“Miss,” A voice called out, “Excuse me, Miss!” It called out more forcefully.

  A hand landed on Riza's shoulder as she was among the mass shuffling of people and cargo. She glanced over her shoulder to see that it was an Atlas soldier who had singled her out.

  “I'm going to need you to remove your hood.”

  Riza said nothing, turning her head forward as she debated what to do. Run? Fight? The thought immediately made her aware of the depths her instinctual survival still reached.

  “I’m sorry?” She asked, feigning ignorance.

  “I need you to remove your hood so I can ID you,” The soldier repeated.

  “What for?” she asked.

  “Just standard procedure. Once I'm done, you'll be on your way.”

  She paused again, still uncertain of what action to take. She turned around, slowly, as if buying herself time to come up with a plan, but nothing came to mind. Right when she was about to take off her hood, a blonde woman crashed into the soldier- she was dressed in rather raggedy clothing, like a haulier or someone in the cargo business that didn't quite make much money but enough to get by. What Riza first noticed was her long, bright blonde hair that ended before her shoulders and the bright green in her eyes as she gave the soldier a glare of disgust.

  “Watch yourself, suit.” She flipped him off before giving him a push. The emp threading that lined her cheeks and chin gave her an intimidating snarl that complemented her muscular physique.

  “Ma'am, I'm a soldier of the Atlas,” The soldier clarified, rather stunned by her behaviour.

  Riza was stunned too, the woman's audacity was rather baffling considering the consequences of her behavior was rather obvious.

  “And I just took a shit. Do you and my turd deserve respect?”

  The soldier didn't respond, as his baffled expression did all the talking. Holy shit, Riza wanted to laugh, but knew she wasn't in a position to do so. The soldier blushed with embarrassment and tried to grab the woman in retaliation.

  “Whoa, hey, what the fuck,” She muttered as she evaded his grasp.

  “Harassing a soldier is illegal,” He said in defence of his actions.

  “Yeah right, Puela! My ass, what I just did is illegal,” She shoved him again.

  He immediately reached for the blaster at his hip, not drawing it but expressing that he's prepared to use it.

  “You gonna shoot me over a few words?” She looked at him, almost unconcerned with his threat.

  “If you don't follow my orders, I'm at liberty to use force.”

  “Draw that gun on me and see what happens,” She grinned.

  “Is that a threat?”

  “Maybe.” She shrugged.

  In that moment, Riza noticed the AA symbol on the woman’s neck, neatly tucked behind her hair– she's part of the rebellion. This sent a concerned shiver down Riza's spine. No wonder she's willing to pick a fight. Riza took a hesitant step backwards. Now that the soldier was distracted, she felt the need to leave before he noticed.

  “Get your hands in the air,” he said as he drew his blaster.

  Yeah, definitely best if I leave, she noted to herself as the situation began to escalate.

  And so, she did, sneaking away from the conflict as the muffled exchange of words continued from behind her.

  _OUTGOING TRANSMISSION: PILO

  “Pilo?” She said over comms.

  “What's up, Boss?”

  “Start up the ship,”

  “On it. Everything good out there?”

  “Yeah, everything's fi-”

  “Hey!” The soldier yelled above the crowd, grabbing Riza's attention as she turned to see what was going on.

  The soldier was looking directly at her, and no longer seemed concerned with the blonde woman now that Riza had snuck away.

  “Stop the woman in the hood!” The soldier called out to two more soldiers nearby.

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  Shit, Riza said as she began running. Her haste was responded to immediately, and the soldiers began chasing her. She'd ducked and dove amongst the crowd, trying to lose the soldiers, but they maintained a good track of her. It was likely their BCIs that made it easier for them, but she wasn't sure what technology could even track the back of someone's covered head.

  As she ran, shoving people who wouldn't get out of the way, she noticed the sign that directed her to the lot they landed in. Their jump was in eight minutes, but she wouldn't have the time to fly the ship there herself now that she'd been caught up with the soldier from earlier.

  “Boss, is everything okay?”

  “Uhhh, not so much. I've got a few Atlas soldiers that want my autograph,” She giggled nervously. “I need you to get to launch pad H-seventeen in the next five minutes.”

  “Copy that.” He confirmed. “Making my way there now,”

  She scoured the signs above for the directions to the launch pad when she noticed the ones that directed her to the H section were back where she'd just come from. She let out a disappointed groan before she continued running, dipping among the crowd to try going unnoticed. However, it didn't quite go as planned, as a soldier grabbed her shoulder with an aggressive clasp.

  “Stop running!”

  She instinctively dropped her shoulder and threw a punch at the soldier's face that connected with his neck instead.

  “Oh shit, sorry–” She said in a panic as the soldier choked and fell to his knees.

