Hakuria’s heart stopped. Something seemed to be caught in her throat as she held still, unable to move.

“Just what do you think you’re doing, Hakuria Tano?”

“Uh-oh…” Littlehand said.

Hakuria breathed out, both in relief and in frustration. She turned in a soft cascade of pneumatic hisses and narrowed her eyes. Xandra. “You followed me?”

“After Yui woke me up, damn straight I followed you. You’ve been obsessed with this place since…”—it seemed as though she didn’t want to bring him up, as if Hakuria were too fragile to be reminded. Shiro had said he’d come back, to get them all off of Deadworld after he had left with Lady-98. But that had been longer than six seasons ago, and the others had lost hope. Kel went as far as to say he had abandoned them, forgotten, just like this hell heap of a world.

Her nostrils flared. Bringing up her brother did make Hakuria angry. “You can’t stop me. You just don’t want me to find a place of power before you do.”

Xandra’s eyes widened and she ambled forward in her mech. Because of her bossy demeanor and her railgun, the children took to calling her Railing Xandra—and she did seem to rail every time they used that name, too.

She came up short. “You little shit,” she said. Almost all of the parts worth a damn on your Littlehand I gave you, including her AI.

While true, that didn’t make Hakuria Xandra’s pet. And had Xandra given her the parts because she was a good mech builder like her and Shiro, or was it because Hakuria was Shiro’s sister? “Littlehand’s dumb,” she said, in reference to her artificial intelligence and it’s capabilities.

“That hurts, Hakuria,” Littlehand chirped in her cybernetic voice. Hakuria rubbed a thumb over her hand grip in consolation to her metal friend.

“That’s all you have to say?” Xandra asked. Her eyes were narrowed. She was such a mother, or maybe a big sister. She thought for a time, wondering what the other girl was getting at. “You’re saying that you deserve the power more?”

“No.”

They looked at one another, both girls defying the will of the other. Xandra had always sheltered the group, especially after Shiro left. They would have made a good—they will make a good couple—Hakuria corrected within her mind. Xandra was pretty, with shiny black hair cut at her jawline. Much prettier than Hakuria would ever be.

Without uttering a word, she turned and looked up the hill.

“Don’t you dare, Hakuri. It’s too dangerous. Look at this—it’s poison!”

She ignored Xandra. “Are we going?” Littlehand chirped.

“Mmm,” Hakuria noised with a nod. She pulled her goggles down over her eyes and she pressed forward, stepping over a slick rock as she began the descent up the heap-laden slope.

Behind her, she heard Xandra growl in frustration. Hakuria didn’t care. She needed to get into that ship, to find a place of power if there was a cyborg in there so she could get into Lady-98’s camp and find her brother.

“Hakuri,” Xandra called, her own mech hissing in pursuit. “It’s probably been picked bare anyway!”

She moved faster, taking hold of a piece of rubble and stepping over it. She spent a lot of time with Littlehand, so they worked well together. It was rare that she tripped or fell and was unable to rite herself. But up here, that could mean getting submerged in that poisonous sludge, or possible falling into a heap of old wreckage where something could get through the roll cage and kill her.

It’s happened before, to some of the others…

Still, Hakuria pushed forward. She was done waiting on Deadworld for her brother. Something had happened to him—had to be, otherwise he’d have come for her, right?

She grit her teeth and pressed forward, stepping over the sludgy stream where it narrowed. When Littlehand’s mech foot connected with the slick rock there, her purchase became wobble. The mech slipped.

With a deft movement, Hakuria manipulated her foot pedals and arms, putting Littlehand’s knee down. It connected with the soft material under the sludge, completely submerging her knee in the liquid, but otherwise leaving her ankle and foot untouched.

“Hakuria, don’t move.”

“It’s fine.”

“No it’s not. We don’t know what’s in this water—don’t move.”

Hakuria stepped up, repositioning Littlehand’s foot securely in the streambed. This area was somewhat flat, as she was atop a cascade.

“You idiot.”

As Xandra said the words, the liquid from the stream seeped down Hakuria’s EPO suit and over her ankle. She would be fine. Unless this sludge was acidic or radioactive, or filled with some kind of dark magic, a little trickle would be fine.

Of course it would.

Xandra wasn’t far behind, but Hakuria had already made it to the uppermost ledge, and now there was a sort of path, leading upward without any more cascades, and no more sludge.

Good, because her skin was already starting to burn.

Squinting through the morning sunlight, she made her way along the path toward the wrecked ship. It hardly looked like a ship, covered in rubble, junk wreckage and thick vines. Not to mention the decades of dirt and dust buildup. There was so much grass and moss, the ship almost looked like a piece of the mountain top.

The only reason Hakuria had noticed it was a ship was because of a flash of light during the Desk War. They had been situated at the bottom of the pass looking for food and salvage when several of Lady-98s mechs got into a battle with the Midnighters.

It had been the scariest thing she and the others had ever seen. The noise, the cracking in the air and the flashing lights that left black marks in their vision for hours.

The best they could do at that time was hide, keep their heads down and hope none of those mechs saw them, otherwise they’d have been vaporized.

After that point, all the children had kept their eyes open for any weaponized tech, but it was so hard to operate, it was nearly impossible to put on their mechs. Xandra was a genius, Hakuria admitted to herself grudgingly. She had managed to get that railgun to work.

She glanced behind her. Xandra crested the last cascade and was well on her way. Great.

What would happen between them if there was a place of power inside that ship? Would they fight for it? Xandra would surely try to take it for herself—maybe not out of selfishness, but because she thought she had to protect the group.

Such a mother. And she could be real stuck up about it sometimes, too—like Shiro had put her up to it or something.

Annoying.

Xandra came up beside Hakuria, the pneumatics of her mech hissing, it’s feet thumping heavily. She glanced toward the other girl. Xandra’s lips were parted, and for once the name “railing Xandra” didn’t hold any juice, because she said nothing.

Together, the two mech-walker girls approached the old wreck. Had this ship been part of the allied defense, or was this a Rem ship?

It was impossible to say yet.