Crash Landing

Orion

Saiyan Elite
Level 4
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Orion landed gingerly on the forest floor. He crouched down, staring up at the sky through the gaps in the canopy. A horde of Arlians buzzed overhead, humanoid cricket creatures wielding spears, their segmented eyes scanning for him, their translucent wings beating. Disgusting creatures. A tense moment passed as they scoured the area below them. One of them even appeared to spot Orion, staring directly at him for a long moment. Eventually, the insectoid looked away and motioned for its followers to move on. Good, they didn’t know where he was.

Well, that was going to change very soon.

His dragon radar – installed inside his head as one of the few unlocked features of his NOVA unit – sent a tingling sensation through his mind as the application sensed its quarry – the dragon balls. While alien, the feeling was pleasant, almost euphoric, as all seven of the relics had been gathered before Orion - the one in his hand, and the remaining six hidden beneath fallen branches right before him. The dragon ball grasped in his palm glinted in the sunlight, its smooth orange surface unblemished, a single red star floating within as if suspended in amber.

He had finally gathered them all. It had been an arduous task, fraught with danger and -

Well, what are you waiting for? Tristelle said. Stop waxing nostalgic and let’s summon the dragon!

The saiyan warrior brushed the foliage away, revealing the six other dragon balls. Each orb had a different number of red starts within, ranging from two to seven. Orion placed the one star dragon ball down with the rest of the set. They glowed softly now that they had all been gathered, as if they all knew instinctively that they belonged together.

These sacred relics had been impossibly difficult to collect. So much effort, so many Arlians killed to achieve this victory. He had to make sure this wish counted. And he would.

“So… what now?” Orion asked, looking around. “They’re all together now. Where’s the dragon? Shouldn’t it just... appear?”

Lucky you’ve got me around, Tristelle said. I’ve uploaded the phrase you need to say to your memory.

Orion pumped an eyebrow. “I have to say that?”

The faster you get this over with, the sooner we can leave Arlia and all its bug inhabitants.

“Excellent incentive,” Orion said. He took a steeling breath. “Eternal dragon! By your name I summon you forth! Shenron!”

The dragon balls hummed. The sky above turned black as pitch. Pale yellow light shone from the orbs and a sudden spike of energy burst from them, heading directly upwards. Orion jumped backwards as the pulsing column of yellow light rocketed skyward and coiled through the air like a snake. The light shed away and revealed emerald scales and a tan underbelly all up the column’s length. The bulbous end of the column became the head of an antlered dragon, long whiskers flapping from its snout in an unseen breeze, its eyes ruby red. It roared once as it came into being, baring razor sharp teeth as tall as Orion. The dragon floated majestically, a gigantic emerald serpent looped around itself as if in a huge, loose knot in the sky.

Orion involuntarily shuddered. Such a huge, magnificent beast was bound to these dragon balls like a prisoner in a jail cell? He wondered what stopped the dragon, ostensibly named Shenron, from simply eating him in one bite, or obeying anyone for any reason.

“I am Shenron,” the coiled dragon said, his voice like booming thunder. “I shall grant you any wish within my power. Now speak!”

The saiyan warrior stared up at Shenron. Between his huge snaking form and the black sky, the Arlians would know exactly where he was. He had to make this wish fast.

“Shenron!” Orion said. “Make my NOVA unit fully operational, with all its functions available to me!”

The imposing dragon grumbled lowly, as if thinking over the request. A moment later, his eyes shone with red light. “So be it.”

Orion’s mind suddenly became brighter, as if a fog had been lifted from him. He couldn’t put his finger on it exactly – he didn’t have any new knowledge in his head, but he knew instinctively that something had changed within his NOVA unit. Had the dragon actually done it?

Wow! Tristelle said. Look at all these things that were locked before! I didn’t even know half of these things were in here!

“Your wish has been granted,” Shenron rumbled.

According to Tristelle and the dragon, Orion had what he wanted, but a realisation slapped him in the face – he didn’t know how to use any of the new NOVA features! What good was restoring function to them when he didn’t know how to activate any of them?

