"If you wish, I shall keep your logbook safe until you return...or, incase you don't, at least you can have something left behind so you are not forgotten." Kirov's offer took Akira by surprise. Kindness? From a Commissar? Perhaps things had changed. None of Akira's original trainers would have offered such mercy. The Kusarian shook her head, staring out at the landscape waiting beyond the Storm's doors.
"Thank you Major." Akira pocketed the notepad. "But forgotten is exactly what I want to be."
Metal shifted underneath her as the Storm's pilot adjusted the gunship's attitude, the roar of the turbofans tearing through the cabin. Akira took a step toward the ramp, fighting down her trepidation. She would be fine. Just stay focused, complete her mission, and don't do anything too-
"Enjoy the vacation." Kirov grasped her arm, leading her to the Storm's ramp. How could she be so casual? Despite herself, Akira was already starting to doubt the wisdom of this little endeavor. Nonetheless, she followed the Major to the rear, head held high. Akira kept her strides as confident as the swaying gunboat would allow, pride outweighing fear.
Black mud pelted her face as she reached the end of the ramp, thrown up by the gunship's turbofans. She hardly noticed, eyes fixed on the ground, waiting what seemed like miles beneath her. Akira blinked, calming herself. A younger her had jumped fearlessly from far higher platforms back in Oyaka, plunging from the windows of canal-side warehouses into the cold embrace of the waiting ocean, Tai splashing down beside her, his juvenile hand clamped firmly around her own. Together, she and her younger brother had been the bane of the Mikimoto Academy's truancy officers. Standing on the ramp of a Coalition gunboat, the gales of an alien world pulling at her hair, it felt like centuries ago.
Landing would be the difficult part. The boggy ground looked soft enough, but the water's depth was impossible to gauge from above. With the deep brown sludge the Storm's fans had thrown up, she doubted it would be any easier at ground level. Oyaka had been a floating city, surrounded by an ocean several miles deep. Even the canals had been deep enough to permit the super-trawlers that roamed the planet's surface without incident. Here, each pool could easily hide upturned roots or jagged rocks. Neither would be pleasant to fall on. Perhaps if she aimed for a clear patch and rolled...
A hand clamped down on her belt. Only then did Akira realise that Kirov's hand had released her arm. Something slid into her pocket beside the notebook, pressuring her leg. What was she doing? "You'll need that after the landing."
Kirov's other hand closed around her coat. Realisation hit Akira like an avalanche.
Kami.
Akira barely had time to grasp her rifle before Kirov threw her from the craft, sending the lithe Lieutenant tumbling through the air. JiangXi pitched sickeningly, colors blurring. She screamed, her voice drowned out by the roar of the gunboat. As she fell, Akira saw the Storm's ramp retract, turbofans rotating as the craft burnt sky.
Pain ripped through her body, like a giant twisting her bones from their joints, mud splashing up around her. Dark dots flickered in her vision, growing larger with each passing heartbeat. Fear surged through her. Was this how she died, just another body littering JiangXi's surface? No. No, no, no! The thought was tiny, barely coherent beneath an ocean of pain. Survive. Kirov had said something before she jumped... What was it? Why was remembering so hard? Surely it would be easier just to give up. To lie back and let the agony take her somewhere else. Somewhere away from the mud, away from the Coalition, away from the burning pain of consciousness.
Her pocket.
Akira's hands groped for her pocket, movements awkward and clumsy. She could barely see now, shadows and dots eating away at her vision. Yes! Her hands closed on something thin and cylindrical. A syringe. Blind and shaky, Akira ripped the syringe from its plastic sheath. No time to find a vein. A whimper escaped her lips as she jabbed the needle into her leg, the last remnants of her sight fading.
![[Image: JiangXi-Deadlands_zps1af4b71d.png]](http://i1230.photobucket.com/albums/ee482/Commissar1/Miyagi%20Akira/JiangXi-Deadlands_zps1af4b71d.png)