swallowing space

Oris leaned back against the comm rig, sweat clinging to his collar. His hands were shaking—not from exhaustion, but from something deeper.

Failure.

The relay dish sparked again, flickered, then died entirely.

The signal—encrypted, strengthened, frequency-adjusted—had been sent through.

It had reached something.

And something… had responded.

But all they got back was static.

And a single, broken word.

"Run."

Then nothing.

No location ping.

No confirmation.

Just a warning.

And then the relay fried itself.

---

Kael stared at the dead console for a long moment.

Then without a word, he turned.

"Where are you going?" Oris called out.

Kael didn't answer.

He walked past the cave's edge, ignoring his plasma pistol on the crate. Ignoring Ravager's cockpit, still open and ready.

Just walking.

---

"Kael!" Tyren shouted.

But Kael was already vanishing into the dim light. Mist swallowed his form step by step. He didn't even have his suit fully sealed. Just his field jacket. No armor. No weapon.

Gone.

---

For a moment, no one moved.

Then Oris dropped his tools. "We have to go after him."

Tyren grabbed his arm. "Not like that. You want to charge out there half-cocked and get yourself eaten too?"

Oris gritted his teeth. "He's Kael. If he dies, we're screwed."

"I know," Tyren snapped, his voice tight and low. "But you run out there now and you'll both die. We need a plan."

---

But there was no plan.

Kael was gone.

And with every passing hour, he didn't come back.

---

The mood in the cave spiraled. The fire, already low, felt colder. Tyren kicked the fuel container across the wall hard enough to dent it. Kira flinched, holding onto her knee wrap. Lisette was biting her nails again — not from nervousness but habitual fear. Even Trask finally looked shaken.

Oris tried recalibrating the remaining tools but kept making errors.

Twice, he almost fried a panel.

Freya finally stepped forward. "He's been out there too long."

Tyren didn't respond.

"He's the only one who knows the complete terrain logs. The only one who can coordinate mech paths. The only one who—"

"We know what he is!" Tyren snapped. "We're not dumb!"

Silence fell.

---

Night—or what passed for it—pressed closer.

And still…

No Kael.

---

Three hours in, Oris finally loaded into Specter's cockpit and powered it up. "I'm going."

Tyren stopped him at the ramp. "You don't know which way he went."

"Doesn't matter. I'm not waiting until I find a puddle of his blood."

Trask stepped forward. "Then let us help—"

"No," Oris said coldly. "I don't trust you with my back."

The elder man didn't argue.

---

Tyren paced the edge of the mist, eyes scanning constantly.

He didn't say it aloud, but he was thinking the same thing as Oris:

Without Kael, they wouldn't last long.

Kael was more than muscle. He was the anchor.

The mission planner. The combat strategist. The only one who never froze, never panicked.

His silence held their team together.

Now his absence was cracking them apart.

---

Back inside the cave, Kira sat beside a humming power line, hugging her knees.

"I don't understand why he'd just… go," she whispered.

Lisette looked up. "Maybe… maybe he didn't want to see us fall apart."

Freya just stared into the flames. "Or maybe… he finally did."

---

In the wilderness…

Kael walked.

His legs ached.

His head throbbed.

But the roar of silence around him was louder than the scream of any Kaiju.

He passed rust-colored vines.

Saw deep gouges in the earth — battle signs from beasts long gone.

He didn't stop walking.

Because if he did…

He might scream.

---

He didn't know how long it had been. The sky was always dim. Time had no meaning.

But finally, his legs gave out.

And he collapsed against a rock shelf, breathing raggedly.

Above him, black birds circled, their eyes glowing faintly.

They didn't attack.

They just watched.

As if waiting to see if he'd get up again.

---

Kael stared up at the mist, his mind fraying.

His body was here.

But his thoughts were back in the cave.

With Tyren.

With Oris.

With the girls who cried quietly, trying not to be noticed.

With the old man who handed him back silence instead of resistance.

He closed his eyes.

And whispered, "I'm sorry."

Then passed out.

---

Back in the cave…

Tyren's voice broke through the comms. "I've got heat distortion on the western shelf. Big, but faint. Not Kaiju. Might be him."

Oris turned sharply. "Let's go."

Freya stood too. "Let us come."

Tyren didn't argue this time.

"Fine. But you follow my lead."

The four of them suited up.

And vanished into the mist.

Hoping they'd find Kael before something else did.

---