phasmattack

[phasmattack]

Visitors (a 65 story) Chapter 9: Redemption

Read Chapter 8

Pairing: Captain Mills x Fem Reader

Fic Summary: 65 million years ago, Captain Mills (played by Adam Driver) crashes a passenger transport ship into Earth during the Cretaceous period. You are among three survivors of the crash. Together with Mills, you must make your way to the only shot of extraction through an unknown terrain riddled with deadly prehistoric creatures.

Fic Masterlist

Read on Ao3

___

You

The damage of the original crash was brutal, but the sight of this scene stole the air from your lungs. The back half of the ship had collided with the side of the mountain, sending the remaining unoccupied cryochambers pierced straight into the sharp rocks that jut from the cliffside. You force a painful gulp and send a prayer of gratitude that your chamber was not among them.

Careful to avoid the blunt shards of metal and glass, your group slowly moves through the crash site. Koa hesitantly peers into every chamber that you pass, your heart sinks at the realization of what she’s looking for. Unsure how to break this news to her, you shiver and continue following Mills into the dormant escape pod.

He struggles to open the hatch, eventually opting to shove into it with his unwounded shoulder. The inside of the pod is remarkably intact, lights whirring to life when Mills flips the switch. The pod is small, containing a narrow hallway with two small adjoining rooms that lead to a modest cockpit holding two chairs and a basic switchboard.

You notice Koa enter each room and frantically search it, her big eyes now filled with tears. You move toward her and try to find the right words to say when Mills calls you from the cockpit. Stepping away for a moment, you enter to see him leaned back in one of the chairs, both hands running through his hair.

“The transmission was received,” He tells you, a glimmer of hopefulness in his voice that you haven’t heard before, “They sent an extraction point for us.”

He looks up at you, now standing beside him with an arm resting against his chair. His eyes shine and he breaks into a wide grin. You match his grin and melt at the sight of his eyes, every muscle in your body seems to relax for the first time since starting this journey. He breaks your gaze to peer behind you, looking for Koa. She isn’t there.

“Koa?” He calls, lifting from his chair and following you into the hallway. You quickly search the small pod for the girl and when you don’t find her you both rush outside. By one of the mangled cryochambers, she sits on the ground with her face in her hands.

“...Koa?” You prod, squatting down to match her level and resting your hand on her shoulder. She yells something forceful in her language and shoves your hand off her shoulder. She jumps up and turns to run from you, which leads her smack into Mills.

“Whoa, whoa.” He clamps his hands onto her shoulders, stopping her in her tracks. She thrashes around but he holds her still. She starts to weakly punch against his stomach,

“Fetah-lay ahh kot’la!” She squeals between throws, “To ada lukde! Mo-nah fetah-lay oh wann!”

She begins to sob and falls into his arms, soaking his shirt with tears. He holds her close, one hand rubbing small circles on her back. When her cries turn into soft hiccups, he lowers himself to his knees and swings off his pack. Searching around, he pulls out the small photograph you saw on the ship.

“Mo…nah fetah lay.” He repeats to her the words she’s spoken so many times. He points to his daughter, “Nevine. She was my daughter. My fetah-lay. I lost her.”

Koa sniffles and softly strokes her finger over Nevine’s face, recognizing her from the hologram. She reaches her arms around Mills’s neck and hugs him tightly. You notice quiet tears slipping down his face. “I’m gonna get us out of here. I promise.”

A large boom suddenly shakes the ground you stand on as a fragment of the asteroid slams into the mountain. The escape pod groans as it shifts from the movement. In a single swoop, Mills takes Koa into his arms and catches you by the elbow to pull you both into the vessel.

He carries Koa into the cockpit and starts firing up the engine as you struggle to seal the hatch behind you. When it finally clicks, you stumble down the hall and into the other chair, scooping Koa into your lap and strapping the belt around you both. Mills flips on switches and pulls levers, the banged up ship struggling to return to life. He starts to pull back on the thruster when a large fiery rock shatters into the cliff just below the escape pod.

Mills swears and Koa screams, all you can do is watch in horror as your ship slides forward off the cliff, flipping end on end and snapping every tree it passes in half. Before you can feel the sensation of slamming into the ground, you black out.

____

Mills

He wakes to the feeling of blood rushing to his ears, his heartbeat thumping through his skull and an overwhelming pulse of pressure behind his eyes. When he pulls them open, he’s confused by his surroundings until he realizes that the flaming trees he can see through the escape pod’s window aren’t upside down, he is. His body pulls against the seat’s restraints as he hangs from it, craning his neck to see you and Koa also hanging from your seat, unconscious.

The pod must have completely flipped as it fell, at the very least damaging its landing gear and possibly compromising the engine altogether. A wave of hopelessness hits him when he can’t think of any logical solution to this. There’s just no feasible way for the pod to take off from this position, the control panel sounds out in agreement with him as when he reaches down to run system checks.

Just as he thinks this situation can’t possibly get worse, a blood curdling roar shakes the pod. Mills swears and flips off his restraints, sending him crashing down onto the ceiling. From this angle he can see the monster clear as day. It was the same creature that hunted them further into the cave earlier that morning, now completely lit by sunshine and fiery rocks hurdling around it. The sight of the beast is bone chilling. It towers over the escape pod, dwarfing the ancient oak trees in its path. Its beady eyes are fixed right back at Mills, sizing up its next meal before it begins to trot towards them.

The only thing Mills thinks to grab other than his weapon is a small pack of emergency flares, stuffing them into his belt. He turns to look at you and Koa again, closes the gap between you and softly runs his hand along your tattered and pale cheek, tucking a strand of hair off your forehead and behind your ear so he can finally give into his urge to place a soft kiss there. Your eyelashes weakly flutter open at the sensation, but Mills wastes no time as the monstrous thumping footsteps draw closer. He pries open the escape hatch and slides out of it, shoving it back in place behind him.

The beast sends a guttural roar into the sky as he approaches the escape pod, and Mills aims for its dead eyes, sending three shots and rendering the creature half blind. It screeches in pain and shifts away from the pod and towards its attacker. Mills continues to fire shot after shot, some piercing flesh and some bouncing off the beast’s hard amorous skin. After one precisely aimed shot, the weapon starts to click in response to his trigger finger. He yells and throws the uncharged weapon towards the monster in a sad last attempt. It clangs against one of the beast’s giant legs and then ultimately gets smashed under a several-ton footstep.

Satisfied that the man is no longer a threat, the colossal creature turns back to its original prey.

“NOOOO” Mills wails, helpless as the monster knocks its hard jaw against the escape pod, rolling it into a nearby tree. Its unthinkably large mouth is big enough to hook both sides around the pod, lifting it off the ground and shaking it around like a toy. Feeling useless without the loaded weapon, Mills is suddenly struck with inspiration. He strikes one of the flares against his belt and holds it high above his head, waving it and screaming until his voice cracks.

The beast turns back and seems to be transfixed by the red glow. It drops the escape pod from its mouth with a thud, somehow in the process flipping the ship back around. Mills laughs partly at the absurd chances of that, and partly at his relief in knowing you’ve got one last chance of escape. His mind is made up with his role in this mission, and he feels he’s succeeded. He’s gonna get you both out of here.

Still holding the flare high, he bolts in the opposite direction of the escape pod, leading the monster away and into a nearby field of geysers.

____

You

Floating in and out of consciousness, at one point you remember the feeling of soft lips against your forehead, and glancing up into Mill’s deep brown eyes. That couldn’t be real, you tell yourself you must’ve hallucinated it and based on the fact that you’re hanging upside down in an escape pod after blacking out from sliding down the side of a mountain, a hallucination doesn’t seem too far fetched.

When you finally take in your situation, you try to lift Koa and pull her weight off the restraints, your right hand weakly reaching for its clasp. Before you can open it, your attention is pulled by a powerful roar followed by a sharp “NOOOO” close behind. You can’t make out everything through the window from this angle, but you do notice large clawed feet stomping in your direction.

Panicking, you pull Koa’s head back against your chest just in time for something to slam into the side of the ship, sending you rolling backwards and pounding your head against the hard headrest. The owner of those claws squats down to meet your eyes through the window, and before you can process what’s happening it pries its wide jaw open and around the escape pod, lifting it into its mouth.

You’re too shocked to even scream, so you shut your eyes and try to steady your breathing as you and Koa are rocked side to side while the beast toys with your ship. Before long you’re suddenly dropped back to the ground with a thump, but this time you’ve returned right side up. You chuckle a little at that resolution, and finally release the clasp on your restraints. Koa is coming awake when you ease her back into the seat, her small hands coming up to rub her eyes as if she’s just had the most bizarre dream.

You flip some controls on the panel that are frantically beeping, and take a look out the front window with this better vantage point. Your mouth falls open as you do.

“What is he-” you ponder when you see Mills bounding past the treeline with a lit flare in his hand. The puzzle pieces slide together in your mind when you also spot the creature that once had you locked in its jaw, now following the glowing red light.

“...Oh no.” Your hands clamp over your mouth, and you feel a pull against your pant leg. Koa is beside you, witnessing the same rescue scene, and looking at you inquisitively. The control panel beeps a warning that the extinction event has begun, and the extraction point coordinates are locked in. You’re hit with the realization of the decision that you now face.

____

Mills

He decides not to look back, it would only complicate things and slow him down. He focuses all the willpower he has left dead ahead, carrying him through the treeline and into the large clearing before him. The monster’s strides had to be ten times his own, but it’s also carrying ten times the weight. And Mills knows he can outsmart it.

He weaves around fallen trees and then hears them crunch under giant feet. He leaps over what he now recognizes as a mud trap, idiotically landing on unbent knees and cracking joints in the process. Mills cries in pain but refuses to slow down. He has to get the beast far enough away for you to make a safe take-off.

The monster has no sympathy for the man's injuries, and takes an extra long step over the mud behind him. Mills spots the smoking geysers ahead, so he weaves through them and frantically searches for one about to blow. He spots one and angles towards it, leading the beast with the flare high in the air.