“Wait! Shenron!” Orion yelled. “I need to amend my wish! I need to know-“

“Farewell,” the dragon boomed, ignoring the saiyan’s plea. Like his arrival, Shenron’s body was consumed with yellow light and vanished, exploding into scattered motes of twinkling light. The dragon balls lifted into the air, stopped as they glowed, and then dispersed, each ball firing off high into the sky, dispersing in all directions straight upwards, tiny satellites blasting off the planet. The black shroud that covered the sky lifted.

“No!” Orion punched the dirt. “I was so close! Now I have to find the dragon balls all over again to learn how to access the NOVA unit’s functions?”

No! I’m sure I can work out how to... well... um... this might be harder than I thought.

That was a big problem. The dragon balls, once a wish had been made, went inactive – their lustrous amber sheen removed to be replaced with stone grey – and travelled to another planet entirely, where they were unusable for a period of time. So Tristelle had discovered, anyway. All this effort for him to fumble at the finish line? All because he hadn’t been exacting in his phrasing?

Orion looked at the departing dragon balls, expecting the dragon ball sense to detect them as they flew into orbit, but he felt nothing. Already they must have been deactivated, simple chunks of rock, unremarkable until they reactivated sometime later. But where were they going? What planet was their destination now?

Uh... not to pile on the bad news, Tristelle said, but we aren’t going to be alone for much longer.

Sure enough, a cacophonous buzzing assaulted Orion’s ears. As the black sky gave way to blue once more, a horde of Arlians appeared as if from nowhere. Kais, there must have been hundreds of them bearing down on him, wings beating furiously.

Orion had fought his fair share of the bug men. They were more resilient than most humanoid creatures, their exoskeletons solid and thick, requiring more pressure to shatter through their carapaces. Not impossible, but much more work than an average life form. Orion was simply not up to the task now. Stealing that last dragon ball had required an almost suicidal assault on the Arlian queen’s hive, and while Orion was smart enough to spare their monarch, apparently his unauthorised ingress had gained him their unfettered ire. Yet those he had slaughtered to reach his target had drained him considerably. The saiyan warrior wasn’t even sure that he had enough stamina left to endure the mighty Great Ape transformation, his only shot of winning a confrontation with that many bugs at this point.

Orion took off at a sprint before leaping into the air, soaring in front of the black mass of Arlians that bayed for his blood. “We have to leave Arlia. Where’s the space pod?”

In the ocean somewhere, Tristelle said. Wait, let me search for it... There! I think.

“You think?”

Yes, I think. It was quite a while since we landed. Forgive me for not remembering which part of the planet you parked on!

A white aura enveloped Orion’s body and he increased his speed, trying to outrun the beating of insect wings, following the directions his AI gave him. He stayed low, zipping through the trees, creating the chance of slamming into a thick trunk but at least giving himself some cover from his pursuers.

The grassy earth vanished beneath him, replaced by glittering blue ocean. Orion chanced a look over his shoulder, watching the shoreline of the continent get further and further away. A black mass of Arlians hung over the forest, and they were getting closer. Orion could actually make out the individual features of the insectoids at the front of the pack. Some lifted jagged rifles to their compound eyes, aiming and taking shots at him.

Orion spun and swerved as energy bullets pelted the ocean, sending sprays of salty water into the air. Flying with his back to the glassy water, Orion fired his own ki blasts into the horde. Many weaved past them but the sky was thick enough with them that every energy ball eventually found a target. The saiyan warrior grinned as he watched the bug men fall from the sky and splash into the ocean.

Orion! Tristelle shouted in his head. Space pod coming up!

Orion spun about and faced forward. Bobbing in the ocean with its single door open was his space pod, a spherical orb with only just enough room to fit one chair inside. Thankfully it hadn’t taken on much water since he landed, which was a miracle in itself.

The Arlians must have realised Orion’s objective and aimed their blasts for his vehicle. Splashes of water ringed the floating space pod. Every now and then a beam would skid off the round contoured side, leaving a black scorch mark.

Go go go!

Orion pushed his speed to the limit, blasting a wave of water skyward. He dove into the space pod and righted himself in the chair. Fiddling with buttons while energy blasts rained down all around him, he punched in a random co-ordinate – any co-ordinate, as long as it wasn’t here – and the door hissed closed, leaving the saiyan ankle-deep in water.

