The bullet struck her shoulder armor with such force that Commander Lena yelped and stumbled to the side, letting the soldiers pass while she unfastened her glove and dug the shell out, grunting as she felt a small burn where it struck.

“Damn it,” Lena grumbled as she raised her rifle, ignoring the sharp pain in her shoulder. She fired three small shots toward the bridge above, forcing the attackers into cover. As she followed the squadron she felt the gentle warmth of a small line of blood running down her body, below her armor.

“Here!” a soldier called out, waving Lena forward as he covered her flank. The surrounding men and women shot to the attackers, their bullets striking the men and women that had decided raiding an armed, small village was acceptable. “She’s almost gone.”

“Do you have sleeping gas?” Lena asked the soldier. “We have to stop the fighting before Wraiths come!”

The soldier stepped aside, closing the door and began shooting into the group.

Lena grimaced as she placed her gun on a table nearby and pulled off her helmet, revealing her dark blonde hair and aged face. She didn’t bother trying to hide the grey that years of combat and command gave her fibers.

Before her lay a young woman, barely over the third decade of age and dying slowly to an infected gunshot to her abdomen.

“Why are you here?” the girl asked as Lena approached. “I was supposed to die.”

Pulling a pair of medical pincers from her pack along with a bandage Lena scoffed. “You’re one to talk. You weren’t even supposed to come here. You can’t imagine how difficult it was to track you.”

As the girl began to cry, Lena sighed in guilt.

“I understand,” Lena began. “But listen, do you remember the teachings that were jammed into your head when you were born? We must all save who we can, no matter what. It’s your destiny.”

“A destiny I don’t want.”

“Obviously, so you came to a mining planet to do what? Mine? You can barely lift a cup. This is going to hurt. Tell me what you’re doing here while I fish the bullet out.”

The girl stared down as Lena prepared the pincers and gulped in anxious anticipation. She exhaled deeply. “I don’t mine.”

“So what do you do here?”

Lena buried the pincers into the girls stomach, making the young girl yell in pain.

“I give myself physically to the men that work the mining colony!” the girl screamed as Lena pulled the shell from her belly.

“You’re a prostitute?”

“What else would I do? I can barely lift a cup, remember? Now close me up.”

The gel molded into the gunshot wound well enough, filling and expanding to create a solid bandage. The nanites would work their specialty on the wound while the girl recovered.

“The painkillers should be working, try to slowly sit up, don’t bend too much,” Lena warned. She helped the girl stand. “What’s your name?”

“Hanna,” she replied.

“I’m Commander Lena of the Apoth, we were contracted to retrieve you and return you to the Sanctuary.”

“Of course.”

The hair on the back of Lena’s head stood on end, her heart raced, and face burned. “Hanna, don’t move or say a word.” Slowly, Lena pressed on the communicator in her right ear, saying nothing. “Do you hear that?”

Hanna frowned, pulling a discarded jacket from the room around her shoulders. Her skin was slicked in sweat and her brown eyes were red like she’d been crying. “I don’t hear anything.”

“Exactly. I need you to trust me, make no sound, no movements until I tell you to, all right?” Lena asked, serious and focused.

“Ok.”

Lena slowly opened the door, just a crack and peered through toward the sight outside. At first she heard nothing, not even animals or insects nearby.

Stepping out into the room she crouched low, as low as she could without making a sound as she tip-toed over the concrete. The sun came through the windows above and illuminated the building with a halo of sunshine that may have been calming if not for the situation.

Please, just let us go.

Reaching one of the soldiers she turned his shoulder and clenched her eyes when his shrunken face faced her, mouth wide in a surprised exclamation before every last bit of fluid was pulled from his body in a matter of seconds.

In all her years of service, Lena had never faced a Wraith before. But, she knew well enough of their horrific appearance and how their touch affected the mortal body. Her hands shook as she rifled through the dead soldier’s holsters. She silently crawled to the next body and searched his holsters.

All she needed was a luminescent bar or stun baton, what she thought was standard gear for ground troops on Class D planets such as their current location. But, as she searched several drained bodies she was left with nothing.

The room darkened and the sound of a long, dragged out exhale filled the air, causing Lena’s breath to halt and skin to prickle with fear. As it grew louder she looked to the door containing Hanna and dared a thought to sprint.

Long, thin fingers gripped the corner wall and Lena ducked down, hiding herself among a small pile of corpses. She hid her face, and stifled her breathing as the dull rumble of the entity grew close.

