Falling from the Sky

Ten minutes passed since Elizabeth, Kretea, and Ystur left the war room. As they drive up and park the car near where Zrathno has his spaceship, a loud bang can be heard in the distance. Looking toward the source of the noise, black smoke can be seen rising while a shadow can be seen flying across the sky. As the seconds pass, the shadow becomes more and more clear as it's revealed to be Astur soaring through the sky, falling towards their position.

"Out of the car, now!" Kretrea shouts, upon seeing Astur's trajectory.

*Thud*

Everyone rushed out of the car quickly as Astur crashes into it. The smoke and dust from the impact clear, revealing Astur to be mostly unscathed. But the car is a different matter, completely wrecked.

Looking around her and inspecting her handiwork, Astur says, "I don't think we can get this one repaired."

Elizabeth is Dumbfounded, "I have so many questions, I don't even know where to begin."

"I wanna go flying too!" Ystur says excitedly.

"Wait until your body is stronger to handle being shot from a cannon," Astur says.

"What about the car? It's a long walk back to the town." Kretea asks as she looks around the large empty field with nothing but them, a totalled car, and a spaceship.

"Even if we somehow get this to a repair shop, I don't think this is salvageable," Astur shakes her head.

"Why can't you just come here like a normal person? Instead of wrecking the car by getting shot out of a cannon. And why the bloody hell is there a cannon that you can a fully grown adult!?" Elizabeth asks.

"What a pointless question. This is a fortress now, why wouldn't there be a cannon? I do admit it was a bit of a tight fit," Astur crosses her arms, emphasising her chest.

Both Elizabeth and Ystur look down and see their feet, followed by a deep and heavy sigh.

"What's wrong with them?" Kretea asks.

Taking a look at Kretea, Astur nods.

Seeing Astur's gaze, Kretea is left curious and asks, "What?"

"Nothing. I just thought you were quite lucky. Not big or small," Astur says.

"Oh. I am quite a bit taller than Miss Elizabeth and Lady Ystur, but I am only a little bit shorter than you. I suppose if you stretch the definition, I can be considered to be in the middle," Kretea says.

"You're not wrong," Astur smiles, "Alright, let's bother Zrathno. Maybe he can do something about the car."

The group walks over to the spaceship and knocks on the door, but there isn't a response. Astur knocks again, but harder, and once again there isn't a response. Finally, Astur kicks the door. Although the kick didn't actually do anything, it still opens because Elizabeth slides it open, it was apparently unlocked the whole time.

"It's only unlocked because I kicked it," Astur says as she marches in.

Moving to the hanger, they find Zrathno working on some contraption. Seemingly unaware of the approach of the four of them due to his headgear and focus on his work. Astur's mouth grows into a devious smirk as a bright idea pops into her head.

Silently moving behind Zrathno, Astur smacks the tools out of his hands and proceeds to throw a couple of regular Blast Balls at the Steel Mirage on the other side of the hanger. The explosion didn't do any damage, although it did manage to slightly blacken the metal. Astur then takes off Zrathno's headgear and tosses it to the side as she proceeds to breakdance in front of him.

"You!" Zrathno stands up as he picks up a remote on his workbench and presses one of the buttons. Various shutters begin to open as a swarm of robots of all sizes come out.

Having long foreseen some sort of retaliation, Astur had already booked it and had just stepped out from the spaceship.

"After her!" Zrathno shouts.

As the robot swarm chases after Astur, Zrathno turns her attention to the three who were left behind.

"We don't know that woman," Elizabeth smartly says.

Confused over Elizabeth's explanation, Kretae says, "Huh, what are you talki-- mmhhmhmhm" but is interrupted as Elizabeth grabs hold of Kretea's shirt and pulls her down to cover her mouth.

Ystur opts to remain silent, tacitly agreeing with Elizabeth's statement.

Zrathno can't be bothered to do anything to the three of them on top of the fact they really had nothing to do with the matter at hand.

"So why are you here?" Zrathno asks.

"Can you fix our car, Mom broke it," Ystur says.

Zrathno clicks another button on his remote, causing a mechanical arm on the wall with a small display screen to move closer to them. Displayed on it is a view of the area around the spaceship. On the display is the totalled car, completely smashed and flattened by Astur's fall. Further in the distance on the display, Astur can still be seen running away from the robots.

"I don't know what the Princess did, but this can can't be saved. To be precise, it would be difficult but it can be fixed, however, the cost of doing so is far more expensive than simply buying a new car," Zrathno says, sending the display away.

"That's not the reason we came here…" Elizabeth shakes her head.

"We came to ask you about adding more and upgrading existing armaments to the outer wall. We are expecting an attack on Dawn within two weeks. The validity of the information isn't 100% guaranteed, but it's better to be safe than sorry in this regard," Kretea says.

"This is doable. I want more of the organic metal to work with though," Zrathno says.

"Agreeable. Additionally, Astur wants you to reinforce Hadrow once the additions and upgrades are done," Elizabeth says.

"Isn't the expected attack supposed to be here? Why send me to Hadrow?"

"That's right, the attack is expected to be on Dawn. But in the off chance that the true target is a different place, you'll be stationed at Hadrow with three of the Forest Guardians while Astur will remain in the forest with the remaining Guardians," Elizabeth says.

"Are you sure she isn't choosing to stay in the forest because it's the easiest place to be?" Zrathno asks.

"As much as that is something she would do, this isn't because of that… probably. The plan is for Astur to flank once the enemy commits to an attack on either Dawn or Hadrow. But she'll be in the periphery of the forest near Dawn, so in the event of an attack on Hadrow, it will take some time for her to arrive," Elizabeth says.

"Alright, I get the gist of it. So about the car, do you want it repaired or you gonna get a new one?" Zrathno asks.

"To begin with, It was a car that Astur stole and it wasn't in great shape. Considering she came back with a large sum of money, it won't put any strain on the budget with either option, but since it's cheaper than getting it repaired we can buy one later in Dawn," Elizabeth says.

"Good, good, then I'll take that mess off your hands. I can scrap it for some materials," Zrathno says as his phone vibrates in his pocket, "It seems the Princess made it away and my robots are returning. Anyways, I'll get on the wall's matter tomorrow. It should be done in around a week if I have some extra hands, so send a message to the guys in construction about it. I'll head over to Hadrow afterwards."