“This might be for the better.” Followed up Zeta from behind me. “He is causing you too much stre-”

“Stress! We’re on a frozen moon, far from even our shit home!” I snapped back at the woman.

I bit my lip, blood running down my chin. The pain helped me finish shrugging off the anger Starden incited in me.

“I’m sorry, Zeta. I know you are just trying to hel-” I was quickly and definitely slapped across the face.

“No problem, Alpha. Just remember, you are not alone in dealing with this place. We are all on this frozen moon together. This is why we need to find those survivors.”

Her slap hadn’t hurt much at all, what with the intense cold and recent beatings I had received, but her words cut me deeply. She was not wrong, I was trying to fight every threat on Dun Lund and it was tearing us apart. I breathed deeply and nodded at the woman, taking note of the unshed tears in her eyes.

Gamma was mute as we made our way back to the moraine, but when we started the haul back through the boulders she suddenly started on her life.

“My parents were not really Digits. My father was an Official who had an affair with one of the supervisor Digits at the farms of Clearmon, my hometown.” Zeta and I listened intently. Based on Zeta’s look this was probably the first she had spoken about her past.

“He was good to her. He even called her ‘love’, which always made my mama swoon. This didn’t last long though. When the other supervising Digits found out who my father was they started asking my mama for favors, always pushing.” The girl’s slight smile turned into a grim line.

“My father did nothing. The bullies came in droves, giving work to my mama that they didn’t want to do because they said she had it easy. She endured it; she always worked with a smile, but I could tell it was rough for her. One day I had enough. I went to each of the supervisor’s stations and wrecked the computers there.”

“They were not happy about that. They beat me, claiming insubordination, and brought me to my father. You can guess, but he gave me no pardon, and here is where I ended up.” The youth gestured with her armored arms at the stone shelf and snow that covered the ground around us.

“Alpha, you have been treating me more like my your daughter than my father ever did. I know it has only been a short while, but you have taken care of us with your life. Please, don’t end up like my mama, we are here to help you with the burdens.” We had all stopped moving when Gamma started her story.

Without realizing I had started crying, tears dampened the inside of my helmet and I had to retract it to clear them. One look at Zeta told me she was even worse off than me, especially after becoming so close to Gamma over the last few days. I rarely cried, but I wasn’t sure if it had been due to the girl’s words or my own heightened emotions since mutating.

After seeing our response, Gamma pulled both of us into an awkward hug and squeeze. It was a clunky thing considering the armor plating making our bodies wider than usual but I smiled genuinely. I felt an unknown weight fall from my shoulders.

I had no family, just another gifted Digit orphan that had been given a profession early in life. Throughout my life I had attempted to connect with people, making friends where possible, but no connection felt real enough even when I cared for the well-being of my friends. I realized early on that it was not the fault of the people themselves, but the oppression and strain we all lived under. I was the odd one. At that moment I realized that the survivors were my family, not because of blood but because of our commitment to one another.

“We’ll get out of here, Gamma. I will make sure they pay. All of them.” I set my jaw and resolve for the future.

From then, we pushed deeper into the moraine making record time. It looked to be about midday by the time we reached the passage. After our long walk we took a quick break at our surface camp, hoping to make even better time down into the city.

Based on my lack of space lag since arriving on Dun Lund the moon must have had a similar rotation speed to Earth. I still could not wrap my head around the fact that the moon and planet we're actually part of our solar system, the one that had been thoroughly studied in the process of colonizing Mars, but considering I was now part mutant and there were aliens out in the universe anything was possible.

Zeta broke me from my thoughts and we headed down. The new determination evident in our steps and lack of chitchatter. Starden was scared. Building up our strength to sever our need of the USG would be the first step to growing stronger and that meant capitalizing in the resources we had currently