The geyser begins to sputter, and Mills vaults himself over it, crashing to the ground on the other side. The flare goes rolling beside him, sizzling out. The geyser spews boiling liquid high into the sky, and his view of the beast is completely blocked. He breathes heavily in anticipation, thinking it was caught in the hot eruption. When the spray begins to thin, the mammoth head of the beast peaks through it, growling at Mills and now only more angered.

Mills scrambles to his feet and takes off running, now to the left towards another geyser that begins to spit. He doesn’t make it in time, sliding to the ground as it erupts so he doesn’t launch himself into the molten liquid.

Now pinned to the ground with no other options in sight, he searches the sky behind the monster, looking for a launching escape pod or even the smoke trail of one. He sees nothing. Did he not give you enough time? Was the ship too damaged to fly? Did you black out again? He chokes out a sob at the notion that he didn’t get you and Koa off this planet. This whole journey was for nothing. You would’ve been better off without the false hope of a second chance, without his empty promises.

The monster stalks towards him, eyes glowing at the satisfaction of finally hunting down its prey after such a chase. Mills forces his eyes shut and prays for a relatively quick death when he suddenly hears the quiet voice of his precious daughter.

“It’s just like yours, daddy! I love it!” Nevine giggles. He has to blink several times before he registers that this isn’t some sort of dream his brain has decided to show him at the end of his life, but Nevine is really there, in her star dotted pajamas flying that familiar spaceship toy. She sits cross legged on top of a nearby geyser. Further cementing the fact that this is real, the monster’s attention is also drawn over to the small girl. It loses interest in Mills altogether, now stalking towards the innocent young thing that calls out to its father.

When the geyser begins sputtering, it seems to go straight through Nevine and she’s completely unaffected by its heat. She just sits there smiling in the middle of the chaos like an ethereal little angel. The beast puffs a breath out and lunges back, finally leaping towards a meal. As it does, the geyser shoots into the sky, sending pressurized boiling liquid straight into the soft underside of the creature. It roars in pain, the skin on its neck and stomach melting away as chunks of its scaly armor rain down with the geyser’s spray. When the liquid stops shooting into it the beast slams onto the ground, bloody and steaming.

Stood behind the fallen creature is Koa, holding the communicator that still projects the hologramed image of Nevine onto the distant geyser. Holding Koa from behind is you, chest rising and falling heavily as you stare at him, every conceivable emotion held right in your eyes.

____

You

You see him from behind the dying creature. His mouth is agape, and he starts to push up on his forearms and lug himself onto his clearly injured legs to hobble towards you. You drop your arms from around Koa and begin walking to him like you’re in some kind of trance, the events of this journey weighing heavily on you both.

When you meet he pulls you into his arms. His wide shoulders feel like coming home, and his tight grip makes you feel like you never want to leave it. You bury your face into his neck, releasing the tears that have been held back for days. His large hands pull you deeper into him and he kisses the top of your head like you belong to him. You feel his own tears landing in your disheveled hair.

When his arms loosen enough for you to lean back and meet his eyes, your gaze only settles for a second before his lips crash into yours. The kiss is tender but needy, he inhales at the feeling of your soft lips on his. His hands reach for your waist to try and pull you in closer somehow. You’re completely drunk on this moment and start to deepen the kiss when Koa protests, “Eya-ka…home!!” You pull from Mills to see Koa beside you, with both hands sassily placed on her hips as she scolds you.

You laugh and look back at Mills, now with softer eyes and puffy red lips. He snickers at her and ruffles her hair with his hand. His other hand finds yours and entwines your fingers together.

You all have almost forgotten the desperate situation until a rogue chunk of asteroid lands a few yards from your feet, shaking the ground and setting off a few geysers. Your smile drops and you reach to grab Koa’s arm, leaning down and pulling her onto your back. Mills is in no shape to carry another person, and so you hook an arm out to help him steady himself too as you both run as fast as your battered bodies will take you.

You avoid flaming rocks and rubble through the clearing, and take a slightly longer path through the treeline to avoid the spreading fires. Picking up the pace even faster when the escape pod comes into view, your group bolts, afraid of running into more unsavory creatures if you slow.

When you reach the pod, Mills wrenches the hatch open and you lift Koa through, following her in and pulling her into your chest once again as you strap the two of you into a seat. Mills buckles his restraint and flips switches above his head, causing the engine to rumble and start up. He presses a few buttons and locks in the coordinates, pulling the levers back and slowly lifting the escape pod off the ground.

You take a deep breath and hug Koa closer, watching the ground get further and further away as you return to the view you once saw on the top of the mountain. The ship’s thrusters engage and you soar into the sky.

Slightly to your right through the window you see an impossible sight. The far away threat is now entering the planet’s atmosphere as you’re exiting it. The asteroid is the size of most moons, blazing blue and red flames as it careens down to destroy the landscapes you traveled through.

You don’t know if it’s more reassurance for you or him, but Mills reaches out a hand and grasps yours, squeezing it and rubbing his thumb along your knuckles. Your body relaxes at the sensation and you turn your focus back ahead, into the growing darkness of space and toward the distant carrier ship that sits waiting for extraction.

Chapter 10

[phasmattack]

Visitors (a 65 story) Chapter 8: Reality

Read Chapter 7

Pairing: Captain Mills x Fem Reader

Fic Summary: 65 million years ago, Captain Mills (played by Adam Driver) crashes a passenger transport ship into Earth during the Cretaceous period. You are among three survivors of the crash. Together with Mills, you must make your way to the only shot of extraction through an unknown terrain riddled with deadly prehistoric creatures.

Fic Masterlist

Read on Ao3

___

You

Your lungs burn, trying to force you to take a breath but you refuse. The thick gunk begins to fill your ears and nose, and you sputter as it seeps into your mouth. Miraculously, something slides through the mud and hooks itself under your arm, pulling you up and out of your filthy grave.

Mud and dirt spew from your mouth as you reach the surface, still unable to see through the thick coating caked onto your face. You’re dragged onto solid ground and warm hands that aren’t much cleaner than your own clasp your face and wipe off your eyes.

Pulling your stuck eyelashes apart, you first see Koa hugging the end of a long tree branch like a koala and smiling down at you. Your eyes trail over to the hands that delicately hold your face, and an almost unrecognizable Mills also covered in muck. You can’t help but let out a single cackle that turns into a fit of laughter.

Mills joins your laughter, shaking his head like a dog and slinging mud in every direction. Koa climbs down from the branch and walks up to you, her small hands gently smoothing down your hair like you once did to her. Not caring at all about the grime you’re covered in, you pull Koa into your arms and hug her tightly. You see Mills still laughing over Koa’s shoulder and you fling a hand out and grab him by the shirt, yanking him into the hug.

____

Desperate to finish your mission, you soon push on until you come across a clean stream of water. Mills uses his canister to scoop up some water and test it for bacteria. When it comes back clean, you joyfully dive into the refreshing waist-high spring. You relish in the feeling of finally washing away your coating of mud, wringing it from your hair and scrubbing it out of your clothes.

Koa sits cross legged at the edge of the water and you swim up to her, playfully sending a splash of water in her direction. She giggles and leans away to avoid it. You hold out your hand to offer help getting her into the water, but she shakes her head. Mills sees this interaction from a few feet away where he sits washing his shoes against some rocks. He opens his water canister and tosses it to Koa, who chugs the water down in one go.

When she reaches the end of the container, she frowns and waves it at Mills. He chuckles, “Go fill it up then.” He gestures to the upper end of the stream. She groans and begrudgingly trudges over to fill the canister.

You turn back to see Mills now in the water, dipping his head under and flipping back his wet hair. His eyes meet yours and he smirks, proud of the performance that so obviously was holding your attention. You try to push down the familiar blush that crawls up your neck and turn away as he pulls himself out of the stream. You force your gaze anywhere but him to avoid lingering on how tightly the wet clothes now cling to his body.

Koa returns just in time to save your self respect, and she returns with a small pink flower tucked behind her ear and another one in each hand. She squats on the river’s edge in front of you and gently tucks a flower behind your ear to match. Your heart swells and a cozy feeling settles in your stomach as she approaches Mills and tries to do the same to him.

He jerks his head away, avoiding her gift. Koa frowns at him and stomps, reaching up to try again. He swats her hand away and shakes his head. At this Koa squeals impatiently, turning to you as if you had some sort of power over Mills’s decisions.

She must not be too far off with that assumption, because when Mills follows her gaze to your face and sees your warm smile, he sighs and squats down. Koa giggles in celebration and slips the pink flower into his hair. Interrupting this moment as it always seems to do, the navigational unit beeps to signal an emergency.

Mills fishes it out of his pack and opens it to display the message “Catastrophic Extinction Event Triggered: LESS THAN 12 HOURS REMAIN”.

____

You march on, banded together by the matching pink flower behind each of your ears. You soon reach the base of the mountain that holds your only hope of escape. Still exhausted but now cleaned and fed, the three of you help each other climb cliffside after cliffside and boulder upon boulder.

Rounding a turn up the mountainside, you approach a cliffside that scales far higher than all the rest. You estimate its ledge is 20 feet high, and Mills’ search for divots to anchor a climb comes up empty. Struck with inspiration, Koa points up to the ledge and back to herself. Just in case you aren’t following, she mimics being picked up by you and then gestures between you and Mills.

He sighs, “You sure?” She confidently nods. He looks to you for approval and you shrug, slinging off your pack and letting it fall to your feet. He does the same after pulling out a long cord of rope and sliding it over Koa’s head and shoulder.

Mills kneels down and helps steady you as you climb onto his shoulders. When you give the signal, he helps Koa onto his knee as well and up his shoulders where you grip her waist and guide her to your own shoulders. Koa steadies herself and hits the cliff wall, queueing Mills to slowly stand and extend your human ladder as high as it can reach.

She just barely grips the ledge and pulls herself up, swinging each leg over and rolling back beyond your view. Mills releases his firm grip on your thighs and gently guides you off his back, hands lingering for a few moments longer than necessary.

