Things were... strange. For a few days beforehand. Disruptions with communication. Orlin--the AI that runs... that ran the school had more maintenance routines and lockouts from our media stations than usual.
[ For a few seconds Chyler doesn't say anything, just stares straight ahead. Then, a deep breath. Blinking, her eyes burning already, she tries to find her place again. ]
Sully, Michael Sullivan, he was part of Hastati squad. Incredible with media manipulation. Hacking. He was always into things he shouldn't have been. He pieced together a vid he intercepted in pieces from the Office of Naval Intelligence. It showed Insurrections fighting with Marines, helping each other against... something. We didn't see what. I didn't understand it. I couldn't... I couldn't understand what would make Marines assist the enemy. Why the enemy would want to help.
[ Now she does curl up, shifting her legs out from under her to tuck them up against her chest and wrap one arm around them. She feels lightheaded, not wanting to go back to those memories. They're still so vivid, so flashbulb intense. ]
That night the evacuation sirens started. We were supposed to go to the tether, stay with our squads, wait to be lifted to the station. We saw shock troops start dropping in from orbit, and... Dima didn't want to wait. She cut ahead, got on the lift--
[ Chyler closes her eyes, biting down hard on her lower lip. ] Ships. We'd never seen anything like them before. They blew the tether to pieces. It collapsed on top of us. We lost Dima, Shere, and Kaye, all at once, just like that.
Their weapons-- [ She's getting ahead of herself, but she can feel the start of panic in her heart. She gets up, climbs onto the bed, sits as close to John as she can without touching him. She doesn't let herself think about why. ]
They shot needles at us, while we were running. We were running away, and they just-- kept shooting, green lights and glowing needles and if someone took more than one-- I'd never seen someone blow up before. I'd seen what it looked like after, but I'd never seen it happen. It was like they swallowed bombs.
[ She leans against him, turning her face toward his arm. ]
We hid. The thing that found us was huge. Huge. It stabbed Junjie with some glowing white weapon, lifted him right off his feet and hung him in front of us and laughed. It shot Vickers when he tried to distract it so the rest of us could get away.
[ Chyler leans back and reaches for the pair of chains around her neck, pulling out one set of dog tags. ] His were the only ones I could get.
[ She runs her thumb over the bumps and ridges of Vickers' name, playing the sight of him being shot over and over in her mind. ] A Marine killed it. Saved us. Tried to escort us to an evac point. We were the only survivors they found. The only ones. On the planet. If other people survived, search and rescue couldn't find them. The whole school was dead. There were Marines and cadets everywhere, just. Piled on top of each other. Some of the cadets were holding hands. I knew them. I didn't know all of them, but I knew their faces. I.
[ Staring into space again. Lips parted, breathing slow and hard, her mind locked a universe away. ]
We. [ Report, cadet. Report, cadet. Report. She leans against John, fingers still running over the dog tags. ] We were making our way through the woods to the evac point when they attacked us again. They--injured me. Then I was here.
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Date: 2018-03-20 12:07 am (UTC)[ For a few seconds Chyler doesn't say anything, just stares straight ahead. Then, a deep breath. Blinking, her eyes burning already, she tries to find her place again. ]
Sully, Michael Sullivan, he was part of Hastati squad. Incredible with media manipulation. Hacking. He was always into things he shouldn't have been. He pieced together a vid he intercepted in pieces from the Office of Naval Intelligence. It showed Insurrections fighting with Marines, helping each other against... something. We didn't see what. I didn't understand it. I couldn't... I couldn't understand what would make Marines assist the enemy. Why the enemy would want to help.
[ Now she does curl up, shifting her legs out from under her to tuck them up against her chest and wrap one arm around them. She feels lightheaded, not wanting to go back to those memories. They're still so vivid, so flashbulb intense. ]
That night the evacuation sirens started. We were supposed to go to the tether, stay with our squads, wait to be lifted to the station. We saw shock troops start dropping in from orbit, and... Dima didn't want to wait. She cut ahead, got on the lift--
[ Chyler closes her eyes, biting down hard on her lower lip. ] Ships. We'd never seen anything like them before. They blew the tether to pieces. It collapsed on top of us. We lost Dima, Shere, and Kaye, all at once, just like that.
Their weapons-- [ She's getting ahead of herself, but she can feel the start of panic in her heart. She gets up, climbs onto the bed, sits as close to John as she can without touching him. She doesn't let herself think about why. ]
They shot needles at us, while we were running. We were running away, and they just-- kept shooting, green lights and glowing needles and if someone took more than one-- I'd never seen someone blow up before. I'd seen what it looked like after, but I'd never seen it happen. It was like they swallowed bombs.
[ She leans against him, turning her face toward his arm. ]
We hid. The thing that found us was huge. Huge. It stabbed Junjie with some glowing white weapon, lifted him right off his feet and hung him in front of us and laughed. It shot Vickers when he tried to distract it so the rest of us could get away.
[ Chyler leans back and reaches for the pair of chains around her neck, pulling out one set of dog tags. ] His were the only ones I could get.
[ She runs her thumb over the bumps and ridges of Vickers' name, playing the sight of him being shot over and over in her mind. ] A Marine killed it. Saved us. Tried to escort us to an evac point. We were the only survivors they found. The only ones. On the planet. If other people survived, search and rescue couldn't find them. The whole school was dead. There were Marines and cadets everywhere, just. Piled on top of each other. Some of the cadets were holding hands. I knew them. I didn't know all of them, but I knew their faces. I.
[ Staring into space again. Lips parted, breathing slow and hard, her mind locked a universe away. ]
We. [ Report, cadet. Report, cadet. Report. She leans against John, fingers still running over the dog tags. ] We were making our way through the woods to the evac point when they attacked us again. They--injured me. Then I was here.