Starsnatcher - Trapped In An Alien World [COMPLETE]

Chapter 5.11

The purple drone hovered above us, Helix and the Primogenitor in its net. It hovered under the hole, motionless and shimmering in the light.

I didn't care that the machine just spoke. Crick should've tortured me for my failure. I was too clumsy to throw that hook myself, so I relied on Helix and got them trapped.

Crick threw something for Helix to capture. Then, they ran into the darkness.

"What are you waiting for?" Crick transmitted. "Get to safety!"

The drone remained frozen in the air.

"Are these aliens your friends?" it asked.

I stood up. I clutched a rope. With nothing to lose, I threw it at the net as I should have from the start. Since the drone refused to fly upwards, it meant I had to climb the rope.

"Dude," the drone said, "you look pissed off."

I clutched the rope. How could it be that, after all this training, I still failed to climb?

"Should I help you?" the drone asked.

I clenched my teeth. Kira was bad enough, but now even the enemy had to save me?

The drone pulled me out of the underground cave. Looking up turned out to be a mistake, as the sunlight blinded me.

After a brief adjustment phase, I spun around and saw the desert we came from. The geophones remained undisturbed. However, the boulder where we used to put anchors had been fractured.

A humanoid figure loomed before me. They wore lavender power armor with black plates around the torso. A stylized skull adorned the visor. Its ear-to-ear grin left no doubt that it was designed by the same edgelord as the Firefly Rover. A plum purple cube-shaped singularity stone rested on the humanoid's chest armor.

With its gun, the figure shot darts at the Primogenitor. The trapped alien struggled for a while before the sedative kicked in. Apparently, Helix had already been tranquilized and further darts would only have harmed them.

The drone moved me closer to the humanoid. I aimed my palm pistol at the figure and shot. Each bullet bounced off of the armor as if I shot cotton balls.

The figure laughed.

"Easy," a feminine voice spoke under the armor.

The drone lowered me to my feet. I stood four feet opposite the figure, way closer than you'd stand next to a stranger, let alone an enemy. Her visor was less opaque than Kira's, but the skull still made it hard to discern any face behind it.

She put the tranquilizer gun in its holster and extended a hand. "Layla Walker. And you-"

I shot her visor. The skull still grinned. For the blink of an eye, I thought I had seen a little shield before her head as if she had summoned a forcefield.

Layla wagged her finger. "That was rude of you, nameless spacesuit-man! Okay, I already know you're called Lucas, but it would've been more polite had you introduced yourself."

"Polite?" I spat out the word. "Rude? Then how do you call what you did to my friends?"

Layla laughed. "Ah, I was right. You could've told me that earlier with the whole 'friend' thing."

Was she mocking me? My interactions with the Seizers made me too used to people being direct with what they meant.

Then it occurred to me.

I can ask Layla about the Starsnatchers!

Who cared about Kira? Layla appeared talkative, at least.