You both sit waiting for Koa to anchor one side of the rope and send the other side down. Using this rare minute of calm, you turn and admire the view from halfway up the mountain. The landscapes of this planet are truly breathtaking, despite all the things that try to kill you at every turn. One thing that grabs your attention above it all is the asteroid, now completely visible in the sky. It’s turned from an orange hue to a deep red, no doubt being pulled in by the planet’s gravitational pull. You take a deep breath through your nose and blow it out slowly.

“It’ll be okay,” Mills reassures you, a firm hand pressed against your lower back, “we’re almost there.”

As he speaks, the rope flies from off the cliff and falls to your feet. Mills pulls on it to test its strength, and when he’s satisfied hands it to you. You pull on your backpack and start to climb, anchoring your weight against the rope. One step at a time, eventually you reach the top and pull yourself up, Koa grabbing you by the elbow to help you up.

Mills is close behind you, but you don’t stay behind to watch because in the distance you see it: the escape pod. There it sits, banged up but seemingly in working order. We really made it, we’re getting out of here.

Chapter 9

[phasmattack]

Visitors (a 65 story) Chapter 7: Peril

Read Chapter 6

Pairing: Captain Mills x Fem Reader

Fic Summary: 65 million years ago, Captain Mills (played by Adam Driver) crashes a passenger transport ship into Earth during the Cretaceous period. You are among three survivors of the crash. Together with Mills, you must make your way to the only shot of extraction through an unknown terrain riddled with deadly prehistoric creatures.

Fic Masterlist

Read on Ao3

___

Mills

The cave floor begins to quake, stray pebbles shaking from the colossal weight of the footsteps approaching. Whatever creature lay just beyond your makeshift camp is now close enough to hear the wet, grimey breaths of. The sun has not yet peaked above the horizon, but with the help of nearby stars it does cast just enough light to highlight the beast’s head as it parts through the rain sliding down the cave entrance, tracking the scent of its next meal. Its scaly head alone is roughly the size of the cave, sending a chill down Mills’s spine as he imagines the sheer size of the rest of the monster.

Prying open its vicious jaw which could likely swallow the three of you whole in one gulp, it sends a bone chilling roar through the cave. The deafening force of it causes those stray pebbles to roll and blows your hair back like a sharp gust of wind. Understandably, the terror sends Koa flying to the farthest point of the cave. She swats away vines and pushes into a small hole in the corner, yelping as she tumbles down into it.

At the same time, Mills grasps his weapon and starts firing at the beast, aiming for its beady eyes. This seems to work at first, it grumbles in pain but returns with another roar now aimed squarely at Mills. Startled, he turns to see you fleeing after Koa. She disappears into the vine covered hole and you follow right behind. He shoots once more to push the monster back and then tosses his pack and blaster down the hole, diving in after you.

He regrets diving head first when he smacks onto the cool rocky floor below. The monster roars in frustration, now sounding slightly more muffled and distant. Mills clicks on his flashlight and you all sit for a moment, slowing your panicked breathing and collecting yourselves.

When the moment has passed, Mills slings his pack and weapon over his shoulder and begins exploring this underground cave system you’ve found yourselves in. He scoops Koa up to her feet and extends a hand to help you find yours. He inspects the hole you’ve slid out of, now far too steep to climb back up even if there wasn’t a bloodthirsty prehistoric creature roaming the other end of it.

The cave system is small, you learn after only finding two cramped areas joined by a tight pathway. Mills flips open the navigational unit and scans the cave, alerted to one source of air flowing into it. The air in here is musty, which means locating the source of the fresh breeze should be easy. He nods to you and you both run your hands along the walls of each room, searching high and low for its origin.

He speaks your name when he finds it, an opening just the size of a quarter. He finds a small collapsible shovel in his pack and uses it to pick at the opening, exposing a tiny bead of light that signals the outside world. Mills repeatedly dents at it, making progress but ever so slowly.

After the first few minutes, the small shovel has produced a hole the size of his forearm. After a half hour, it’s grown but not even close to being big enough for a person to fit through. Exhausted, he drops the shovel to the ground and punches the wall in irritation.

“Let me help.” You offer, picking up the shovel.

“It’s no use.” He replies, “At this rate it would take us days to even chip out enough space to send Koa through.”

“There has to be something we can-”

“I’m trying to think.” He interrupts, smoothing the hair from off his forehead.

“Mo-nah fetah-lay…” Koa speaks, tugging on his pant leg. “Mallaka mo-nah fetah-lay!”

“I know-” He stops her.

“Meh anna wat’to fetah-lay!” She demands, standing and yanking the shovel from your hands. She stomps to the small clearing and begins chipping at it herself, really doing more harm than good.

“You know what,” He spins her by her shoulders, squatting to tell her face to face, “I lied to you. Your parents aren’t at the top of the mountain. They’re dead. It was a lie.”

“Mills!” You gasp at him. Koa shakes out of his grip and returns to clearing a path herself.

“And you can’t understand anything I’m saying.” He finishes. Still kneeled on the ground, he runs his hand against the dusty cave floor and picks up a stray pebble, examining it. Inspiration strikes.

“I have an idea.” Mills announces. He rushes to his pack and pulls out a single click bomb.

“We’re gonna blow our way out of here.” He tells you with a cocky grin.

“Are you sure that’s safe?” You ask.

“No,” He shrugs, “but I think it’s our only choice.”

He waits for your approval which comes in the form of a sigh and a nod. Clicking on the bomb, he rolls it into the hole and lifts Koa away by the waist. He places her in your arms against the farthest wall from the opening and uses his body to shield you both from the large blast that shakes the cave.

Once the dust settles, you all return to the opening to see it is now a Koa sized clearing almost all the way through. She cheers for him, clapping her hands. After some inspection, you both agree that it seems safe enough to send Koa through, hopefully to the other side where she can place more bombs to free up space for you.

Mills loads all the click bombs into her small pack, along with a water jug and ration just to be safe. He sees you holding her small face in your hands for a moment, smiling down at her. In return she gives you a knowing look, and tightens the straps of her pack. Mills scoops her up and helps her climb into the opening. She shimmies through it, reaching a patch wide enough to turn around and excitedly tell you something that neither of you can understand.

The excitement is quickly drained from her face when the cave wall starts shaking, rocks begin to shift and clouds of dust fly around her. You yell, throwing an arm towards Koa to pull her back when the wall between you suddenly collapses, throwing you and Mills back and onto the ground, knocking you unconscious.

____

“NO,” A painful sob pulls Mills awake, along with a sharp ringing in his ears, “GODDAMN IT” He wipes the dust from his eyes to see you frantically scraping against the wall that previously held Koa in its clearing, now filled with jagged rocks. Your arms are catching on the sharp rocks in the process, ripping skin and leaving drops of blood.

He gets to his feet and hobbles to you, laying a hand on your shoulder to calm you. You jerk your shoulder out from his hand and slap the wall again, tears clouding your vision. He takes each of your wrists into his firm grip and pulls you from the wall. You crash into his chest and he cradles your head, tucking tear soaked hair behind your ear.

Holding you like this for a while as you weep into him, he squeezes his own eyes shut as they threaten to pool with tears too. That is, until he hears a distant tritone whistle. Your head lifts from his now damp shirt as if you heard it too. You both stand as still as stone. The whistle repeats, leaving no doubt that it’s coming from Koa.

You laugh, and look up at him with a face that’ll surely be imprinted in his memory for good. He lifts his hands to his mouth and loudly whistles in reply. We’re coming, kid.

____

Left without the source of his only escape plan, Mills tries to hide his concern from you. Thankfully, the crash has shifted one of the walls just enough for him to roll some large boulders and open a new room to explore. He leads you into the room, flashlight anchored on his shoulder illuminating the way.

“I-” Your soft voice speaks from behind him, “I thought we lost her.”

He turns to look at you, “Me too.”

“I’m new to this whole thing, yanno?” You sigh.

“What, being stranded on an alien planet?” He jokes, “Same here.”

You hit his arm and roll your eyes, “No! I mean I’ve never felt that feeling before, when we thought she was gone. I’ve never had anyone I felt like I should protect,” You pause, “Or anyone who felt like protecting me…”

“No one?” He asks curiously, pushing further into the cavern.

Your face scrunches up like you regret even mentioning it, but you tell him, “I never knew my parents. They either died or just left me for dead. I grew up in the foster system in Somaris, and the day I was old enough to work I started taking scrap jobs to save up enough money to leave.”

His silence urges you to go on. “One day I was hired by this group of mercenaries, who needed an innocent looking girl to dig up information for them. One of the leaders started switching jobs and hanging around after his post to keep me company… I was so young, I didn’t see the red flags and the age difference didn’t bother me as much as it should’ve and one thing led to another. All of a sudden I’d been dating a mob leader for years who forced me into a person I didn’t even recognize. I was on autopilot just to save myself the humiliation of the consequences of having an opinion. One day I- I just left home with the last bruises I’d ever get from that job. From that man. I scraped up all the money I had saved and I left. Bought myself a ticket to the other side of the galaxy and swore I’d never look back.”

He’s stopped walking by now, studying your face as you tell your harrowing story.

“And here I am, crash landed on a random planet with a girl I have this gut feeling I need to protect and a man I’m comfortable enough with to completely overshare to- and my God I’ve been talking for so long and you don’t deserve to be tossed all my baggage I am so sorry.”

At this he shakes his head and laughs in disbelief, giving into the impulse to feel your soft cheek in his hand, his thumb brushing over your lips to remind him how real they are. He feels your breath hitch and his eyes flick up to yours, slowly leaning in to close the distance when something sharp pierces his back and rips him to the ground.

Stunned, he gets one glimpse at the thin faced creature attacking him before his flashlight smashes to the ground in pieces. You scream, now completely in darkness. The monster hisses and scratches its feet along the dirt, ready to pounce.

Mills takes this as a warning and rolls to the side, just out of the way of its charge forward. He uses this time to feel around for his weapon and pack, either of which he could use to his advantage if he could just find them. He hears the monster charge again, and this time his foot clangs into something metal, sending it sliding away from Mills.

