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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3995669" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 554: Now What?“Apparently the entire moon isn’t forested,” Adria mumbled to herself.    Rea looked to the human woman then back to the remaining patches of trees behind them, “I am not sure a collection of trees counts as a forest.”    The moon they’d arrived on had, from orbit at least, looked to be covered in large swaths of forests, perfect cover. All of their X-Wings had gone down in the same general area, now about five kilometers behind them, and Rea had naively assumed the rest of the moon was that way. She wasn’t an expert on these kinds of things, so that was her excuse. That, and the fact that in her attempt to not die while reaching the moon’s surface, Rea didn’t exactly have a chance to look much of anywhere but directly in front of and below her.    What was left in front of them now were a few spotty trees and larger, grey rocks with odd yellow fungus on top of them scattered across grass-covered plains. How they hadn’t noticed this before was beyond Rea, as the grass was actually a reddish colour rather than the green of the trees. Sure, she’d seen sections of red colour from orbit, but Rea hadn’t even thought about it.    “Well, we can’t just stand here,” Adria said quickly.    She was right. So far, the Vong hadn’t found them, but there had been multiple ships fly right over them. Neither Rea nor Adria had any idea of what kinds of ships they were, as they mostly just looked like asteroids of sorts, with hints of some kind of hand crafting them into something able to fly. But out here in the open, they’d be spotted in a moment, and they couldn’t turn around now. Still, they needed some kind of cover...    Commodore Nok had slipped into unconsciousness a few minutes earlier. It had, at first, worried Rea, but there wasn’t really time to stop and he was still breathing. Rast and Sansont, the other two Zephyrs with them, were also still unconscious, leaving just she and Adria to figure out what to do. It was in no way comforting, as they were only on the moon because of the Commodore’s very surprising order and now a fair number of the squadron were dead or missing.    With one last glance behind them just in case, Adria started moving again. Rea was right with her, as they were both pushing Rast’s stretcher between them. Because of the fact that they were having to push three of their unconscious squad mates, the two of them couldn’t move too quickly. The last thing they needed was to accidently drop one of their injured comrades onto the dirt.    They headed for the nearest possible chance at some kind of shelter, one of the large rocks. It turned out that there were actually about five boulders sitting against one another or coming out of the ground in rather odd formations. From what they could see, there were other spots just like it throughout the grassy plain. Still, it seemed oddly convenient to find a collection of large rocks that provided cover from above.    While deactivating the repulsor on Rast’s stretcher and gently helping it down to the ground within the small, natural shelter, Adria grumbled, “This is too bloody convenient.”    “I don’t particularly like it either,” with a sigh, Rea couldn’t help but agree, “But you know we can’t just run around out there with three stretchers looking for something better.”    At this point, Adria was finally getting rid of the life support packages and other parts of her flightsuit that were currently nothing but extra weight. She, like Rea, had been intelligent enough to grab a pack before escaping the location where her X-Wing had gone down. It meant she had a place to stuff the extra pieces of the flightsuit, plus the orange jumpsuit that she was now quite happily removing. It also meant that they had enough rations and other vital supplies that they’d be okay for a good long while on their own.    Deciding that Adria had the right idea, and ready to get rid of the extra weight, herself, Rea followed suit. In a few minutes, they were both down to the simple black jumpsuit that was worn under the orange. It was far more comfortable than all of the extra equipment, which was odd, because Rea had never noticed any discomfort on other planets. Maybe the gravity was a bit stronger...    Leaning back against one of the rocks in the small section that could be considered an interior of an very ancient stone building, Adria sighed and ran a hand through her dark red hair, “So now what?”    Rea, her legs aching a bit, decided to have a seat on the ground. There wasn’t much room with the three occupied stretchers, but Rea wasn’t exactly a large Twi’lek. In fact, she had a fair bit of room in her X-Wing’s cockpit to move around a bit and get comfortable. Resting her head back against the cold rock, she looked over towards Adria, “I don’t think we can do much of anything until the Commodore is conscious again.”    Folding her arms across her chest, Adria shook her head, “I don’t like the idea of just sitting here with the Vong running around searching for us.”    Rea stared at the other woman, “We’re on a moon that basically erupted with Coralskippers, Adria. What else would you expect us to be doing?”    