  She was reaching an arm out to assist him when she noticed two more soldiers heading in her direction, and she realised she'd done a good job incapacitating this one. So, she kept running. She made her way to the tunnels that led to the H launch pad, and the large queues of people waiting for public transport slowed her down. There wasn't much space to scoot by, and when she saw the soldiers closing the distance, she had to start pushing people out of the way.

  “Sorry. Sorry,” she said as she forcefully shoved and pushed people that were in her way, many of whom were children or Elders. She started to notice that her actions were those of an outlaw, desperate and uncaring for others. Far from the type of person she always thought she was.

  As she ran, she suddenly crashed into a child who stepped out and into her way, causing her to topple over and hit the ground. Her hood fell off, and she landed on her back, where over a dozen eyes glared down at her exposed identity.

  “Mommy, is that the lady from the news?” Another child asked as their parent pulled them away.

  Riza had never been a threat to anyone and had never done anything to harm people. But she could see the fear in their eyes once they recognised who she was, and it made her feel like more of an outcast than she'd ever felt before. Rims may be the struggling population of the galaxy, but they generally try to keep themselves out of trouble. Often working against the AA out of hatred for the collateral damage they cause in their communities. It didn't take long for someone to make this clear.

  “She's over here!” A voice called out, presumably to inform the soldier.

  In a panic, Riza scurried to her feet and continued her pursuit to the ship, pushing and shoving her way through them as they tried to slow her down. The thought of how they'd have all sold her out without understanding the truth of the situation didn't sit well with her. It almost made all of the pushing easier, as though eachhit was her way of getting back at them.

  Right when she reached the front of the queue, she could see the cargo ship slightly further beyond a few of the transit ships that many of the Rims were making their way onto. But, before she noticed the three soldiers that were ahead of her, one of them tackled her to the ground on arrival. She writhed and kicked out of his grasp, hitting him in the face before trying to get to her feet when another soldier kicked her in the stomach. She grunted in pain and fell back to the floor, and the soldier grabbed her by the hair, lifting her to her feet.

  “Aaah!” She cried out as she held the hand that gripped her hair.

  “Shut it!” He yelled, slapping her across the face as he let go of her hair. She dropped to her knees again, clutching the side of her face as it burned.

  I have to get out of here, she felt her adrenaline drive her, and she quickly tried to dart past the soldiers, but was knocked over again.

  “Oh no, you don’t,” A soldier chimed.

  “Let go of me!” She yelled, squirming to release his grip.

  “Hey, Puela!” a somewhat familiar voice called out before a large thud echoed throughout the tunnel.

  It was the blonde girl again, but this time she'd just punched one of the soldiers. In that moment, the soldier with his grip on Riza lapsed in concentration, and she swung her fist as hard as she could at his face. It connected, and the soldier fell to the floor, clutching his nose as she noticed blood covering his gloves.

  “Get out of here,” The blonde woman said, “I can handle them.”

  “But–” Riza panicked, “You can get a ride with us,” She offered

  “Nah, my rides sorted,” Blondie smiled and waved Riza off.

  She nodded and ran, uncertain of what else to say.

  She had questions, and mainly wanted to know why she was willing to help but knew there wasn't time to find out.

  As she boarded the cargo ship, she dashed straight for the cockpit, where she saw Pilo seated and watching the news.

  “Did you see the news?” He said with a ghost-like expression.

  “I've already felt it,” She said, “We need to leave. This is our launch period.”

  Like clockwork, the news that Pilo was watching updated to a real-time report of the Port, where images of Riza evading soldiers was put all over the feed.

  “Goddammit,” Pilo mumbled as he closed the news feed and gripped the yoke.

  The cargo ship took off, and he began manoeuvring amongst the multitude of transit ships that were ahead of him.

  “I rewrote the ship's ID,” He said nervously.

  “We need to jump before they tag it again.”

  “Working on it,”

  He steered the ship towards the giant mass of energy at the end of the launchpad. It looked like a large, swirling wall that shone with a surging blue as ships made their way inside it. As their cargo ship entered, it began shaking violently before a sudden calmness occurred.

  “Brace yourself,” He said.

  Riza took his advice and sat behind him in one of the crew seats, strapping herself in just in time. It felt like the ship was suddenly launched by a slingshot, and it rapidly sped through space as stars began appearing like elongated lines of light. There were some severe microvibrations as the ship experienced turbulence, but within ten seconds, it all stopped, and the ship came to a rather intense stop as it entered yet another wall of energy.

  The pause was short, and it slingshot again. Riza held on to the armrests of her seat, burying her nails as the sensations of the shaking nearly put her unconscious. Within ten seconds, the ship came to another stop, and she knew there would be one more jump. The port thrust space past the ship, tunnelling it from one station to the next until it reached Banta, the star system that held the planet Liveria.