He swears and braces his arms above him as its jaw snaps towards him, inches from his face. He manages to forcibly stick a thumb into the creature’s eye and it screeches, briefly pulling away from the pain. In this moment Mills feels something bump against his foot, and he reaches down to feel the strap of his pack. As he grips it, the creature rears forward and rams him in the shoulder, sending the pack’s contents flying.

Miraculously, the navigational unit lands open, providing minimal light but projecting a hologrammed sensor of its surroundings. Mills finally gets an image of the beast he’s wrestling with, and he also sees you in the hologram, sliding carefully against the wall with a determined look on your face.

A sharp taloned foot stomps his chest into the ground, and he tries twisting and kicking himself free with no success. The air is slowly pushed out of his lungs as the creature tries suffocating its prey. It leans in to finish him off, but with a loud shot it stumbles back and releases its grip on Mills. It thumps to the ground, completely limp. Mills turns his head to see you in the hologram, holding the weapon with perfect form after just shooting the creature with wildly accurate aim in complete darkness, only a small distorted hologram image as your guide. Calling him impressed would be an understatement.

____

You help carry some of his weight as you both stumble out of the cave, fresh air finally filling your lungs. You look up at him and laugh at the absurdity of this day, and the navigational unit reads that the daylight isn’t even halfway gone.

Before he closes it, however, it beeps out: “WARNING: Catastrophic extinction event imminent. Time to impact: Hours.” Sure enough, he looks to the sky to see the asteroid now much larger than it had been the previous day. As if there wasn’t enough to worry about, now their mission has a time limit.

You can’t dwell on the thought of imminent catastrophe for long, finding Koa being the priority in both of your minds. “KOA!” You call out in a chant and Mills joins by whistling to her. He scans the area for any sign of life but it comes back negative. You decide to retrace to the original cave’s entrance in case she decided to wait there.

Now above ground, you and Mills struggle to climb fallen logs and scale cliff sides, all the while calling out to the little one. You come to a patch of thick muddy water and as much as it disgusts you both, Mills points out that there doesn’t seem to be a way around it in sight. He helps you sling off your pack and lift it above your head as you wade into the sludge.

He follows you in, using more effort than he was anticipating to push through this muddy substance. In fact, the deeper you get the harder it seems to move, and the thicker it seems the gunk gets.

“Uhh…Mills?” You try to get his attention when your feet seem to get stuck beneath you. His heart sinks as he notices you sinking deeper into the mud ahead of him, now waded to your chest. He moves to grab your arm and pull you back but his arm feels too heavy to lift, suddenly encased in this thick trap.

“Mills!!” You call again, unable to turn back to him. You’re now sunk below the mud to your shoulders, and you’re just sinking faster. He starts to sink as well, with nothing for his feet to use as leverage and nothing for his hands to grab onto.

“MM-” You choke out, head held high as he watches you suck in a final breath before the mud absorbs you fully. He doesn’t know what else to do, so he musters up enough strength to bellow out, “KOA!” Helpless, he sees the top of your head slip below the surface. Mud now inching up to his jaw, he gets out one last choke of her name into the air and sinks down as the dark sludge envelops him.

Chapter 8

[phasmattack]

Visitors (a 65 story) Chapter 6: Reminiscence

Read Chapter 5

Pairing: Captain Mills x Fem Reader

Fic Summary: 65 million years ago, Captain Mills (played by Adam Driver) crashes a passenger transport ship into Earth during the Cretaceous period. You are among three survivors of the crash. Together with Mills, you must make your way to the only shot of extraction through an unknown terrain riddled with deadly prehistoric creatures.

Fic Masterlist

Read on Ao3

___

You

The evening sun began to cast long shadows on the ground, the last light flirting with the horizon. The spot your group currently occupies is obviously an unfit place to spend the night. The scattered boulders don’t provide enough covering from the elements, and being surrounded by darkness in an open clearing doesn’t sound particularly comforting.

This beat of rest has given your mind time to wander. You pull your thoughts back from recalling the situation you fled from at home, knowing the added anxiety won’t help anything. You push them instead towards Mills, not so subtly staring at his profiled face.

His dark hair falls in soft curls onto his forehead and rests along his strong shoulders. Impossibly strong, they seem, despite how much pain they’re in. He draws in a deep breath, the tired and thin clothing covering his chest rising and falling with it. Your gaze rises to the outline of his nose, bold and sharp but perfectly embodying his chiseled features. You settle to his lips, chapped from the sun but yet you still have an urge to run your fingers over them, soft as a whisper but enough to memorize their shape.

Your eyes flick back to his to find them already on you, meeting your stare. Feeling that familiar blush creep up your neck, you clear your throat and start nervously fiddling with your boot’s loose shoelace, trying to pretend like you hadn’t just been caught ogling him.

If he did notice your embarrassingly long stare, he didn’t say. Instead he clasps his hands together and brings the tips of both thumbs to his mouth, softly blowing and releasing a bird-like sound. You chuckle under your breath at the absurdly random act, but you do catch Koa’s attention perk up across from you.

He smiles successfully and blows another whistle. Now Koa turns to face him, a small sparkle returning in her eyes. He motions to show her how to repeat the gesture and blows a third time. In return, Koa lifts her hands into a completely different position and blows through her pinky nails, sending out a tritone whistle twice as loud as his. Mills fakes a look of offense, throwing his hands up as if it was all for nothing. Koa finally giggles, a sound you’ve both been patiently waiting to hear again.

“Move?” Mills asks her.

“Move.” She replies.

____

You settle on making camp in the mouth of a small cave, ‘camp’ being enough room for the three of you to lay and use your packs as stiff pillows. The cave walls block out most of the breeze, and the roof covers you from the rain that starts to sputter. Mills walks around its perimeter, placing spikes into the ground every couple feet. They whir to life as they’re placed, blinking orange to signal there’s no danger nearby.

Mills shuffles around in his pack and hands a ration to each of you. “Eat.” He tells Koa when she gives him a puzzling look. You unwrap your ration and bite into it, showing her what he means. She cautiously peels the wrapper off the protein bar and breaks off a tiny piece, her face scrunching up in disgust. Her hunger must outweigh her pickiness because she continues to bite off small pieces until she reaches the end.

Satisfied with finishing such a gross task, she leans back against the cave wall and opens her small pack, fishing out several small objects that resemble hologram discs. Your head tilts at her, squinting to try and figure out what she’s up to. Before you can, Mills abruptly asks,

“Where did you get those?”

The tone of his voice makes Koa’s smile drop and she tries to hide the discs back in her bag. Not amused, Mills takes a step to her and rips the bag out of her grip. Dumping the discs into his hand, you can clearly see them now. They’re messages from his daughter.

“Mills, she didn’t mean to-” You start to reason, sympathizing with both of them.

“It’s time to sleep.” He coldly interrupts. He stuffs the discs into his own pack and slumps against the farthest wall. You sigh, picking up Koa’s pack and fluffing it like a pillow before placing it under her head. She curls up, turning towards the wall and softly crying. Great.

You’re really not sure how to mediate this back and forth. Koa was simply being a curious child, trying to find a small speck of joy in this traumatic situation. Mills is a hardened man who lost his daughter, and wants to repress any memory of her. That is, you assume so before hearing the sound of his navigational unit clicking open.

Sat between them, you watch as Mills slides in a disc and projects the message into the air ahead. It’s Nevine, sitting cross legged across from you, hair fluffy from sleep and wearing pajamas dotted with stars. She’s holding a figurine of a rocketship, wrapping paper discarded behind her. Swooping the ship through the air around her, she laughs, the delightful noise echoing off the cave walls.

Tears tugging at your eyes, you turn to Mills. His expression is pensive, his view fixed right to Nevine. A little bit of warmth returns to his face. Koa sits up on your other side and grins at the hologrammed image.

“Shooooo” Nevine mimics engine noises, “It’s just like yours daddy! I love it!”

Koa scoots forward and slowly lifts a hand, the projection so real she wants to reach out and touch it.

“I miss you.” Nevine tells her father, toy slumping and sad eyes gazing into the camera.

The message cuts out, returning the cave to silence and darkness.

Koa yawns, fallen tears now dried up. She scoots back, returning to her curled up position and resting her head on her pack. Mills carefully tucks the disc into his pack and reclines too, the cave opening so small that it forces either of them within inches of you. You stay sitting up between them, listening to the rain patter against the cave and watching the stars glow in the distance. One star is particularly red, you chalk it up to being an unfamiliar planet since you’re on the other side of the galaxy and pause to take one last look at its glow before you lay back and force yourself to sleep.

____

You sleep much deeper than you would’ve expected to on a cave floor, maybe helped by the fact that Mills has pressed against you at some point during the night. You wake at the feeling of his breath on your neck, his knees cradled into yours, and his heavy arm slung over your stomach. You know he wasn’t holding you on purpose, it was his body reacting to the cold and reaching for any warmth he could find.

But you can’t say you minded it, nuzzling into him to steal more of his heat. As you do, you recognize something else that pulled you from your sleep, a softly ringing alarm. Suddenly wide awake, your eyes open and your vision adjusts to see the perimeter spikes now blinking red. You wipe your eyes and lift Mills’s arm off of you, gently waking him in the process.

“They’re red now.” You whisper to him, voice groggy, “What does red mean?”

“Nothing good.” He replies, grabs his weapon and begins stalking towards the cave’s entrance. Just getting prepared to run, you tap Koa to wake her. She doesn’t budge in response.

“Koa, c’mon wake up.” You shake her harder, rolling her back to face you. She slumps to her back, head limp and eyes unresponsive. Her mouth is full of white foam, and with the sudden change of angle it begins dripping down her chin.

“KOA” You yell, “Mills there’s something wrong!”

He lowers the weapon and jogs over, sliding beside you and shining a flashlight to Koa’s face. Now illuminated, you see a furry bug with hundreds of little legs crawl farther down her throat and clamp its pinchers onto her tongue.

