Solvarg Pursues The Moon

Sardines. The Hornets had been packed into a drop pod like smoked fish, bathed in oil, and squished until the air was gone and all sense with it. And unlike a breaching pod that could be retracted and re-used, this slug of metal was meant to be lost. Violently.

Arai hung in straps against the wall, her feet dangling now that the gravity of the planet had a hold of them. The pod shuddered, screaming downward at a velocity she didn’t want to think about. Her armored hands gripped the harness over her chest, crossed at the wrist, and she counted her unsteady breaths with her eyes squeezed so tight she saw lights.

Turbulence rattled the pod like a maraca. Arai and nine other Hornets the seeds inside.

Her stomach flipped.