Blue Horizon: Sequel of Eleven

Dreamless Angels

Prologue

Three years ago, in the far depths of space - far beyond the realm of KW1, an astronaut floated through a debris field. She dragged along an umbilical cord attached to her suit that snaked behind her all the way to a large space faring vessel. She activated the thrusters of her pack, propelling her away from the ruined, ichor-stained remains of escape pods that littered the void. As she flew, her visor displayed the coordinates of a distress beacon.

The astronaut followed that beacon to the only mostly-intact escape pod in the field.

"I have a visual of the beacon source." The astronaut reported, hailing the warship, "I'll attempt a rescue."

Her earpiece buzzed with an answer.

'The signal's one and a half system hours old, Moona. The Nousagi's sensors say the pod's hull has been compromised pretty badly too. Whatever KW these pods came from... they don't have shields. I don't think anyone would have survived that.'

The astronaut, Moona Hoshinova, frowned. The message continued, echoing in her helmet.

'Sora-senpai says she wants to prepare the fleet to move on to the next sector, peko. We're very far from home base. The AO's that caused this might still be out there. We have to warp together but they're waiting on me - and you.'

"We still have to check, Pekora-simpai. Please ask Sora-simpai for more time. She'll understand." Moona insisted, "In the meantime, power up my beam cutters, please."

An amused laugh came through the comms.

'Oh Moona. Daring as ever. Alright. I'll see what I can do and trust you, peko. Just don't do anything stupid, okay? The new EVA cable's sturdy, but that's your lifeline out there. If things get bad, I'm reeling you back into the Nousagi.'

"I know, I know." Moona reassured, "This isn't my first EVA... and this isn't my first rescue mission either."

"Alright, peko. Routing power to you now.'

The pack on the back of Moona's space suit started to whir and glow powder blue. She reached to the side, brought out her beam cutters and pointed them at the escape pod's airlock doors.

Then, she pulled the triggers.

FZZZZZZZZZZZTTTT!!!

High-powered cutter beams melted through the alloy hull of the escape pod, but she did not have to cut through much. The already damaged airlock doors opened without a hiss of oxygen and floated off without resistance. Moona retracted her beam cutters and entered the cockpit.

Inside, she found a lone girl who was frosting from the extreme cold of space. Her broken helmet and visor floated beside her. A rebreather mask covered her nose and her mouth, but it was flickering with red warning lights and was already slipping from the girl's face. The girl's blue eyes were unfocused, but they turned towards Moona.

Moona rushed to action.

She launched herself towards the girl and opened a compartment of her space pack, retrieving a brand new, fully-charged rebreather mask. With a brisk tug, she yanked off the girl's old, spent rebreather and placed the new one.

Moona took a deep breath and took off her helmet.

HISSSSSSS!!!

Oxygen spewed out of Moona's helmet and spacesuit and the harsh cold of space bit at her, making her wince. Her starry purple hair flew out and started frosting almost immediately. Despite that, she took her helmet and fitted it as best as she could onto the girl's space suit. Then, Moona took out another rebreather mask and put that on for herself.