“MILLS,” You gasp, heart sinking. You realize you’re completely unaware of what to do in this situation. You grab Koa’s hand and squeeze it, not ready to let go of her anytime soon. Mills swears and hands you the flashlight, suddenly standing and bolting to the nearest perimeter spike.

“What are you-” You cry as he splits the spike in half, creating an electrified shiv. He cradles Koa’s head in his hand and holds her jaw open with his thumb then jams the spike into her mouth, stunning the horrifying little creature.

Koa gurgles, eyes flying open and foam pouring from her mouth. Your heart still pounding in your ears, you flip Koa so she can vomit the rest of the foam out. Both crying, you hold her to your chest and she grips onto your hands as tight as she can. Mills collapses beside you, trying to steady his own pounding heart.

Before any words can be spoken you all tense even further when the remaining perimeter spikes turn from softly flashing red to strobing and sharply beeping. Whatever set them off is still here, and now it’s found you.

Chapter 7

[phasmattack]

Visitors (a 65 story) - Chapter 5: Requiem

Read Chapter 4

Pairing: Captain Mills x Fem Reader

Fic Summary: 65 million years ago, Captain Mills (played by Adam Driver) crashes a passenger transport ship into Earth during the Cretaceous period. You are among three survivors of the crash. Together with Mills, you must make your way to the only shot of extraction through an unknown terrain riddled with deadly prehistoric creatures.

Fic Masterlist

Read on Ao3

___

You

The scream that sang from the treetops sent a chill up your spine, and all you had time to do was look up and gawk as Mills came crashing through branches and slamming to the ground in front of you. Stunned, you freeze for a moment before common sense kicks in and you scramble forward.

You’ve never seen anyone in a state like this. He’s screaming through panted breaths, he surely cracked a rib or two and undoubtedly got the wind kicked out of his lungs. He blindly reaches his left arm out until it grasps yours, yanking your arm to him.

“I-” You ask between his pained moans, “Mills- I don’t know what to do. What do you want me to do?”

He gasps out a word you don’t understand and turns to his side, showing you his right shoulder and the bone protruding from it. You inhale sharply, finally understanding what he’s asking of you. He guides your hand to his shoulder, and squeezes his eyes shut. You look over your shoulder to see Koa peeking from behind the tree’s trunk, wide eyed. You gesture for her to close her eyes, and she does.

Swearing through gritted teeth, he tells you to get on with it and you do. You shove your weight into his shoulder, feeling the bone shift but not pop back into place as you assumed it would. Mills groans loudly at the unsuccessful attempt and taps your boot,

“Step on it.” He instructs. As you stand, you hear Koa cry out from behind you. Turning around, you see her trapped against the tree trunk, with three large lizard-like creatures slowly inching towards her like helpless prey. Drawn by the noise of Mills in pain, they opted for an easier meal to swallow. In this impossible situation, all you can think to do is grip your arms on an overhead branch and swing your right boot down directly onto Mills’s shoulder, the bone finally clicking into place.

He roars, but wastes no time tending to his injuries. His limp arm grabs the weapon from the ground and swings it around, shooting each creature dead between the eyes. Koa screams, hands flying over her ears as you run up to scoop her into your arms. Three more shots fire past you, scaly monsters now appearing through the bushes in dozens to claim the prize their friends could not.

“GO” Mills yells at you, gripping his shoulder and continuing to fire at the monsters. You shift Koa from your arms to your back and take off running towards a clearing to your right. You’re slower with the extra weight, but your adrenaline is pumping and helps you leap over logs and tree roots. In your peripheral you spy one lizard following your tracks, and start to weave to avoid it. It must be tracking your scent because it follows you on every turn, and is gaining on you quickly. Instinctively, you push a stray tree limb forward as you run past it, causing it to smack the creature. It squeals and is slowed, but not stopped.

Praying it lost your tracks, you look ahead for a place to hide and choose a fallen tree in the distant clearing. Dropping Koa softly in the sand as you skid beside the tree, you kneel behind it and hold her up against you, breathing together in silence.

You hear the beast’s low growl as it stalks around the tree trunk, honing in on your scent. Out of options, you squeeze Koa and prepare to throw her forward so you can give her more time while you fight the creature that could clearly tear you apart in a moment. Before you can, a sharp caw echoes through the sky. You both watch in terror as a giant vicious bird with a sharp beak that could cut through metal soars past you and pierces the lizard into the ground, killing it instantly.

More cawing draws your attention to the clouds, and the formation of dozens of these birds. Your jaw goes slack as you watch them land one by one in the sand surrounding you. The closest bird cocks its head at you, weighing you up and fluffing out its feathers.

You’re seriously outnumbered and all you can think to do now is comfort Koa, squeezing her and smoothing down her hair. The birds collectively turn to the treeline when shots echo from it, and begin flapping their massive wings to lift them from the newly imposed threat.

Relief washes over you and you thank whatever omnipotent being heard your frantic prayers. You stand to face Mills, who blasts a final warning shot into the sky and sends the last remaining birds scattering away. Face filled with gratitude, you reach out to hug him when something catches his attention behind you.

A second lizard, somehow undetected by you, is pulling Koa away by the hood of her jacket. She silently sobs for help and her tear filled eyes lock with yours as she’s swiftly hauled away.

“KOA” You shriek, lunging towards the animal just out of your reach. Mills calls out for you to duck and you collapse onto the sand, watching in horror as Koa is pulled farther and farther away.

A shot hurdles past the lizard, barely missing but skimming the end of its tail. It screeches in pain, briefly removing its clasp on Koa’s jacket in the process and Mills takes this opportunity to fire a deadly blow between its eyes. It goes limp into the sand.

You scramble to your feet but before you can reach Koa to console her, she scurries behind a nearby boulder. You and Mills push towards her but she sobs, tightening her grip on her knees and rocking herself back and forth.

“Koa,” He tells her, still gripping his wounded shoulder, “We need to move.”

She mumbles in her language and pulls her hood up, her small body violently shaking from the trauma. He moves towards her and you stop him with a hand to his chest.

“No, give her time.” You say softly, “We can wait.”

____

Koa remains huddled against the boulder a half hour later, shaking subsided but still staring blankly at the ground.

You and Mills have set up against another boulder, he begrudgingly accepted your suggestion to rest and regain some energy. You wrap a clotting bite mark on his bicep with gauze, after fighting with him that it is important enough to use a medpack on. He hisses as you tighten the end of the gauze into a knot. You roll your eyes and pack away the unused items in the kit.

“I never got a chance to thank you,” You tell him. He raises a brow. “For saving my-er, our lives back there.”

He shrugs. A thick silence hangs between you for several minutes.

“Her name is Nevine.” He speaks.

“What?” You ask, a bit startled at the sudden change of topic.

“My daughter,” He answers, “her name is Nevine.”

“Oh.” You’re not sure what else to say, not wanting to pry again.

“She was angry with me the last time I saw her. Angry that my assignment was extended, angry that I would miss so much time with her. I can’t say I blamed her.” You shift back to watch his face as he speaks.

“She was sick. I was so close to getting enough to pay for her treatment, but she took a turn for the worse.” He releases a slow breath and his eyes wander to the sky. “She died and I could’ve spent that last precious year of her life with her. But I wasn’t there.” You search the emotions on his face but choose to stay silent while he finds the words.

“When we first crashed, I tried to end it. She was already all I could think about. All I saw when I slept and the only voice I heard in my head. I couldn’t handle the weight of all those people too. Just thinking about their lives, the families they’d never come home to. It was too much. So thank you, too.” He looks up at you.

“You’re thanking me? For what?”

“Thank you for giving me a reason to keep going.” He says, with such a kind and calm demeanor it was easy to forget what his alternative solution would’ve been. His gorgeously deep eyes linger on yours, and you seem to sink lower into the ground.

“Wh-what about your wife?” You stutter, eyes immediately going wide as you realize what you’ve just asked. Why you’re so determined to step into these conversational pitfalls you’re not sure. Perhaps a small part of you has been curious about her ever since you saw their photograph.

His deep eyes get harder, and he clears his throat. “She, uh… It was complicated with Alya.” He looks away, and you nervously scrape the dirt out of your fingernails.

“There was always this resentment after Nevine got sick. It was never spoken, especially when all of our time was thrown into her appointments and medication and all that. But I suspected she felt the same way as Nevine about my extension. It was so hard on her, she needed somewhere to place the blame or she wouldn’t be able to move on.”

He runs a hand through his hair and his voice drops almost to a whisper. “In the last message she sent she asked me not to come back.”

You shifted in the sand, feeling hollow at the thought of the emotional weight he’s been carrying through this already difficult journey.

“I guess we’re even then.” You decide to try lifting his mood, and he smirks towards the ground.

“Yeah, I guess we are.”

Chapter 6

[phasmattack]

Visitors (a 65 story) Chapter 4: Beginnings

Read Chapter 3

Pairing: Captain Mills x Fem Reader

Fic Summary: 65 million years ago, Captain Mills (played by Adam Driver) crashes a passenger transport ship into Earth during the Cretaceous period. You are among three survivors of the crash. Together with Mills, you must make your way to the only shot of extraction through an unknown terrain riddled with deadly prehistoric creatures.

Fic Masterlist

Read on Ao3

___

Mills

Ammo, rations, click bombs, medpacks, water jugs, perimeter spikes, rope, navigational unit. Mills mentally checks the boxes as he shoves the necessities into his large canvas pack and a few of the lighter goods into a smaller pack for you. He lifts the weapon off its charging stand, checking that the sensor reads a full charge. Slinging it onto his shoulder, he returns to the cockpit a final time to issue an updated (and far less bleak) message to the potential rescue crew.

“This is Commander Mills of Charter 373. I’ve located two survivors; a child and…” he pauses, glancing over his shoulder to see you sitting cross legged on the ground with Koa, trying to coax her into eating a ration, “and a woman. They’re uninjured. The atmosphere here is breathable, but the land seems to be difficult to traverse and full of hostiles. I will be escorting them to the crash site of our escape pod to meet at your coordinates.”

