempt anything right away— this one seems to be leading with a pretense of hospitality, so we will probably have at least a few moments without being watched so closely.”
Having come to an agreement, Dan Heng turned back to the monster who was attempting negotiations, and nodded his head. “We’ve decided to accept your offer,” he said, “and we look forward to meeting with your Queen.”
The monster rumbled with satisfaction. “Good choice. Then, allow us to bring you back to the Hive.”
Suddenly, several drones clinging to the walls launched rounds of sticky webbing toward the four of them, capturing them all at once, pinning their arms and weapons to their sides. Taken by surprise, they began to struggle— but it wasn’t long before each one was pierced in the neck by a sharp stinger. Their bodies went limp, muscles giving out almost immediately as venom began to flow through their veins. In a last, desperate effort before losing consciousness completely, Sunday reached out through the Harmony’s strings and caught hold of Caelus’ consciousness, the two of them drawing Dan Heng and March 7th into a hastily-woven web of their own making as the will of the Hive pressed in around them.
And then, everything went dark and silent as the inside of a cocoon.