[DRAFT]

  • R: Have you been to Frontier before?
  • I: Yeah, a while ago though, only for a few days.
  • R: Did the sky look bigger to you?
  • I: Pardon?
  • R: The sky, it's bigger. My dad grew up there, I remember he told me about it and I didn't really know what he meant until I saw it myself. I lived in Frontier for a couple of years when I was like, 10, and I remember that was the first thing I thought when I stepped off the landship; the sky is bigger. It's wider, or further away, or something.
  • I: I think I know what you mean.
  • R: Yeah. It's a weird place.
  • U: Frontier is flat, the horizon is just further away.
  • R: Like you'd know. Did you even leave Throne before this year? Ever?
  • U: Pardon?
  • R: I know you were never a scout, your type never strays far from home, let alone all the way to another continent. You don't get it.
  • U: I know how the horizon works, Ray.
  • R: You haven't felt it though. Actually that's a good question, have you felt emotions before?
  • I: Please stop doing that you 2.
  • R: She started it.
  • I: I don't care, we've been stuck here for what, 1 week now?
  • U: 6 days.
  • I: I'm tired of the mud, and the rain, and you two bickering. It's like you want to be in a bad mood.
  • R: Oh and you're helping?
  • I: This is exactly what I mean! You keep arguing over nothing, you didn't need to say that, why did you say that? In fact no, I'm not being a part of this. I'm going to check on the reciever.

3 days pass. Neither Ulysses or Ray talk much. The rain, which had been pouring down for several days with no respite, finally gave way to clearer skies, and their first taste of real sunlight since the operation began. It is the early morning, and it's Ray's turn to take shift watching the scanners.

  • U: This is the worst assignment I've ever had.
  • R: Sure is, I can't imagine the office ever had knee deep mud. Probably the worst I've had too.
  • U: Really?
  • R: Hm. Maybe. I've seen ugliers weather, but never had to sit still in it for weeks.

Ray peaks his head out of the window. The sun hangs low behind the clouds, bathing the mountains in a dull morning light. While the weather has passed, the mark it left on the landscape will stay for days, maybe weeks. Far down the hill, the river had risen by something like a meter from when they first arrived, and the land is covered in the sort of slick mud that turns a light walk into a miserable trudge. At least the plants look happy, she thinks, well fed and yearning for the sun.

  • R: What a waste of half decent weather. I'm going to find an excuse to get out of here. Did you have an estimate for when that spectra is meant to show up?
  • U: Uh, still 3 days I think?
  • R: Then we'll need more supplies, I'm going back into town to grab some.
  • U: Do you really think it's a good idea making a long walk in all this mud? With the weather this patchy? In spectral territory?
  • R: You're totally right, it'd be completely unsafe to go alone. I'm dragging you with me.
  • U: Are you kidding? That spectra could turn up at any minute, we can't just leave Io alone.
  • R: You said it was what, a few days away?
  • U: 3.
  • R: And how far away was it 3 days ago?
  • U: According to our readings, 3.
  • R: It's not going anywhere is it?
  • U: Probably not.
  • R: Okay. I'm going to twist Io's arm until he lets us both out.

With no sign of the spectra reappearing any time soon, and supplies running low, Io reluctantly permits a short expedition to the nearby town. He is pleased at least, that Ray and Ulysses would voluntarily go together.
The terrain is difficult. The mountain paths were uneven enough before the rain, and every ditch and bog has grown. It is in circumstances such as these that the float pack reveals its true utility. Ray hovers low, his feet only touching the ground in brief hops, pushing her along at a steady brisk pace. Elegant may not be the word to describe his movement, but compared to Ulysses' graceless skipping he may as well be figure skating.

  • R: Can you pick up the pace? It's going to take all day if I have to keep stopping for you.
  • U: Not really. Why are you complaining? You brought me out here knowing I'm less fit than you, of course I'm slower.
  • R: It's not your fitness that's the problem, did anyone actually train you how to move with one of these?

Still lagging behind, Ulysses brings herself to a stop a few meters away from her teammate. She can feel the array of disks on her chest and butt flutter as they rearrange to arrest her momentum, humming softly as she lowers to the ground.

  • U: Basically, yeah?
  • R: You're not meant to skip like that, it looks like you're trying to stop yourself from falling over the whole time. It's slow and you're tiring yourself out juttering around like that.
  • U: Because I don't want to fall over.
  • R: Right, but it's your float pack's job to keep you upright, not your legs. You only want to be using those to pick up speed. Here, try to do what I'm doing.

Ray wills his pack into motion, lifting her a couple of centimeters off the ground. Grumbling under her breath, Ulysses follows along doing the same.

  • R: Okay, just hold there for a moment, and kick off the ground once.

As he says this, Ray stamps on the ground and immediately draws his leg back up, drifting forwards with the momentum.

  • R: Just focus on your stabiliser, the bit on your chest. I promise you won't fall over.
  • U: I know what a stabiliser is.

Ulysses gingerly copies Ray's movements, pushing off the ground before throwing her hands out as if to catch herself. She doesn't fall though, instead drifting above the ground in much the same manner as Ray had, albiet wobbling more the whole time.

  • R: Okay great, you've basically got it. Just use both feet at once, and keep balancing like that.

He bounds ahead again, and Ulysses follows. Almost stumbling as she takes off, but after a few hops she finds a rythm and settles into it. Where before her face grimaced from the anxious focus, a grin forms. 1 2, 1 2, 1 2; she glides over the terrain, subtley changing the force of each leg as she steers herself forwards. She's going fast enough that she doesn't need to hop constantly, the terrain beneath her exists in the briefest bursts as her feet grip as best they can on the slick dirt. For a fleeting moment she overtakes Ray. He gets a good look at an unfamiliar sight: her smirk, before Ulysses catches her foot on a stone and tumbles head over heels onto her back.

  • R: Ah hahaha!

He skids to a halt, using her stabiliser to keep her from the same muddy fate. Winded, Ulysses gasps:

  • U: You fucker, I told you I'd fall over.

Ray reaches down to grab her wirst, pulling her back to her feet.