He puts down the communicator, and walks up to you and Koa. You stand and he hands you the smaller pack. Koa stays seated, so he sighs and squats down to her level.

“Koa,” He tells her, “I need you to listen to me. You understand? Listen?” He points to his ear. She nods.

“There’s something alien out there,” He meets your eyes, “something dangerous.”

He watches you shudder, smoothing down the goosebumps on your arms, and based on Koa’s reaction he figures she gets the gist.

“We need to be quiet,” He puts a finger to his lips, and Koa repeats the gesture, “and move.” He motions a flat hand sideways, and she does the same. Mills nods to her, searching her innocent eyes for any hesitation. He offers her a hand and she accepts, using him as leverage to stand.

“You ready?” He turns to face you. Your hand adjusts the strap of the pack slung across your back.

“Ready.” You return confidently, with a small shake in your voice. He gestures for Koa to depart down the ramp first, with you closely following. As you pass him his eyes drop to your new attire.

“Are-” He stutters, trying to make sense of this confusing feeling, “are those my pants?”

“Ah, yeah…” You answer, a tinge of blush spreading up your neck and to your cheeks, “mine were pretty tattered, I hope that’s okay?”

He opens his mouth to reply but before he can speak you slip in, “I-I’m sorry. I should’ve asked. I can go change out of them quick!”

“No!” He tries to cover the unintended force of his voice with an awkward cough, “No. It’s fine.”

“Okay.” Your face grows a deeper shade of red before you quickly turn and follow Koa down the ramp. A small smile creeps onto his face that he has to force off, reminding himself that this is an inappropriate time for these thoughts.

____

The humidity of the forest was unexpected, sweat beads down Mills’s forehead and pools on his lower back as he clears a path for your group and carefully eyes your surroundings. You’re making good time, his navigational unit read that the escape pod was 15 kilometers north and you’ve already cleared 2 kilometers, only stopping once for water.

He swats a hand around his head as he pushes through a swarm of insects, clapping one against the back of his neck when he feels a bite. His hand returns covered in stringy guts and slime, earning a gagging sound from you and a melodic laugh from Koa. He grins, turning on his heel and holding his hand out like a zombie towards Koa.

She shrieks with laughter and darts away from him, hitting the deck and hiding behind your legs.

“Oh no you don’t” You giggle, separating your legs to reveal her hiding place. He crawls between them and chases her away with the threat of his filthy hand, bucking you up onto his back in the process. You squeal in surprise, arms flailing as you slide back down to your feet.

His arms go flailing too when he trips over a well concealed root and lands smack on his back. This turns Koa’s giggles into a roar of laughter. He shoots her a dirty look but hints a smile while he scrapes his sticky hand against the root.

The small moment of normalcy is interrupted by the desperate screech of an animal, like a high pitched cry for help. You all freeze, and Koa mutters something unintelligible before darting away from you and Mills and towards the bellowing creature.

“Koa!” You yell to her as Mills echoes, “Stop!”

He jumps to his feet and goes flying after her, jumping over roots and shoving through brush, with you right behind. He rounds a tree after Koa and finds her kneeling before a pit of some sort of tar-like substance that has trapped a young creature. It’s the size of a large dog, with a hard armored shell and small tusks. Koa cries out as she grips the animal, using all her strength to pull him free of the tar.

“Koa,” Mills warns, crashing to his knees, “This is not a good idea.”

He glances around instinctively looking for the creature’s mother, and watches as you join Koa’s side and help her yank on the animal.

“Mills!” You plead.

He swears and grabs onto the creature’s rear, giving it one final boost out of the pit. You all collapse, out of breath. Koa claps her hands in celebration and watches the young beast stomp away unharmed. Mills shakes his head and meets your eyes, giving you a questioning look. You just shrug in reply.

The sharp roars of several predators echo as they burst from the bushes, attacking the newly freed young animal. Mills is thrown into action and grabs Koa by the stomach, pulling her against a tree and throwing a hand over her mouth as she sobs in terror. He clamps his hand to muffle her cries. He holds back the urge to yell for you, his breath catching until he spots you behind another tree on the other side of the carnage. Your frightened eyes meet his and you scoot further behind the tree.

Satisfied from their hunt, the predatory creatures become more interested in the sound of crunched leaves from behind your tree. Mills weighs his options as he sees them creep towards your hiding place. He could make some kind of distraction, but that would put Koa at risk. He could leave her against this tree and pray she doesn’t make a squeak while he defends you, surprising the creatures. His chest heaves and his mind races, time to make a decision coming to an end as they inch closer to discovering you there, defenseless. He makes a move to stand, Koa gripping against him, when the deafening cry of an desperate mother searching for her child spooks the pack of predators enough to chase them off. They run, dragging away their prize meal.

As soon as the coast is clear, Mills stumbles over himself running in your direction with Koa in tow. When he reaches you, you’re steadying yourself on the tree with a hand on your chest trying to slow your heart.

“Are you okay?” He pants, eyes darting all over you looking for injuries.

“I’m okay,” You promise, giving a weak smile to reassure him. He clears his throat, reaching back to pull Koa towards him. He holds her face in his hands, wiping away stray tears with his thumbs.

“You HAVE to listen to me,” He begs her, “do you understand?!”

She sniffles, “ah-ti la kay.”

Mills takes that as a yes. He turns around and scoops her onto his back, ensuring that she won’t be dashing off anytime soon. He looks at you, silently asking if you’re ready to continue on. You take a deep breath and put one foot in front of the other.

____

Mills falls in step behind you, his footprints dwarfing yours as he follows your trail. Stopping every now and then to relocate the signal, you both forge ahead with much higher levels of caution. Koa is asleep atop Mill’s back, and after hours of carrying her he’s grown so used to the extra weight he doesn’t even notice it.

“I’m sorry I had to lie to her.” He speaks, the first words between you since picking up your journey. He keeps replaying your look of surprise at him, hinted with disappointment, when he told Koa her parents were at the mountain’s peak.

“It’s complicated.” You reassure him, “She’ll thank you one day.”

“Even if she could understand me, I’m not sure I would’ve had the heart to tell her.” He admits, “How do I explain to a kid that she’s just become an orphan?”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself. You’re saving her life.”

He pauses. “Did you have anyone? In the crash?”

You shake your head. “No. I was traveling alone.”

He’s silent, leaving you an opportunity to explain without prying.

“I-” You hesitate, clearly choosing words carefully, “I was leaving. Starting a new job, a new life. I wanted to start over.”

“Can’t get a fresher start than halfway across the galaxy.” He jokes, gauging your reaction. You chuckle. “My thoughts exactly.”

During this short conversation you’ve fallen back from walking ahead of Mills to beside him. He watches you as you say, “I saw a picture back on the ship of your daughter. She’s beautiful.”

He visibly stiffens, eyes glazing over. “Yeah. Yeah she is.”

You seem to cringe to yourself for tapping on such a sensitive topic, and he mentally kicks himself for coldly cutting the conversation short because of it. It’s just that he hasn’t spoken about Nevine to anyone since starting this job almost two years ago. He usually prefers not to even dwell on her in his own mind.

As if slicing through the tension, the navigational unit beeps twice and warns ‘SIGNAL LOST’. You both come to a stop as Mills rips it off his pack and presses buttons, trying to reset the signal. The unit buzzes in response, and repeats ‘SIGNAL LOST’.

“Damn it.” He huffs, smacking his palm against the unit. Unsurprisingly, this does nothing to help. He squints up at the thick treeline above you.

“I’ve gotta get higher ground. Stay here.” He instructs, slinging off his pack and weapon and handing both to you. He tucks the navigational unit in his pocket and wipes his hands on his pants, readying himself to scale one of the massive trees. He climbs branch by branch, testing the sturdiness of each with a foot before committing his weight to it. He constantly peers down at you and Koa to check on you, and when he’s satisfied you’re not in imminent danger he pulls himself up another foot.

Small branches scrape his skin as he pushes through the treeline, giving himself a clear view of the mountain to the north. He’s relieved to see that you’ve made some progress, the escape pod is finally in his line of sight. He hooks a hand into a crook in the tree to hold himself while his other hand digs out the unit from his pocket. Flipping it open, he scans the pod in the distance. ‘SIGNAL ACQUIRED’ it beeps. Mills breathes a sigh of relief.

As he moves to close the unit, it beeps another message ‘IRREGULARITY DETECTED’.

“What the hell?” He zooms the screen out, following the red line until it leads him to a large body of rock in the distant sky. That’s gotta be part of the asteroid belt that took out the ship. The rock is too distant for him to scan the path of, so he makes a mental note to check it again later. Flipping the navigational unit closed, he slips it back in his pocket and shifts his weight to begin climbing down.

He feels a strange sensation when he removes his hand from the crook of the tree and looks up to see his hand covered in what looks to be spiders on steroids. Mills jolts, lifting his hand to shake them off as the sudden movement causes the branch he’s standing on to snap. He yells, clawing at the trunk of the tree to find any spot to grip but he’s unsuccessful. Mills careens down further and further, snapping branch by branch on his fall until his body slams, the sounds of bones cracking and a powerful thud as he lands right in front where you sit waiting for him.

Chapter 5

[phasmattack]

Visitors (a 65 story) - Chapter 3: Safety

Read Chapter 2

Pairing: Captain Mills x Fem Reader

Fic Summary: 65 million years ago, Captain Mills (played by Adam Driver) crashes a passenger transport ship into Earth during the Cretaceous period. You are among three survivors of the crash. Together with Mills, you must make your way to the only shot of extraction through an unknown terrain riddled with deadly prehistoric creatures.

Fic Masterlist

Read on Ao3

___

You

The empty silence of space travel you didn’t even realize your body had become accustomed to was now cruelly ripped away from it. You drift in and out of consciousness as the alarms blare into your cryochamber, the noises muffled and distant. Your eyes feel impossibly heavy, begging you to return to your peaceful cryogenic sleep but you use what little strength your body is recovering to pry them open, rolling your head around to take in your situation.

