Stranded Warriors

3

Z- *Volk is up as soon as the speaker is on, and immediately starts heading to the gun station, without saying a word to Arivil, strapping into the rear station.*

C- Arivil flinched at the sudden loudspeaker, but sighed, quickly hopping off of the top bunk and headed over to the front gun station and strapped in. Both gun stations had a wide view of the field.

The rumbling sound of the engines started, vibrating the ship. "If you aren't in your seats now, I am not liable for any broken noses during take off." Ren's voice came again. It seemed he didn't cut off the radio after that, and some annoyed muttering could be heard under his breath. "*Doesn't take twenty damn minutes to strap in a bloody seatbelt, amateur idiots."*

There was a sudden jerky motion as the ship burst forward, quickly picking up velocity and then it sped into the air. It was a quick takeoff from there, and the ground grew further and further away. The view of the tree-covered cities and tall stony mountains sank away into the distance. "Beautiful takeoff mates. You may hold your applause until we breach the atmosphere. *These Khurdans are bloody unreliable they are..."*

Z- *Volk doesn't react to the announcement, simply staying on the turret, keeping an eye on the surroundings, in case someone tried to creep up on them from behind. The captain was quickly beginning to grind on his nerves, but he made no mention of it.*

C- The ship sped up, meeting a bit of turbulence as it gained altitude and finally broke past the atmosphere. The harsh pressure from their acceleration seemed to lighten up once they were a good distance away from the moon. There was a pale blue veil around the green moon's horizon. Further ahead was the large orange gaseous planet, Igdra. The stars stood out as pinpricks against the dark void of space.

"And we are off! Thank Yahser, or whoever you savages believe in. You may now roam the cabin, as long as you don't come over to pester me while I'm piloting."

Arivil unbuckled from their gun station and stood up and stretched. They moved over to the windows to catch the view of the green moon they had departed from grow further and further away.

Z- *Volk unbuckles and slips out of the station. He grumbles something under his breath, passing by Arivil just long enough for them to catch something along the lines of "self entitled heretic trash" as he heads over to a window a decent distance from everyone else, leaning on the bulkhead and seeming to be looking out the window.*

C- Arivil let out a small chuckle at Volk's mutter. At least they weren't alone in their distaste for the pilot. Ren turned up some obnoxious grinding heavy metal music and nodded his head modestly to it as he piloted.

"Uh, Captain? I don't think your headphones are plugged in." Arivil spoke over the sounds.

"Oh I know. I just considered you could do with some music of culture during our 17 hour trip."

Arivil let out a groan of frustration, rubbing their ears irritably.

"Don't you roll your eyes at me young sir." Ren quipped.

Arivil narrowed their eyes. "I didn't—"

"Eh-eh! No talking back either. You're disturbing the vibe."

Z- *The Captain's maintained demeanor didn't improve Volk's opinion of them. He turns his head to better hear the conversation taking place, and with each moment he wad becoming more and more tempted to shoot the radio, and possibly the pilot for good measure. For now, he resisted, but looking at him you could tell he was tense.*

C- Arivil sighed stiffly. They had a feeling they should've brought their headphones. One glance towards Volk told them things could possibly escalate if Ren kept this up. They really didn't want things to escalate here. Treading silently over to the pilot, they put a hand on his shoulder from behind. They tried to stand in a way that blocked their actions towards the pilot from view. Before Ren could react, he suddenly slumped out of his seat and fell to the floor unconscious. Arivil stepped toward the console and turned off the music, then gently set the pilot aside and took his seat. They glanced down at him with a  lopsided forced frown. "Ah, dang. He fainted. What a bummer..."