2. Rebound

An alarm clock started blaring waking up a tall and skinny human male with slightly tanned skin and dark hair from his bed, Keyton Xylaire looked around and realized that he should probably start the day. The first thing he decided to do was get dressed since his clothes were hanging in the closet which was beside his bed, considering the weather outside he decided to wear a red and yellow cycling shirt with dark blue jeans and black hiking boots as well as his usual watch, which he rarely took off. He had an unusual fashion sense but didn't care, he lived in Canada after all, most people don't care what you wear as long as it doesn't stand out too much. Next he decided to have something to eat for breakfast since he was feeling hungry, since he was only an average cook he made himself a bowl of oatmeal, he also decided to turn on the radio and listen to it while he ate. Afterwards he went to the bathroom, brushed his teeth and took care of whatever grooming habits needed to be dealt with. Finally he felt ready to take on the day.

Keyton decided to go for a walk since he didn't feel like he had anything better to do at the moment, as he was leaving his apartment he noticed that a moving truck was in front of the side entrance to the building. After checking his watch he realized that his new neighbor had arrived half a day earlier than what he had expected, given what the previous neighbors told him about when the new neighbor was supposed to arrive. Considering the traffic report he heard over the radio this actually made sense. Keyton decided to head downstairs and see if anything was going on before he would continue joging, when he got there someone immediately asked him.

"Hey you in the red and yellow cycling shirt can you please help me with this?"

Keyton turned to see a slightly busty woman a little shorter than he was with fair skin and dark red hair, she looked European but Keyton knew better than to judge a person's ethnicity just based off of how they look. Keyton rushed over and grabbed a large box that she appeared to be struggling with.

"Thanks, I'm Kira, Kira Carver" she said as soon as he took the box from her.

"Keyton, Keyton Xylaire, by the way before my arms fall off where do you want me to put this" Keyton replied

"Over there inside the entranceway" she said while pointing.

"Thanks"

"That is quite the situation you have gotten yourself in, isn't it Keyton." a tall man with dark skin and darker hair around the same height as Keyton suddenly chimed in.

"Very funny Ben, and good day to you too" Keyton replied.

"Who's that" Kira asked.

"That's Ben Maxson" Keyton answered.

After a few seconds, Kira remembered where she heard that name before. "The Ben Maxson, as in the Ben Maxson responsible for designing the new WatchCom phone holder!"

"The same" Keyton and Ben ended up replying at the same time.

"As a matter of fact, Keyton here was the one who inspired me to design it in the first place" Ben stated before anyone could change the topic of conversation.

"Really, well would you two like to help me move these boxes, my friends were supposed to help me with them but as you can see they aren't here yet" Kira asked before the conversation draged out too long. After a few seconds Ben and Keyton agreed to help. "Leave the furniture alone, I want my friends to have something to do when they get here." Kira told them.

After a few minutes the three of them have finally finished unloading the boxes inside the entranceway.

"Thanks you two but that'll be enough for now, my friends will help with the rest when they arrive." Kira told them.

"In that case I think I will walk around for a bit, I need to stretch my legs anyways." Keyton said before starting to walk off.

"You know where to find me if you need anything" Ben replied before heading back inside.

"See you later" Kira also replied.

After a few minutes of walking around, Keyton looked up and saw that something was about to crash into a nearby forest in a few minutes. After thinking about it for a minute Keyton decided to investigate even if he wasn't exactly sure what would happen.

As the Sub-Commander tried to pilot the small craft she found that it was difficult to stop it from falling since main propulsion got taken offline and secondary propulsion was unresponsive ever since the blast-wave from the two ships explosion damaged the small craft, all they could hope for now was that they could land safely and in a relatively unpopulated area.