16

Angel coughs blood lying down too paralysed to move.

The baby bird got to the snake in time and it's wings sliced the head off cleanly.

She passes out.

Golden leaves her behind running ahead. She jumps up and her boots propel her forward, unlike Angel no one is coming for her. She has to find a way out of here, and an injured partner is only going to slow her down.

She dodges a snake and keeps going.

They are fast but too loud. The one that caught Angel by surprise is different.

There are two different types of snake. Ones from the dessert and ones from the jungle.

The jungle snakes are more flexible and something similar to earth flying snakes while the sand snakes are like tremors. Like the original movie, only longer and leaner and no ugly snake thing coming out of their mouths.

A tree catches fire and a snake jumps at her from out of nowhere with its mouth wide open. It's thick and 15 meters long.

She throws three grenades into it's open mouth and activates her shield slamming into a tree. She holds on to a branch and sighs in relief when the snake is splattered all over.

"Dammit!" She sits on the tree and sighs going back for Angel to find her in the birds nest in a jelly cocoon.

She takes out her first aid Kit attached to the side bag on her back.

She takes a step towards the jelly cocoon and the baby bird flicks her back and violently charges at her.

She jumps out of the nest and the bird protectively stands in front of Angel in the jelly cocoon changing colour and hardening slowly.

Angel coughs in the cocoon and her back starts stretching her injured spine.

"What the hell?" Golden looks confused as Angel's broken leg slowly heals. She looks around and the fire is spreading as well.

The bird keeps it's eyes on Golden as she slowly comes closer to the nest. The tree isn't that high and it's too close to the spreading fire.

"Hey, we're going to burn here. Get her out of here." Golden points to the spreading fire but the bird doesn't move or take it's eyes off of her.

She rolls her eyes and leaves.

The bird scoots closer to Angel who coughs again opening her eyes.

The jelly is a liquid inside, but she can't breathe in water. She kicks and the bird slices the outer shell and the water is emptied.

She coughs up some of the water. Her lungs are burning and her head hurts.

Golden stays close watching from a distance, she notices a drone directly above Angel and the bird with the USA flag on it. If a drone is here it means rescue is on the way. She flies up towards the drone, they usually have an emergency signal or intercoms that directly connect to the nearest base or ship.

~

Owen answers the incoming call and signal from an Alpha drone nearby.

"We're stuck in a burning planet get your damn rescue here!" Golden shouts and turns on the visual feed by accident trying to find the S.O.S button that will contact an Alpha team equipped to handle an Alpha planet.

Owen is going as fast as he can, at this point, if he goes any faster the jet will fall apart.

~

The fire spreads closer and the bird carries Angel out of the way flying to high ground and another nest.

From their current height Angel can see snakes devouring larger birds in a large pit.

There's a reason why only birds are still standing and only the smaller animals are still alive.

"This is hell for land creatures." Golden comments using her first aid kit to patch Angel up, she's breathing a lot better now and her heart rate is steadying. When she's done the bird flicks her back and coddles Angel glaring at Golden.

The bird is hostile towards Golden because she left Angel behind when she needed help. It's smart.

Owen arrives when it's dark on the planet and finds Angel sleeping wrapped in the birds' wings, landing in a nearby nest. He looks around for Golden to find her a few feet away, "Hey, are you alright? Why are you two separated?" He asks worriedly so he does not make a mistake of getting too close unnecessarily.

"The bird and I don't see eye to eye. She's safe with it, but this damn place is destroying itself inside out. It's not safe down there for anything. The snakes are winning this war." She points at the massive snake pit and the fire, "We need to get out of here. first step is to get your girlfriend from the bird."

Owen approaches Angel in the bird's nest, from this view he can see massive birds attacking snakes and picking the largest one devouring it in mid-air. He taps Angel waking her up and she opens her eyes coughing.

The bird wakes up and glares at Owen kissing Angel.

"Are you alright? We have to go this place is falling apart."

"I can't feel my spine. I didn't stay in that ball long enough." She rolls over as best she can wincing as she moves.

She vomits more of the birds cocoon liquid and sighs feeling light headed. She never worried about scenarios where drowning is possible, man was she underestimating her situation.

Owen picks her up and stares at the angry bird awkwardly. He checks on Xavier's position and stays close to the bird.

He takes a few steps forward and it follows behind him.

He cocks a brow floating and the bird taps it's feet on the ground ready for take-off.

He flies to his ship and the bird follows at a steady pace matching his speed.

Xavier flies into the sphere and attaches the air tank and mask onto the bird. It's the only bird attached to Angel so they decided to use their free time to create a make shift face shield for the bird.

"I'll guide it, fly ahead." Owen orders handing Angel over to Xavier.

The bird follows Xavier's ship matching it's speed all the way back to base.

Golden sighs in relief seeing the shuttle up ahead.

~

Angel wakes up in the infirmary and her broken leg is good as new. She only managed to hang on long enough because of the nanites in her body. If it wasn't for that she would be dead.

Her suit has no defense against snakes squeezing the life out of her, or healing jelly water, her nanites are the only reason she's still alive.

She throws up and coughs up more jelly water that has a foreign after taste she could never put in words.

Owen takes a seat next to her worried, "Are you alright? I'm worried about you."

"I'm fine. I owe the bird a giant snake." She jokes getting out of bed taking slow steps to check on it.

The door opens and cameras are everywhere.

She shuts the door and breaks the window ignoring the pain and jumping out that window.

Owen is counting the number of braincells he has left, and it's only zero that will stop him from killing her himself.

The bird catches her and she smiles, "There you are, go that way." She points in the direction of their base and the bird flies faster.

Owen leaves the room fuming locking eyes with Ra who's smile fades.

~

"Are you sure we can trust him?" Ra's brother asks walking side by side with him.

Ra nods holding the file he has on the Aquilla blood line, "Having him on our side means we have an entire planet on our side. He'll pass the test I don't doubt it."