Through your chamber’s window ahead is darkness, and with your eyes focused on the flashing distress lights inside you just can’t seem to make out your surroundings. You return focus to the small control panel to your left, eyes squinting as you try to make sense of the words. I can do this. I’m just a little cloudy from the cryosleep. You were meant to wake up through a slow process, like figuratively thawing your brain out. Being thrown awake like this was gonna mean your body would need time to adapt. Time you didn’t have, you realize, as you make out the words ‘oxygen levels’ and ‘steadily declining’ over a red bar that seemed to be getting smaller by the second.

“Damn it.” Your voice comes out weak and brittle, and your lungs start to feel tighter either from the oxygen deprivation or the panic of imagining what a death by oxygen deprivation would be like. Grunting, you pull your arm forward but it falls back down like you’re some kind of ragdoll. Finding more strength somehow, this time you throw it forward and it stays up, frantically pressing buttons marked ‘emergency release’, ‘oxygen reserve’, ‘SOS’, anything that you can reach. Not a single one blinks back at you, not a single one clicks or beeps in response.

“DAMN IT” Panic escalates, the logical side of you knows to conserve what little air you have left but the overwhelming urge to hyperventilate takes over. Adrenaline courses through your veins as you weakly slam your fists into the glass, each punch more intense than the last. You kick at the red emergency release handle, ignoring how obviously jammed it is. ‘WARNING: Oxygen Levels Depleted’ and ‘WARNING: Reserve Unresponsive’ begin to flash in your face and you sob as the last breath of air passes your lips. Your eyes start to revert back to their soft blur as you barely make out movement through the dark chamber glass. Darkness pulls at the corners of your peripheral vision and a painful ringing echoes between your ears.

Suddenly you’re thrown out of your dance with death when heavy glass shatters around you. Cool fresh air barrels into your chamber, and you gasp, vision returning and ringing subsiding. You feel a warm hand against your cheek, and begin to recognize a face in the darkness. It’s a man. A handsome man. Your brows furrow in confusion, half about this stranger and half about how your brain was able to form suggestive thoughts about him right after narrowly escaping death.

You see his mouth moving, but your ears feel full and his voice sounds distant. He lowers his gaze and cringes, which you take as a bad sign. The large hand leaves your face and begins carefully unbuckling your restraints, with a gentle nature you weren’t expecting from this stranger. He’s a brute by the looks of it, granted you were lying beneath him but he had to tower a foot above your height at least. He had wide shoulders and strong arms that tugged on his shirt. His scruff and long unkempt dark hair that fell to his shoulders gave the impression of some kind of dirty smuggler, but those eyes. The rich brown eyes that peered back at yours were so kind. The primitive feeling of safety washes over you and your body gives into the exhaustion.

___

You wake to the sound of soft footsteps thudding on metal in the distance. Wincing, you pull yourself upright, slip off the oxygen mask that’s been placed over your mouth and stretch your arms out, examining the various scratches and cuts that now litter them. Nothing too deep, just reminding you of the glass shards that rained onto you after being broken by that man.

That man who must be the source of the footsteps. You carefully slide out of the makeshift bed you were put in and peer down the hallway of this ship you once entered so long ago. It’s been badly ripped apart, you can see straight through the loading dock and into the distant alien landscape outside. To your right, the hull that once carried you and thirty four other passengers in cryochambers is now caved in. The metal roof crumpled, exposed wires sparking from the walls and red emergency lights rotating.

“You’re awake.” A deep but apprehensive voice came from behind you, sending a jolt through your spine and making you stumble backward. He throws a hand out to steady you by the shoulder, “I- oh sorry I didn’t mean to-” He trails off. “I hope I didn’t wake you.”

“No,” You shrug, his hand releasing your arm. “No, I think I’ve had enough sleep for the rest of my life.” You rigidly joke, turning to look at the destruction that once held you in cryosleep. You’re sure you aren’t prepared for the answer, but you can’t help but ask, “What happened?”

He sighs and tilts his head toward the cockpit, gesturing for you to follow him.

“We were hit by an asteroid belt. It was undocumented, we never saw it coming.” You slide into a small booth seat in the corner and he opens a cooler of rations, fishing out a water canister.

“The damage was irreversible by the time I woke up, all I could do was send a distress signal before we crash landed here.”

“Here?” You probe, nodding a thank you as he hands you the canister.

“Unknown celestial body, as far as the scanners can tell.” He leans against a wall, his face growing somber.

You hesitate, “...How close were we?”

“Close.” He morbidly chuckles, “So damn close.”

You shudder, knowing you’ve just woken after what had to have been at least a year in cryogenic sleep. “Is there any chance?”

He sighs and nods. “The escape pod is our only chance to even meet an extraction point, if there’s one being sent. We lost the pod in the crash but it’s got an active reading so it must’ve landed somewhere nearby.”

“Was there anyone else?” You ask, alluding to the other passengers. After seeing the wreckage of the chamber bay, you think you already know the answer. His lips tighten and he looks to the ground, kicking a stray piece of rubble.

“Just you,” he says solemnly, ”and the girl.”

Your head tilts at that addition, “A girl?”

He straightens, “The young girl in your room, I found her after I brought you back here.”

“I-” You start, now recognizing the strewn blankets next to your makeshift bed as being another bed. “There was no one else in that room.”

At that he goes stiff, the color draining from his face. He darts down the hallway and into the room, swearing under his breath. He stomps back towards the cockpit and throws a pack over one shoulder, and a weapon over the other. He turns towards the collapsed loading dock with you hot on his heels.

“No,” He whips around to face you, “you stay here, I’ll be back.”

“But-” You start to argue, but he shoots you a stern look over his shoulder as he climbs down the ramp. “Fine.” You settle on not following him when some kind of creature screeches from the sky over the ship.

You use this time alone to settle the hunger in your stomach, pulling a tray of rations from the cooler you saw him open earlier. You finish your less than desirable meal of rehydrated stew and wash it down with more water. Returning to your room, you notice your reflection in a cracked mirror. Your hair is matted from being in one position for so long, your face pale and your clothes ripped and dirty. A year in a cryochamber does wonders for the complexion.

The attached bathroom has just enough water left in the sprung pipes to smooth down your hair and splash your face. You glance through the small closet, realizing this must be the captain’s quarters as several sets of the man’s uniform hang in between various men’s t-shirts. You doubt you’d be able to fill in that massive man’s clothing. Stripping off your tattered overshirt, you decide to keep on the tank that was still intact underneath. You step into one of his cargo-like work uniform pants, cinching up the waist with a belt. You reach down and cuff the dangling pant legs. Your boots will have to do, since you can’t imagine yourself clomping around in his size fourteens.

Something by your right boot catches your eye. A scrap of paper wedged into a drawer. You kneel down and open the drawer, pulling out a photograph. In the middle of the photograph was the man, smiling ear to ear in between a gorgeous woman with her head against his shoulder and a young girl who was the perfect combination of the two. She was stunning, obviously inheriting the best features of both her parents. You smile at their happiness, a piece of your heart crumbling for him being so far from them for so long.

Your thoughts are interrupted by a distant roar, and you rush to look out the front window of the cockpit. You don’t spot the owner of the roar, but you do see two figures rushing out of the treeline in front of you. The man pushes through brush, left hand holding a weapon high and right hand gripping the hood of a young girl’s jacket. The young girl in the jacket runs alongside him, her poor little face drained of all color.

You spin out of the captain’s chair and run down the loading dock to meet them. The man tucks his weapon behind his back as he sees you, pushing the girl in front of him and up the ramp. “She’s gonna get herself killed.” He mumbles as he passes you, tossing his pack to the floor and collapsing into his chair.

You watch the young girl scurry into the booth chair, lifting her hood and turning to face the wall. The man eyes her as well, but with more contempt on his face. You wonder what situation he found her in. Trying to remedy the tension, you retrieve another tray of rations from the cooler, this time opting for rehydrated rice and beans. You place the tray delicately on the table in front of the girl. She peaks from under her hood but does not make an effort to turn.

“My name is (Y/N),” You smile at her, “what’s your name?”

A confused look, followed by silence. She pulls her hood back over her face.

“She hasn’t spoken a word since I found her.” The man so helpfully adds. You narrow your eyes at him. “My name is (Y/N), what’s your name?” You ask him.

“Wh- oh, me?” He points to himself, eyes wide, “uh, Mills. My name is Mills.”

“Nice to meet you, Mills.” You smile at him, and his face calms. You even swear you see his eyes flutter.

You turn back to the girl, who is now looking between you and Mills. You point to yourself, “(Y/N).” You point to Mills, “Mills.” You point to her, “Your name?” Her confused look turns to one of understanding, but her lips remain closed.

Mills sighs and stands from his chair, pulling a book from a shelf over your head. He thumbs through it, “Passenger 27…Ko-ah? Koa? Is that it?” She perks up, still looking wide eyed at Mills. “Koa?” He repeats. She nods.

“Koa, I’m Captain Mills. I was piloting our ship when we went down. We crash landed on a planet that’s uncharted, unmapped. Do you understand?” She continues to stare at him. “We need to get to the escape pod and fly you away. You remember the escape pod we saw in the distance out there? The one on the mountain?” Silence. “Well we need to reach it if we have any chance of getting out.” She blinks at him, and blinks at you.

“God- okay hold on.” He pulls a box from the same shelf, and scatters its dusty red contents onto the table. He spreads out the dust, and begins drawing shapes with a finger. He draws a large triangle, “You see? Mountain?” and makes a stair shape up the side of it. He points to each of us, and back to the mountain, “We- climb mountain. On the top-” He makes a circle at the tip, and draws the circle jetting up and into the sky above the mountain. “Ship, it takes us home.”

“Home” a tiny voice speaks. You both look up at her.

“Yes! Home!” He celebrates, smiling at her.

“Mo-nah fetah-lay” She squeaks out, looking between you.

“What language is that?” He asks you.

“I’ve never heard it. Ko-an maybe?”

