Story - Protana 2

Planet New Caledonia, Equatorial Region 26:03 Local time

Venna "Zephyr" Soris was doing some after-hours tuning on her ship, the Updraft, in the hangar of the hideout. It was slow and meticulous work, but she was accompanied by her music and silence.

That was until the Green Recluse made an all-but-crash-landing, streaking in through the exterior entrance, it's spindly wings folding in on their actuators as they hit solid ground. Of course, at the time, she had never heard of the Green Recluse, but the ship would soon become famous. When she would later tell the story, she had recognized the ship right away and ran to help. In reality she had been yelling angrily at the newcomer for ruining her groove. But a moment later she remembered herself and ran towards the ship which had come skidding across the deck-plate, smashing some shelves of tools at the back as it didn't quite reach the back wall.

Venna could see the ship had been through hell. It had scrapes and scoring all over it, as well as a strange sooty coating which was even now evaporating into tiny green embers and flaking to nothing.

She hesitantly touched the ship and found it hot to the touch. In the moment of her hesitation, the cockpit canopy jerked open with a hiss and a figure tumbled out and down the ship, landing, panting on the deck. The flight-helmet completely obscured their face, with its dark visor. At last the figure snapped the collar off and quickly broke the seal. They unclasped the chinstrap and the helmet tumbled off, along with the flight cap underneath.

A matted mess of sweaty hair came loose and a harrowed face was revealed. Venna caught them before they collapsed completely.

The pilot was trying to say something, their breath catching. Finally they got out one word,

"...Protana…"

Venna couldn't have known it then, but this was the start of a journey that would lead to places far beyond her imagination. At the time, she just replied, "Wha?"