It came close, the vibrations the Wraith emitted caused her body to tremble, shook the ground and filled her with dread. Her heart raced and beat so hard in her chest that she was certain it would give her position.

The rumble grew closer, and Lena felt the cold against the back of her neck. Long, black fingers came in to view and suddenly gripped the edges of her armor.

“Ah!” Lena yelled as the Wraith picked her up and tossed her to the side, slamming her into the square beam hard enough to break off a chunk of concrete. “Aiden, I need you!”

The Wraith pursued as Lena sprinted down a hall, traveling down metal stairs and through the steam of the power plant while the machines pumped and continued providing energy to the nearby village.

Constant steam hid the Wraith’s form from sight, and Lena prayed that it did the same for her. Clanging metal echoed around her head, filling the Commander’s ears with the rumbling sound of the Wraith, but the mechanical motions of pieces all around her. She focused her gaze, staring into the steam, flinching as a blast struck her face.

Vision compromised, Lena crouched, wiping the moisture from her eyes and placed her hands on the metal grates at her feet. She waited and waited, hoping to hear Aiden approaching, but she heard nothing but the tremble of the atmosphere around her while the Wraith hunted and the machines slamming together.

Reaching up she pressed her communicator in her ear. “Aiden,” Lena hissed. “The subject is in a small, private room when you first enter the station. Don’t let the Wraith get her or we will fail this mission.”

The rumbling faded, the Wraith was leaving. Stepping quietly and slowly, Lena walked back the way she came, avoiding the blasts of hot steam while sweat and moisture dripped down her face and off her chin.

It came at her from out of nowhere, slamming itself against Lena as the Wraith tackled her to the ground. She screamed in terror and her years of training activated her flash with a quick push of her bracer. The exterior of her suit lit up intensely, blinding Lena but driving the Wraith away.

She had no time to be cautious, the light wouldn’t last. So, Lena sprinted up the steps, her boots pouding on the metal grates.

“Hanna!” Lena yelled. The door opened and she grabbed the girl. “Come, hurry!”

“What is it?” Hanna asked, worried. She screamed at the sight of the drained bodies piled around. “What’s happening?”

Voices filled the air. Lena heard guns charging.

“This way,” Lena stated and pulled Hanna through a small door. “Quick, they’re surrounding the building but we can get out unnoticed if we’re quick.”

Hanna followed silently, but she seemed stiff. The girl had just seen dozen of drained corpses, something Lena had only ever seen on videos and explained in training manuals. The light had long since faded from her armor and if the Wraith attacked again, they were dead.

The sunlight flooded their eyes as they opened the doorway to the outdoor, only to have a pistol shoved below Lena’s chin.

“Look who we have here?” a man stated coyly. “A Sanctuary tool and…Hanna?”

“Carl, we were attacked,” Hanna said weakly. She shook and tears streamed down her face, finally breaking down. “Something is here.”

“We know, we saw the bodies. I always knew this would happen. That’s why we came prepared.”

The rumbling of the air around them grew. And in the distance, Lena saw Aiden sprinting toward them.

“Our ride is here,” Lena exclaimed. She pulled Hanna along, who sobbed the entire way as Aiden approached, his metal frame hissing as he ran at his top speed. “It’s here!”

Aiden stopped with a sharp skid, knocking dirt up as his feet dug into the ground. “I came as fast as I could, “he said with a cracking to his vocal emitters.

The Wraith made a single swoop, appearing only for a moment, but passed through the men at the door. They gasped and fell dead, emptied of fluid.

Hanna screamed and screamed as Aiden put his barrier up. He lifted Hanna, who clung to his neck and sobbed as they ran toward the Platine and Lena jumped into the driver’s seat. The Platine roared as the engine started and Lena drove it as fast as she could to the Apoth.

“Io!” Lena called. “It’s a Wraith.”

“Expulsion barrier activated,” Io replied into her ear through their communication link.

Sound seemed to fade away for Lena. Her body was tired, her mind overwhelmed with the horrors of the day, horrors of her life. It all felt too much at the moment. But, she looked over at Hanna, the girl she was charged with rescuing and shook her head of any doubts or hesitation. She must succeed. A dark shadow came and went as the Wraith dove into Aiden’s shield, unable to penetrate the hard light barrier he created.

They saw the open cargo door to the Apoth, a large Exiled FI-81 Medical Diver. Crossing the barrier, the Wraith couldn’t enter and the door opened.

“Aiden, get Hanna to the medical bay, see to her wounds. I need a drink,” Lena said and stumbled to the bar in her quarters.