“Mo-nah fetah-lay!” She insists.

Mills presses his hand against his temple. “We lost the translator, just like everything else on this damn ship.”

“Mo-nah fetah-lay!” She says again, as she draws in the dust. She draws two stick figures.

“Is that your mom and dad?” You ask her, “Family?”

Her eyes light up, “Family!”

You try not to look grim, and lean back as if to let Mills break the news to her. He hesitates, “Y-yeah, family!” You whip your head to him, raising a brow. He doesn’t even glance back. “Your family, they’re uh, they’re up here.” He circles the top of the mountain. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”

Now her whole face lights up, “Family!” She squeals, pulling on your sleeve. You look up at Mills, who gives you an apologetic shrug.

“Yes,” You force a smile, “let’s go get your family.”

Chapter 4

[phasmattack]

Visitors (a 65 story) Masterlist

Pairing: Captain Mills x Fem Reader

Fic Summary: 65 million years ago, Captain Mills (played by Adam Driver) crashes a passenger transport ship into Earth during the Cretaceous period. You are among three survivors of the crash. Together with Mills, you must make your way to the only shot of extraction through an unknown terrain riddled with deadly prehistoric creatures.

Warnings: Mention of suicide, loss of parents, trauma bonding

Read on Ao3

___

Chapter 1: Prologue

Chapter 2: Mayday

Chapter 3: Safety

Chapter 4: Beginnings

Chapter 5: Requiem

Chapter 6: Reminiscence

Chapter 7: Peril

Chapter 8: Reality

Chapter 9: Redemption

Chapter 10: TBA

[phasmattack]

Visitors (a 65 story) - Chapter 2: Mayday

Read Chapter 1

Pairing: Captain Mills x Fem Reader

Fic Summary: 65 million years ago, Captain Mills (played by Adam Driver) crashes a passenger transport ship into Earth during the Cretaceous period. You are among three survivors of the crash. Together with Mills, you must make your way to the only shot of extraction through an unknown terrain riddled with deadly prehistoric creatures.

Fic Masterlist

Read on Ao3

___

2 years later

Mills

Mills is shoved out of his bunk by the ear piercing alarm that signals a collision. Air hisses out of vents as systems shut down left and right, sounding their own alarms to add to the cacophony. The dim emergency lights barely allow him to see down the hallway as he stumbles through the ship, gaining his senses and trying to catch his breath. He’s been trained for these situations, not as unlikely as had been promised.

Reaching the cockpit, he squints through the red flashes to read from a monitor the catastrophically long damage report. X’s strike through cryochambers one by one as the ship depressurizes. A blast door slams shut as one wing of the ship is ripped off, sending Mills crashing to the floor from the pressure wave. He gasps through the g-forces as he pulls himself into the captain’s chair, clicks himself in place and rips the communicator off the control panel.

“Charter 373 this is Commander Mills” He grunts out, struggling to stay awake as his ship rips through the atmosphere of a nearby planet, “our ship has been hit by an undocumented asteroid cluster. I repeat our ship has been hit. Charter 373 for an emergency landing on unidentified celestial body please send help, I repeat MAYDAY please advise-”  He cuts out as his head is thrown back, rendering him unconscious while what’s left of Exploratory Mission Passenger Charter 373 careens into Earth.

___

“Where are you now?”

His eyes blink once, twice, three times before they can focus ahead. The blinking lights on the control panel catch his attention as his head rolls forward, causing him to hiss at his neck seizing, most likely from whiplash. What takes more of his attention though is the sharp pain piercing below his ribcage on the left. He pulls up his shirt to find a four inch piece of shrapnel halfway lodged in his side, thankfully missing any vital organs but still hurting like hell. He sucks in a breath as he grips the metal and yanks it out, blood sputtering in its wake.

Trying to shift his focus from his new throbbing wound, he runs diagnostics on the ship’s damage. The good news, he’s still got power. The first of much bad news, half his ship has dislodged and crashed God knows how far away. The next bad news hits him like a freight train as he pulls up the cryochamber logs. All thirty five passengers are now listed as reds and grays. Thirty three red squares outline his passengers’ pictures, their chambers located as ‘damaged’ and their life support systems ‘failed’. Two gray squares outline two missing chambers, which could be anywhere from here to the site of the other half of the crash, and most likely were destroyed on impact too far from him to put out a signal.

He has to see it with his own eyes. He can’t believe the blinking hologram faces of all thirty five of those innocent people now proclaimed as dead under his supervision. He winces while pulling himself out of the cockpit, loading up a weapon and donning a pressurized helmet and suit. The ship groans and settles as the loading dock slams into the ground, sending Mills rolling off it and into a foot of swampy water. He composes himself and shakes off the rising existential dread, wading towards the scene splayed out in front of him. Open wires sizzle and pieces of bent metal creak as he frantically tosses them to the side.

Swearing to himself, he passes the first rogue chamber sitting upright, glass broken and a body thrown into the swamp below. He rips open the door of another to find the limp body of a young girl, maybe in her late teens. A chill runs down his spine as he counts two bodies hanging from branches of a nearby tree, both missing limbs. Three more chambers lay crumpled in a pile of jagged rocks, and he counts five smashed and sunk below the water. His extremities go numb as he tallies the bodies, eyes glazing over and guilt charging through every corner of his mind. All thirty three accounted for, he finally slumps back into the captain's chair, muddy and exhausted.

“This is Commander Mills,” He speaks into the communicator, “of Charter 373. Our ship was hit by an undocumented asteroid cluster while transporting thirty five passengers on a long range exploratory mission. We’ve crash landed on an unknown celestial body. I am the sole survivor. Requesting a recovery team. Please send help.”

His thumb hovers over the button to send the message, and after pausing hits ‘delete’. “This is Commander Mills of Charter 373. Our ship was hit by an undocumented asteroid cluster while transporting thirty five passengers on a long range exploratory mission. We’ve crash landed on an unknown celestial body. No survivors. No need to recover.”

The control panel beeps to alert that the message has successfully been transmitted. Mills sucks in a short breath and jumps out of his seat, swiping the weapon he had tossed to the floor and exiting the ship. He breathes deeply, resting the barrel of the blaster against his chin and leveraging the other end with his foot. Squeezing his eyes shut, his finger finds the trigger.

“I love you” Nevine’s voice echoes through his mind.

Gasping at the memory, he stumbles backward, his finger losing the trigger and the weapon falling to the ground beside him. Tears roll down his face as cold air sharply fills his lungs, stinging them. Blinking through the soft blur, he sees a steadily flashing blue light shining from the control panel through the front window of the ship. Followed by a second blue light flashing out of sync with the first. That can only mean one thing: heartbeats. Survivors.

Chapter 3

[phasmattack]

Visitors (a 65 story) - Chapter 1: Prologue

Pairing: Captain Mills x Fem Reader

Fic Summary: 65 million years ago, Captain Mills (played by Adam Driver) crashes a passenger transport ship into Earth during the Cretaceous period. You are among three survivors of the crash. Together with Mills, you must make your way to the only shot of extraction through an unknown terrain riddled with deadly prehistoric creatures.

Warnings: Mention of suicide, loss of parents, trauma bonding

Fic Masterlist

Read on Ao3

___

The planet Somaris

Mills

“This time is different. The longest I’ve been away was 6 weeks, this is two years.”

“I know. But you’ll be back, and she’ll still be here.”

He feels the warm sand stick between his toes as he tries to savor the feeling of this moment. The salty sea air filling his lungs, the rays of sun kissing his tanned arms. The feeling of Alya held safe in those arms, the smell of her hair against his shoulder. The sight of their precious baby girl, who wasn’t such a baby anymore.

She’s so much like her mother it made his head spin just thinking about it. What did he do to deserve two of them? Beautiful, smart and confident women. Stubborn, sometimes to a fault, his daughter’s health grew steadily worse by the day and yet she’s splashing in the waves, bent on ignoring how her chest felt tight or her eyelids heavy.

The decision has been made for him, the final chance to bail long past now. But as he breathes in this perfect last moment with his family he can’t help but push down the urge to say screw it, to tell the buyers they can shove their quotas where the sun doesn’t shine and park himself right on this beach until the end of his days. This urge is silenced altogether as Nevine turns from the shore and gives him that heart stopping smile she got from her mother.

Two years will slip by like nothing if it means he can afford to keep that smile on her face longer. This one last job will finally get her treatment, give her a chance at the life she deserves. Let her mother be able to sleep through the night and end the whispered midnight arguments over family priorities and rising medical expenses.

He smiles back.

  “Just two years.”

Chapter 2

[phasmattack]

Planet Earth II (2016) Episode 05 “Grasslands” Directed by Chadden Hunter

[phasmattack]

[phasmattack]

Rose-Colored Jupiter : This image captures a close-up view of a storm with bright cloud tops in the northern hemisphere of Jupiter. (via NASA)

[phasmattack]

[phasmattack]

Mes Films Préférés

(or, Some of My Favourite French Movies)

Following my list of favourites Japanese movies, it’s only fair I do the same for French movies. Seeing as I live in France and love cinema, I’ve seen a LOT of them, so it was hard for me to chose (or even remember some movies). That’s why the list has no rhyme or reason; there are comedies, tragedies, old classics, animated movies, etc. All excellent though!

Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain (Amélie) 2001, Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Y’all probably already know about this one, but I couldn’t not put it on the list. A very quirky romantic comedy and fantasy. If you haven’t seen it, now is the time. Very heart-warming and joyous, without ignoring the sadder parts of life.

Entre les Murs (In Class) 2008, Laurent Cantet

From The Guardian: The idealistic young teacher reaching out to a troubled class of underprivileged kids - it should be the dullest movie cliche imaginable. Yet French director Laurent Cantet does something miraculous with it in this fresh piece of humanist, realist, optimist cinema, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes last year.

One of the most poignant and realistic movies I’ve seen.

(The rest is under a link)

Keep reading

[phasmattack]

Alexa, release my inhibitions

[phasmattack]

if someone makes you happy, make them happier