Between the Black and Grey (Starlight Brigade AU)

2 - The Figure

"Get us down there."

"Wouldn't it be safer to take our smaller shuttles? There's no way we can avoid so much debris in this craft," pointed out Meouch.

"You're right. Okay, get us out of the thick of the debris at least," Sung agreed.

Meouch nodded, and Sung left the cockpit again as he began to steer the craft away. He quickly radioed Havve and Phobos and told them to meet him down at the shuttle bay, sighing as another piece of debris struck the craft.

He easily navigated the labyrinth of corridors that he knew so well, reaching the shuttle bay to see his crew mates already preparing to take off. Walking inside he gave a grim smile; where they were headed was dangerous, and none of them really knew what was happening down there. He climbed into his shuttle and looked over at Phobos, who gave a thumbs up. Havve mirrored the gesture in his own emotionless, robotic way before snapping his head forward and linking his hands to two sockets in front of him. His eyes glared bright blue as he connected himself to his shuttle, ready to fly.

"Are we clear to go in, Commander?" Sung asked.

"Crystal. Go ahead," came the reply.

Sung nodded over to Phobos, and drew in a deep breath as the bay doors started to fold open. As soon as they were wide enough he gave the signal, and all three of their shuttles took off, jets of neon light streaming behind them.

Darkness surrounded them suddenly, and but for the beacon on the exploding planet ahead they were utterly alone.

"Doctor, what exactly are we looking for?" came Phobos' voice, muffled by the sounds of the shuttle's engine.

"There's a distress signal, but we should be careful. There could be something really dangerous causing all this damage. And judging by the nature of this debris I'm expecting casualties."

As Sung spoke he spotted what looked like the roof of a house floating in the distance, and held his breath. This wasn't just any attack. By the looks of it innocent people's homes were being targeted, and as the Starlight Brigade it was their job to save them. Hopefully they'd seen the danger and evacuated, or they'd have a lot of injured on their hands.

"Alright. I think we should land away from the light, and approach on foot," suggested Phobos.

"I agree; we don't want to damage our shuttles."

"We will be in more danger outside of our shuttles," chimed in Havve's slow tone.

"Yes, but if it gets too dangerous we'll need a way back onto the craft," countered Sung.

He suddenly caught sight of the light again, seeming brighter now as the planet seemed to splinter, clear lines visible on its crust even from this distance. On instinct Sung pushed forward, Havve and Phobos following suite as he increased speed. They plunged into the atmosphere, clouds of dust swallowing them up and obscuring their vision.

Because of the musty air Sung failed to see a mass of rock, and swerved suddenly to avoid it. He cried out to warn his crew mates, and tried to slow down to not crash. His shuttle spun slightly from the momentum of his swerve, however, and before he knew what was happening he was headed for a large pool of murky water. Some kind of marsh.

He pulled up at the last moment, skimming across the water before finally colliding with the edge of the marsh. Luckily it wasn't very deep, so his shuttle didn't submerge completely. A second later he heard the whirring of engines as two other shuttles landed carefully on the land in front of him. Phobos' frame jumped out of one and he sprinted to Sung's shuttle, carefully traversing the marsh to get to him. Sung quickly secured on his air filter over his mouth before Phobos tore open the door to his shuttle. Phobos wasn't entirely human, so he didn't have trouble breathing in the new atmosphere, and of course Havve was a robot and didn't have lungs. In fact, Sung was the only human of their brigade. Phobos held out his hand and pulled Sung out.