The space pod lurched from the ocean and exploded into the sky. Flying backwards, Orion watched as the sudden boom scattered the pursuing Arlians to the wind. They must have been furious with him.

Orion took a deep, settling breath. “Finally, we’re leaving this kais-forsaken planet.”

If only we got everything we came for, Tristelle said.

“If only.” Orion slammed a fist on his arm rest as the space pod turned towards space. “We were so close.”

Everything isn’t lost, Tristelle said inside his head. The NOVA unit is definitely active again. Who knows, maybe I can work out how it all works just by poking around in there. Besides, that Zintwo guy seemed to know a little about the unit.

Orion narrowed his eye as the clouds parted and revealed the deep, yawning chasm of space. “Have you been accessing my memories again?”

Can’t keep me out of there! she said.

“I’d rather not encounter that overbearing robot again,” Orion said. “He knew too much about me, and I knew nothing about him. And he was the one to install that dragon ball locator in the NOVA unit to begin with. I’m concerned he might be able to do more than he already has. Or he’s done more than I know about.”

Then wouldn’t he be the perfect person to talk to? Tristelle said. If he knows how to alter it, then maybe he can-

“No,” Orion said. “It’s bad enough that you understand how to manipulate it, even on your basic level. That’s already one AI too many.”

Fine, she replied. But know that you might be giving away your one and only lead.

“I’m sure we’ll run into him again one day,” Orion said. “Bastards like that never stay out of my life for long.”

Tristelle sighed. Always so pessimistic, aren’t you? Try smile once in a while. Look! Out the porthole!

Orion stared out into space. To the right, a whitish-magenta cloud was painted against the backdrop of inky black, standing out in stark contrast. Stars within it were hidden completely from view in its glow. There was something to appreciate when space wasn’t just more empty nothingness.

“That’s something,” Orion said begrudgingly.

Look for the little things, Tristelle said. That’s what makes it all worthwhile. And it might stop you from having a stick up your arse all the time.

The single round window of Orion’s space pod was suddenly filled with whitish-magenta.

“What just happened?” Orion said.

I... I don’t know, Tristelle said. We were going past that thing, not through it!

The black of space around the cloud’s edge was pushed out until it could no longer be seen. The entire space pod started to shake.

“It’s pulling us in!” Orion said.

Shit! Tristelle said. And I just got off Arlia after ten years! Now we’re going to die?!

“What happened to your ‘look for the little things’ speech from a moment ago?” Orion said through gritted teeth, clenching the armrests.

A moment later, violet electricity coursed through the space pod, snaking into Orion’s body. Tiny explosions shattered navigational equipment and screens on the inside. The saiyan growled at the pain, his muscles constricting uncontrollably, but there was nothing he could do. Even if he could kick the door off and get out of the ship, all that was left to escape into was space. He sat there and endured it, his body on fire.

Orion caught a blurry round image through the port hole before he passed out.

----

... up! Come on, Orion, wake up! Don’t tell me I’m trapped in a dead body!

Orion groaned, rubbing his face. His entire body ached. At least the pain told him he was still alive.

Oh, that’s a relief, Tristelle said. That was quite a heavy landing. I’m glad you made it through in one piece. But I should probably expect that from you.

Orion opened his eye. The door to the space pod had been ripped clean off, revealing a forest of trees around him, albeit on an angle. Apparently on an oxygenated planet since he wasn’t gasping for air, Orion stood out of the space pod, his muscles flaring with pain. The forest was small and he stumbled his way out of it quickly enough. On the horizon, a huge city sprawled out in all directions, skyscrapers reaching for the sky. A number of spacecraft zoomed in and out of its airspace.

Good luck that we crash landed on an inhabited planet.

Orion sighed, cracking the bones in his neck. “Is this another of your little things I should be grateful for?”

Of course! Tristelle said. Now let’s find a way off this planet.

“Let’s spend the night here first,” Orion said, wincing at his body’s protests of movement. “I need to recover.”

Ugh. Organics.
 
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