Page 3 of Silver Slayer

The planet grew larger with terrifying speed. What had been a distant sphere now filled our entire view. I caught glimpses of vast oceans, sprawling forests in colors too vibrant to be natural, and strange angular formations that might have been mountains or structures. The details rushed at us faster than my mind could process them.

I gritted my teeth, my body tensing. Queen Uri had taught me that pain was just noise. Captivity had taught me that the mind quits long before the body does. I hadn't listened then. I wouldn't listen now.

The landscape below surged upward, lush and alien, rushing to meet us with terrifying speed. I caught a flash of crystalline formations that caught the light of two unfamiliar suns, and then we hit.

The impact slammed me forward against my restraints, then back into my seat with such force that the air exploded from my lungs. Metalloid screamed as it tore. Sparks showeredfrom ruptured panels. The viewport cracked, then shattered completely.

Something slammed against my skull. A white-hot burst of agony erupted behind my eyes as darkness rushed in from the edges of my vision. The last thing I heard was Truxxet shouting unintelligibly before everything went black.

Consciousness crept back in disjointed fragments. First, there was pain, a relentless throb in my head, pulsing in time with my heartbeat. Then, the acrid scent of smoke hit me, mingling with the unmistakable odor of burnt circuitry. A sweet and foreign scent wafted through the air, jarring against my senses. Finally, sounds began to filter in: the hiss of damaged systems, the ping of cooling metalloid, and a low groan that could’ve been Brunnex.

I forced my eyes open, blinking away the blood that had trickled down from a gash on my forehead, the metallic taste in my mouth a grim reminder of where I was. The ship's interior lay in shambles around me, illuminated only by the dim glow of emergency lighting. Brunnex was slumped in his restraints beside me, but I could see the shallow rise and fall of his chest. Truxxet was already moving, hands fumbling with his harness, a testament to the urgency thrumming through us all.

I turned my attention to the front of the ship. Tyrk was conscious, already freeing himself from his pilot's seat. He leaned over Ruze, who lay slumped, blood trickling from a gash above his eye.

"Ruze," Tyrk called, shaking him gently. "Wake up, you stubborn fuck."

Ruze's eyes fluttered open. "Did we... die?"

"Takes more than a crash to kill Nomadicans," Tyrk said. The relief in his voice was unmistakable.

Then he twisted around, and I caught the full vertical cut of his pupils, narrow as a patooga's, sharp with the same predatory focus, as they swept over each of us in turn, lingering on the blood tracking down my forehead. "You three still breathing back there?"

"We're all right," Truxxet answered, his voice rough but steady. "Nothing that won't heal."

With effort, I released my restraints and pushed myself to my feet, fighting a wave of dizziness. My legs trembled but held. I took a step forward, then another, making my way to the shattered viewport.

What I saw through the jagged opening stole what little breath I had left.

We had crashed into a clearing, surrounded by towering vegetation that barely resembled trees. Their trunks spiraled upward like twisted sculptures, covered in what looked like shimmering scales rather than bark, supporting massive canopies of vibrant blues and other colors that felt almost alive. To my right, crystal formations shot up from the ground, catching the distant suns' light and shattering it into patterns of color that danced across the clearing.

The air that flowed through the shattered viewport was thick with a chaotic mix of scents: cloyingly sweet, sharp with spice, and tinged with a metalloid tang. Each breath was an assault on my senses, and through it all, a low, guttural roar echoed from the trees. It was a sound that promised hunger, a definitivestatement that we were trespassers in a land that already belonged to something else.

"Where are we?" Truxxet asked, coming to stand beside me.

I shook my head slowly, careful of my injury. "Worlds away from Valose."

Tyrk joined us, expression dark as a storm cloud. "That anomaly was some kind of tractor beam, pulling us in."

"Pulling us where?" Brunnex croaked, his voice rough as he sat up, still cradling his head in his hands.

"That’s what we need to figure out," Ruze replied quietly, his gaze scanning the unfamiliar surroundings, every bit as tense as the rest of us.

I turned my gaze back to the wrecked ship and the injured Jurigon, the weight of our predicament settling in like a heavy fog. Stranded on an unknown world, but survival? That was a language I spoke fluently.

“Check your weapons,” I commanded, my voice firm, a reflex honed through years of battles and the dark shadows of my captivity. “Secure the perimeter. We need to understand what we’re facing before darkness falls.”

The suns-fall didn’t just bring darkness. It brought whatever had learned to move inside it.

Chapter Two

QUIN

Eight weeks on this planet, and I still bolted upright in the night, heart hammering against my ribs.

The nightmares never fully faded. Those bulbous eyes and clicking mandibles of the creatures who had kept us in cages before Vala orchestrated our rescue. Our escape had lasted only a few hours. Just long enough to taste freedom before our ship lurched sideways, metal screaming as the prismatic distortion swallowed us whole. I could still feel that sickening drop in my gut when gravity abandoned us right before we slammed into this godforsaken rock.

That first night, I had stared up at the aurora-streaked sky and thought we'd found paradise. The dancing lights had painted the heavens in impossible colors, ribbons of emerald and violet twisting between stars I didn't recognize. Lila had said it looked like the Northern Lights on steroids.