WHEN WE LAST LEFT OUR INTREPID HERO (IN TRAINING) SHE HAD LEFT THE PLANET VISCARA BEHIND TO STUDY THE WAY OF THE BLADE ON AN ISOLATED WORLD IN THE UNKNOWN REGIONS. LITTLE DID SHE KNOW THAT THE WORLD SHE SOUGHT WAS ISOLATED FOR A REASON, AND THE YOUNG WARRIOR INVICTA SOON FOUND HERSELF CRASH-LANDING IN AN INHOSPITABLE DESERT! WHAT TERRIBLE FATE AWAITS OUR DARING DO-GOODER? WILL SHE EVER ESCAPE THE PLANET, OR WILL SHE MEET HER END IN THESE SCARRED WASTELANDS?
Shit shit shit shit shit shit, Invicta thought as her spindly prosthetic legs pounded against the rough and rocky ground of the desert. Beside her, two women in rags scrambled to keep up, adrenaline carrying them faster than their emaciated bodies should have allowed them to go. The sun beat upon their backs, scorching them so badly that their sweat evaporated the moment it appeared on their skin.
"Hn! Why are there… so many?!"
The intrepid hero (in training) looked back over her shoulder at the gaggle of horrifying beasts pursuing her and her companions. They stood about four times her height, with saggy pink skin, galloping after her with all the grace of an angry drunk. Twelve of them, all in a messy line. Their long, sinuous necks whipped back and forth chaotically, but their beady eyes stayed locked on the three humans who fled before them. It would only be a matter of time before they closed the distance, and those horrible toothy beaks would part Invicta’s precious arms from her body. As a double amputee already, she’d grown quite attached to her remaining limbs, and that would not be her preferred outcome.
Invicta quickened her pace, not caring that her body was begging her to stop and rest. You can rest when you’re dead, she told herself. Which is hopefully not in the next few minutes!
The beak… things… matched her speed, and Invicta screamed internally. They were playing with their food! If Invicta sped ahead, the women following her would be overtaken. Her scream became a vocal one as she forced herself to slow down, but thankfully, the monsters slowed to match her, and the two women caught up.
One, lithe and night-black skinned with white hair and yellow eyes, had tears streaming down her face. "We… can’t… go… in there…"
"Hee… gasp …eeh?~" Invicta queried. Go in where? There was nothing ahead but empty desert.
"Sky…" the woman wailed. “…fire.” And yet, she continued on. Apparently the sky fire that awaited them was a better fate than being devoured at the hands of nightmare creatures from beyond the terrorzone, or whatever awful place they came from.
Invicta allowed her brain a modicum of her energy to consider what sky fire was, but she needn’t have bothered. Almost like she’d crossed an invisible border, all the hairs on her body stood on end, warning her of impending danger. Her lightning reflexes saved her as she pivoted, darting to the side. The black-skinned woman followed her, but the third was not so quick to act. Invicta watched in horror as a beam of light descended from above and vaporized the woman in less than a second.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE," cried Invicta. She blinked away the blindness in her eyes, and saw the blurry outlines of the monsters still chasing after them. One stopped to investigate the ashy remains of Invicta’s unfortunate associate, but the other eleven didn’t even hesitate. Why bother with that when there was live prey to torture before eventually consuming them alive.
SOME MIGHT SAY THAT INVICTA, HAVING NEVER ENCOUNTERED THESE PARTICULAR CREATURES BEFORE, WAS REACHING WITH HER CONCLUSIONS ABOUT THE HORRORS THEY WOULD INFLICT IF THEY EVER CAUGHT UP WITH HER, BUT SHE WOULD WANT YOU TO TRUST HER ON THIS. ANYONE WITH HALF A BRAIN WHO SO MUCH AS SET EYES ON ONE OF THESE THINGS WOULD IMMEDIATELY INTUIT THE SAME, AND ANYONE WHO DIDN’T WOULD LIKELY BE TORTURED AND THEN EATEN ALIVE.
More beams of light descended upon the desert, fusing the sand where they touched, and the sound they made was awful. And yet, they gave Invicta hope. She would never have been able to escape the monsters on her own, but now she had a chance. Her fear dissipated as she steeled her resolve.
"Follow… my lead!" Invicta swerved again, toward where her senses were telling her to expect danger. Their pursuers followed, practically on her heels, but at the last second, Invicta changed direction again. The three closest skidded forward as they struggled to turn, and were vaporized when a beam fell upon them. Miraculously, the woman remained at Invicta’s side the whole time.
Nine to go, Invicta thought, as she imagined giving her new friend a high five. This was clearly not the time for a real high five.
The remaining things looked… not angry, but maybe slightly less smug and murderous. Invicta considered that a net gain. Onward they ran, always managing to take one more step, and more and more of their pursuers fell to the beams of light. At last, there was only one left: the biggest, evilest looking one of them all.
But one? One she could handle. With a mighty warcry, Invicta drew her lightfoils and leaped directly at the monster’s face. It seemed surprised at the height of her leap, and its surprise allowed her to score a wound into the side of its wrinkly head. It screeched like… well, like you’d expect a horrible nightmare beast to screech.
Still flying through the air, Invicta stabbed downwards into the carapace on the creature’s back. As expected, the foil’s blade penetrated deeply, but she had miscalculated. The hilt, and the hand holding it, smacked into a bone stud. Both her hand and the sword broke.
"GAH!" An involuntarily yell escaped Invicta’s throat, but she managed to hang on with her good hand. A drop from this height and the monster would stomp her to death before she could catch her breath. Even now, it was snapping its head around, trying to get into a position to bite her. Laboriously, she pulled herself up until she found a foothold. Drawing her other blade, she aimed it directly into the beast’s exposed side and activated it.
The beam tore through it, but didn’t fully cauterize like a saber. Blood seeped from the wound, gushing with every pained cry the creature made. It bit at her and missed, thankfully. It was large enough that it could probably snip her in half with its razor beak.
Emboldened by the monster’s pain, she whipped the foil up and into its eye. The blade disappeared deep into its skull, and like a puppet with its strings cut, her mountainous opponent collapsed in a heap… Which meant Invicta lost her footing.
In what would likely be the last physical activity her body could reasonably expect of her today, Invicta kicked off the carapace and dove away from the falling monstrosity. She landed poorly, in a heap, but alive. That was more than she could say for the creature. It spasmed in death, tongue lolling out of its maw. The impact had jammed the foil even deeper into its…
"SHIT! HN!" Her foil! She crawled on her knees to the massive head, pushing and shoving against it as hard as she could manage. But try as she might, she couldn’t get the thing to budge. It was way too heavy, and she’d given everything she had to give already. With a groan, she collapsed.
The woman she’d saved sidled up to her curiously, and said something in a language Invicta didn’t understand. Hopefully it was a thank you. It had better have been. She’d destroyed two perfectly good (read: practically falling apart already) foils, broken her hand, and… and…
It had just been a bad time, overall.
Invicta had barely had time to gather herself before the hairs on her neck stood up again. She sighed. Right. Space lasers. It took her far too long to pull herself up, even with her companion’s help, and all that awaited her once she’d regained her feet was a view of more lasers descending in the distance. She counted eight in total. Three ahead, two behind, two to the left, and one to their right.
Invicta looked at her new friend, and she looked back. It was a look that said “this is bantha poodoo”. They were lost, tired and wounded, in the middle of a desert, and their very lives depended on which direction they ambled off into. Would their path lead to some sort of civilization – perhaps a village, or outpost – or would it lead to their doom?
In a decision that should surprise no one, they chose the direction with the fewest lasers.