-one incredibly nutritious meal later-

“I know it’s probably not advised to lie down immediately after eating… but I really want to take a nap already.” I stretch myself in an attempt to make my food settle a bit better. The extra nutrition meant that the mac with ham and cheese fell even heavier than it normally would.

“I could use some rest too.” Luna nodded slowly and stacked our plates on top of each other. “Are you sure you are done eating?”

“If I eat more, I’m going to explode.” I sighed.

“Are you sure? I can always get a bit more for you.” Luna was definitely teasing me.

“How about… no?”

Luna giggled and put the plates in the mini dishwasher. “But I think I also ate a bit too much.”

“You ate almost as much as me, I’m not surprised.” I gently got up from my seat and stumbled over to my bed, as much as I just wanted to pomf into the mattress, face first and with my entire body, I kept my cool and just calmly sat down on the side to take off my shoes.

After Luna was done with the plates, she walked over as well and did the same, unbuttoning her uniform soon after that. As usual, I turned away for that to give her a bit of privacy, she did the same for me too.

“Hey, Lauren…” Luna asked.

“Yeah?” I kept looking at the wall next to me.

“Uhm, you can look if you want. I’m already done…” Dang, she sounded shy.

But I kept staring at the wall for a few seconds before I turned around. Luna had already gotten into her pj’s. “Did you…” I coughed. “Did you want to ask something?”

“Well…” She blushed. “I felt a bit c-cold yesterday evening in bed…”

“Oh…”

“So I was wondering…”

“I see…” Her plan was pretty bloody obvious. “You know you don’t need to lie to me, right? You already confessed to me.”

“...” Luna blushed a bit harder.

“But I don’t mind if you want to sleep in the same bed… but that doesn’t mean I’ve given you a solid answer to your confession yet… I still need a bit more time for that.” I guess that somewhere it’s weird that I would allow her to sleep next to me without answering her question. On the other hand… if I really wanted to give her an answer I should give it a chance as well. “A bit like a trial period, as you will…. oh… did I say that out loud?”

Luna chuckled. At least she thought it was funny.

“Just let me get the rest of my clothes off first, okay?”

Luna gave me yet another nod and respectfully turned around.

With me in my sportsy oversized t-shirt and a pair of shorts, Luna turned around again after she’d asked if she was allowed to.

“I’m sorry for Sharky though. I’m pretty sure my bed’s not big enough to accommodate it as well.”

“It’s fine, He can stay in my bed…” Luna put her Sharky under her blankets and tucked it in nicely so it wouldn’t catch cold… if plushies could get cold, that is. She then joined me in bed. When we both got under the covers, we actually still had a bit of room left. I never really noticed how big my mattress was until now. Luna did keep her distance away from me but she looked happy nonetheless that I’d allowed her to join me.

“Is it okay if I turn the lights off?” I asked, I was ready to get some shut-eye.

“Mhmm.” She nodded. “Go ahead.”

I didn’t waste a second to do so. “I think I’m going to fall asleep soon… unless you want to talk on for a bit longer?”

“No, it’s fine, you need your rest.” I could tell she was smiling even in this darkness. “We can always talk tomorrow.”

I smiled in return. “Good night, Luna.”

“Good night to you too, Lauren.”

The extra body heat under my blankets was something I wasn’t really used to, but it made sure I dozed off even faster than usual. I could definitely get used to this…

The ship rumbled and shook, which woke me up immediately. A few seconds later, the ship alarms started blaring.

“Unknown vehicle has breached decks two to five!” Ellie spoke over the ship’s intercoms. “Unknown life signs detected at breach points.”

I shot upright in bed. Red emergency lighting was lighting up the room. The shock had knocked Luna off the bed, but luckily she’d landed on the soft mattress. I quickly opened the drawer of my bedside table and took out my reserve pistol I kept in case of emergencies.

“Wh-what’s happening?” Luna grabbed her head and looked disoriented.

“Sounds like a breach.” I replied calmly and collected as my training kicked in. I jumped off my bed and quickly put on a layer of clothes and strapped myself in my boots.

“Do you have an extra pistol?” She asked as she did the same.

“No, I only have this one.” I proceeded to run over to the door. “Ellie, are you there?”

“I am, Commander.” She spoke through the intercoms above.

“Is the hallway clear?”

“Not immediately.”

“Are they bugs?”

“No. They appear to be of different races and sizes, but nothing like the bugs we’ve encountered before. They are armed, however.”

