Superlative

EPISODE TWO

{ THE CONFEDERATE | DIVISION BETA, FLIGHT FACILITY | 10TH OF JUNE | 1:39AM }

DAWN DIDN'T SPEAK.

When her parents were still alive they had regaled the difficulties of her mother's pregnancy that eventually concluded with a beautiful baby that made no sound. They had named her accordingly, but that part of herself died alongside her parents. In this place and circumstance, she had shed everything old and familiar in order to bravely face the future -- a necessary sacrifice that every rebel against the Confederate had to make.

Now she was called Dawn, and like her namesake she stood on the launching pad with bright eyes and a gentle smile, waiting for the telltale flash of multi-colored energy that would signal the arrival of Nightshade's ship. It was running a bit late, but Dawn wasn't too worried. Nightshade would be fine. If the skyrider managed to save her and many others all those years ago, he can come back from a patrol in one piece.

A faint whistling note hummed in her ears, and not a second later the ship's stealth wards started peeling down in a shimmer of golden light. The expanse of night sky started to fade into the ship's metallic body, zooming closer and closer to the landing strip. It looked like the falling stars and shooting comets that would dance across her bedroom window once upon a time, except this time it whistled and whirled in increasing octaves as it approached.

Gusts of air blew past Dawn as the ship passed overhead, whipping her hair back with a frenzy. She wrangled the strands into place as she watched The Pollux starship land on the airstrip gracefully, the air from below it displacing in a puff of smoke. The ship seemed to heave a large exhale of relief, energy pulsing out of it with a finality as it calmed and placed its systems on stand-by. The hatch on its side popped open, and out trudged its crew.

Dawn could hear them arguing even from a distance. Knox ad Nightshade, bickering like children as they always had. A fond smile tugged at Dawn's lips. Some things just never change, even after everything around it has collapsed and rebuilt itself; change has been the only constant in Dawn's life, after all. Or for any rebel's life, for that matter.

One day she hoped things would start changing for the better, and this time, for good.

"Dawn! Dawn!"

Sky had spotted her and was sprinting in her direction. At the speed the little girl was going, Dawn would be knocked off her feet from the impact. But she didn't mind, and opened her arms for Sky to fall into instead.
She may have lost her family and home in the last Intergalactic War, but Nightshade had given her a new one.

Dawn stumbled as Sky threw her arms around the older girl's neck, managing to steady herself with a few backward steps. The bitter hints of motor oil and grease were a surprise to Dawn's nose but not to herself per se, because Sky always managed to practically drown herself in the thing whenever she fiddled with machinery anyway. Dawn was used to washing the stains off the little girl's clothes.

"My tracker worked!" Sky declared, beaming proudly. Dawn smiled back fondly, hoisting the little genius up to balance on her hip.

The rest of the crew approached at a slower pace, their voices drifting closer as they neared -- particularly that of Knox's antagonizing undertone and Nightshade's robotic distorter.

"Knox. Shut up already before I make you."

"Oohhh, I'm so scared."

"That sarcasm will go away when I kick your ass."

"You always threaten to kick my ass but you never do."

Nightshade spared Knox from a reply, choosing to wrap an arm around Dawn in a friendly gesture instead. "Sorry we ran a bit late, Dawn. Hope you haven't been waiting too long."