There was a short silence as Adria glared rather than acknowledge the sarcasm. Eventually, instead of bother with any kind of retort, Adria simply knelt down next to her pack and started digging through it. As she was sifting through the contents, she explained out of the corner of her mouth, “The Commodore had to have had a good reason for crashing us on this rock. Might as well see if I can figure out why. Better than just waiting for the Vong to find us.”    Finally, she retrieved a palm sized object that Rea recognized as a portable scanner. After extending the twin antennae and turning it on, Adria was back to leaning against the rock wall and staring down at the scanner’s display. Thankfully, it was one of the newer scanners that didn’t make damned beeping sound every few seconds that would have both driven them crazy and given their location away to anything within a kilometer.    “Any sign of the others?” Rea asked after a few quiet minutes. There were still potentially three other Zephyrs out on the moon somewhere that they’d not come across yet.    Adria shook her head, “Not nearby...”    “What?”    Tilting her head to look over the device and to Rea, the human shot a confused glance towards the Twi’lek, “What what?”    “Your face just changed,” Rea reached up a hand to point, not that it helped, “Did you find something?”    “My face didn’t...” rolling her eyes, Adria looked back to the scanner, but still continued to talk, “Its just...its some kind of distress signal, I think.”    That got Rea to sit up straight, “One of the others?”    “No,” Adria shook her head, “No its...this isn’t a New Republic encryption code. I’ve never seen anything like it.”    By now, the Twi’lek had pulled herself up to her feet and was slowly moving over to have a look at the scanner’s display for herself, “Well, it can’t be the Vong...where’s it coming from?”    With Rea now standing next to her, Adria was polite enough to tilt the device so Rea could see the readout. Not that the lines and symbols meant anything to her, but it was the thought that mattered. Noting the silence from her fellow pilot, Adria pointed to one of the lines higher up on the display, “Its not coming from anywhere specific. Its...I think its coming from everywhere, actually.”    “What does that mean?” Rea turned to look for an answer on Adria’s face, but she found nothing but a shrug and similar confusion.    With a sigh, Adria shook her head, “There are a lot of people that need help? No...no, I really don’t have any idea.”    Taking a step back so as not to force herself to stare at the gibberish on the display anymore, Rea waved a hand idly, “Could this be what the Commodore was after?”    “Maybe but...” Adria shrugged again, “I don’t know how he’d have noticed this. It may be everywhere but its weak. And its not on any frequency the new Republic has ever used...”    As she trailed off, an idea began to form. At the same time, Rea was coming to that exact conclusion. The pieces fell into place. It was Rea who finished the thought, “Someone is here. Someone is on this moon hiding from the Vong.”    “They’re not using any signals the Vong would expect,” Adria went on, her face twisting a bit as she thought, “Do you think the Vong found them? It could just as easily be a trap.”    “But on an old signal we don’t even use?” the Twi’lek shook her head, “No one would pick it up. And if its as weak as you say, then you’d have to be here to find it in the first place...”    Both pilots looked up at the same time, then to each other. There was a silent moment as both of their minds worked even faster. But then, their thoughts diverged from one another. Adria stood up straight and shut down the scanner, “I think I can track this to its source.”    “Wait,” Rea immediately caught up and saw where this was going, “You just said the signal is coming from everywhere.”    “I did,” Adria nodded as she hefted her pack and then removed her blaster pistol from its holster, “But it is stronger to the north of here.”    Without saying anything, Adria then began to step past Rea and towards the ‘exit’ to their makeshift shelter. The Twi’lek, however, did her best to stand in the way, “Wait a second, you can’t leave! We need to stay together here. If the Vong find us...or you while you’re out on your own...”    “The sooner we find whatever the Commodore was after here, the sooner we can get off this rock...somehow,” Adria pushed the smaller Rea to the side and managed a polite smile, “I’ve got my comlink on me and I’ll keep you updated. I won’t go far, either. But this is definitely something and if...well, we may have to wait a long time for the Commodore to wake up.”    And then she left.    Rea stood there staring at the small entrance to their shelter and then let out a long, tired sigh. Every time things seemed like they couldn’t get any more difficult...no, no this wasn’t the time for thinking like that. Let the human run off like a child. There were three injured comrades right here. They needed Rea to be alert in case the Vong found them, and they needed her to use what little medical skill she had to help them.    For the first time, however, Rea didn’t want the Commodore to wake up again. She really didn’t want to get yelled at even if she should have done something to stop Adria.</blockquote>

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