I pressed the button to open the door and peeked in the hallway.

“The bridge, armories and hangar are secured, and defensive perimeters have been set. Firefights are being reported throughout the ship. We’ve already sustained some casualties. Although they appear to be minimal at the moment.”

“This is bad.” I thought to myself what the fastest route to the armory would be. We’d need to go down at least two floors. I then looked at Luna, who’d joined me on the other side of the door. “First things first, we need to get some better weaponry.”

Luna gave me a stoic nod.

I proceeded to press the side of my holostick to release a pair of earpieces. I put in one for myself and gave Luna one as well. “Ellie, if you would, please talk through these earpieces.”

“Was already on it, Commander.” She spoke into my ear. It would be better to communicate like this than to alert everyone in the vicinity by blasting her through the ship intercoms. “Ready to go, Luna?”

Luna gave me a nod again.

“Okay, stay behind me.”

We moved into the hallway and slowly made our way towards the elevator. On our way there we encountered some signs that the enemy entities had passed through but apparently they had headed in the opposite direction. I couldn’t tell what their plan was, at all.

“What are the intruders doing, Ellie?” I whispered.

“They are moving sporadically throughout the ship.” She replied. “They are sticking to their small groups, not splitting up in the process.”

“Okay.” I pressed the button of the elevator with the barrel of my pistol to call it to our floor.

“Commander, two foreign entities got inside of the elevator cabin at the last second.”

“Thanks for the heads-up.”

“They are both approximately the same height as you.”

That information allowed me to cap the two intruders the second the door opened on our floor.

“I guess headshots still work.” I looked down at my opponents. Purple and blue fluid was splashed against the wall of the elevator. That same fluid was dripping out of the matte silverish armor they were wearing. Clearly not terribly bullet resistant. They were both holding some kind of black laser rifle but I couldn’t see a clear trigger mechanism. “Luna, can you do anything with those?”

Luna hesitated for a second before prying one of the weapons out of the hands, or claws, of the enemy. “It… it doesn’t look like something I can use… I think it must be genetically locked to them.”

“Well, that’s a shame.” I then pressed the button to go to the second deck where the armory was situated.

“Second deck has been more heavily hit by the intruders, Commander. Expect fierce resistance.”

“What about our people?”

“The defenses around the armory are holding. There’s roaming parties outside of that. Probably hunting for groups of people that are trying to reach the armory. We’ve got some marines that broke out to try and get reinforcements but they have suffered some losses.”

“Mhmm. Thanks.” I nodded and waited for the elevator to stop at its destination.

A few seconds before we reached our floor, Ellie spoke again. “Firefight close by, take a right in the hallway to your right.”

“Copy that.” The moment the door opened I jogged out, checking my corners first and headed towards the sounds of combat coming from my right. I recognized the rattling of one of our HK-190K assault rifles. When I turned the last corner, I expected to see the enemy in front of me, but they’d already dropped. In a doorway, halfway to the next corner, sat a marine, slumped down against the door frame. Blood seeped out of her stomach. It was Corporal Sparks.

I ran towards her.

“C-Commander… y-you are o-okay… thank the Goddess…” She spit out some blood. “I… I’m sorry…The last bastard got me real good…”

“You did well, soldier.” I put my hand on her shoulder.

“Commander, if we can get to the armoury in time… there’s emergency medical supplies stashed in your combat armours…” Luna tried to give me some hope but it would simply take us too long to get there and back. And carrying Sparks just wasn’t an option.

“I-it’s okay… LC….” Sparks tried to force a smile but she was just hurting too much. “J…. just remember… to… k-keep your back straight…”

“Legs, arms, arms, legs…?” Luna replied.

“Y-you got this… XO…”

“Commander, there’s a group of six coming from the hallway in front of you. They’ll be there in two minutes.”

“Fuck…” I looked down at Sparks.

“Commander, t-t-take my… rifle.” She lifted her rifle up to me. “It’s a new clip…”

“Thanks, Corporal.” I gave her a smile and took the rifle out of her hands.

“You should go that way…” She nodded towards the other hallway… “I… got… one last surprise… for them…” She groaned in pain as she reached for her back. When her hand came back into view, she had a belt of three grenades in it. “May the… Goddess… be with you… Commander.”

“May she be with you too.” I gave her a firm salute, with Luna following my lead, tears in her eyes. I then dragged Luna along with me into the next hallway; not long after that… a bang.