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Astra had only been here… what, a few days now? It felt longer, probably because the basic training had been so eventful it was easy to forget that just a few days ago she’d been in a big city, enjoying a ‘vacation’ of sorts while she looked around for a job.
And now here she was, hiking through the woods around Osiris’s base to get to where Orion had set up a small camp to watch this eclipse. Felt strange, given how safe it felt to be beholden to a curfew and needing to sign up for this like school children. It was just the moon apparently turning a different color, long as they had a way to be contacted, they were all adults. Should be easy to let them take care of themselves.
She shook her head. It was a Private Military Company after all, there were bound to be rules.
Still.
As she finally entered the clearing where Orion had already set up for the night, she hung back a little at the edge. It wasn’t like she was scared, but there was an entire difference between asking some questions as a civilian and saying a quick hello to the idea that she was now the bottom of the pecking order in Osiris. She really didn’t want to be a bother, especially now that she was part of the group.
After a second she finally stopped waffling and stepped fully into the clearing.
Orion had been aware of her approach long before she stepped into the clearing; not by sound, but by instinct. The way the wind shifted, the way a presence unsettled the quiet hum of the forest he had grown all too familiar with. He didn’t turn immediately, just let the fire crackle and the night breathe around them.
Then, finally, he glanced her way.
"Didn’t think anyone was coming." His voice was steady, absent of disappointment or relief, just a simple fact. He nodded toward an empty spot by the fire, an unspoken offer. "Figured you’d still be getting used to the routine."
The flames flickered, casting slow-moving shadows across the clearing. He took a sip from the metal cup in his hands... Coffee, or something close enough to it.
"Didn’t peg you as the type to chase down a view like this." A pause, then a slight tilt of his head as he regarded her. "Then again, I didn’t peg you as the type to sign up either."
He set his cup down, gaze lifting toward the sky where the moon had already begun to shift into shadow.
"You’re here now. Might as well make the most of it."
“I’m not going to let anything quite as serious as ‘settling in’ get in the way of seeing my first ever lunar eclipse.” Astra looked up at the moon, like she was afraid it was going to dart out of view, but after seemingly confirming it was still there, she looked back to Orion and settled down in the offered spot round the fire. She seemed… excited, in the same way as when she first stepped off the shuttle. The kind of ‘bounce off the walls’ energy seemed her norm.
“Leviathan’s moon never did anything like this.” She pitched her voice a little lower, trying to match the quiet of the forest and the activity even with her poorly hid excitement.
"First one, huh?" Orion mused, watching as Astra took her seat by the fire. The excitement in her was unmistakable; contained, but barely. Almost like she was forcing herself to sit still.
His gaze followed hers, trailing up toward the darkening moon.
"Leviathan’s moon stays the same, then? No eclipses, no shifts?" He exhaled slightly, the faintest trace of amusement in his tone. "Guess that means it never disappears either. Always hanging in the sky, unmoving, predictable."
He let the thought linger before shaking his head.
"Gridiron’s sky was always in motion. The stars blurred in the heat, the moons came and went, and the dust made everything feel unreal. It kept you guessing." He gestured vaguely toward the sky, where the eclipse had begun to deepen. "But this? This is rare. A reminder that even the constants change, if you wait long enough."
He paused, the fire cracked between them as the forest drew back to its normal state.
"This is a good night for a first." he said as he lay down by the fire, getting lost in the sky once more.
"If there ever was one, I never noticed. But my family are farmers and surely would have had some superstition or local name for it." Astra glanced around at the night sky, all the stars spread across the dark blanket above them like glitter. It was beautiful as always. A slightly different night sky to her own. The constellations she'd always pointed to were slightly wrong, or nonexistent. It was odd, to consider that these skies were all different across the Frontier, even though she had freely traveled it.
After letting the silence linger for a bit. "You like astronomy Orion?" She asked. He bore the... name? Callsign? Of one of Earth’s constellations she was pretty sure. She still didn't quite get how they all treated names 'round here.
"Farmers have a way of marking time," Orion said, watching the fire flicker in his peripheral "Seasons, stars, even things no one else would think to name. They definitely had a word for it; but it might be lost to time. Farming is a respectable profession, and a key to civilization; yet they almost always go unnoticed, their toils taken for granted."
He followed her gaze upward, scanning the sky like it held something he'd misplaced long ago.
In the silence her question pulled him back to the present.
"Astronomy?" He let the word settle, considering it. "Not in the way scientists do, I don't map the stars or track their orbits"
He paused, a shift in his voice making it quieter and more somber. "But I watch them, have for a long time"
He glanced at Astra, her expression unreadable somehow.
"Orion wasn't my name at first. It was given to me by others back on Gridiron." He chuckled slightly "Because in my off time, I would always spend my time looking up instead of ahead. Some thought it meant I wasn't focused. Others thought it was weird. Maybe they were right. I didn't care for the name, it was better than my numbered name"
He lay there, lost in thought as he put his hands on his chest. He was almost relaxed, nobody had asked him about his name; nobody had cared until now.
What an interesting girl this one, I wonder how far she'll go to understand? he thought to himself.
Astra tilted her head a little, watching the moon slowly fading from its normal colors to slight reds. "The stars were probably more interesting and are harder to take away. Of course you'd watch them." She continued to watch the moon, entranced, her eyes never leaving the sight. "But you're a free man now, aren't you? You could choose any name you feel fits."
Seems she caught at least a little of the implications in his explanation of his name. Though she was trying to keep it light, not digging into a past that was probably painful to focus on his happiness.
“Free?” Orion echoed the word, rolling it over in his mind. He exhaled slowly, watching as the last sliver of the moon darkened, swallowed by the eclipse.
“I… Suppose I am.” His voice carried no certainty, just quiet acknowledgment.
But freedom was a strange thing. It meant movement, choice, the ability to walk away. In that sense, he had it. He wasn’t shackled to a number anymore. Wasn’t bound to the mines, the war, the orders of those who saw him as nothing but an asset.
“You can walk as far as you want, change your name, your uniform, your purpose, but the past is still there, just out of reach. You don’t escape it. You carry it.” His eyes stayed on the moon, now fully cloaked in red. “So maybe I am free. But not from everything.”
The fire crackled between them, its warmth fighting off the cold truth of his words.
“A name isn’t just something you pick up and put down,” he finally continued. “It sticks, whether you want it to or not. Orion was given to me once, but I kept it. Maybe because I didn’t care, maybe because I did.”
A pause. He turned his head slightly, just enough to glance at Astra.
“The stars are harder to take away, yeah. But the past clings to you just as tight.”
He settled back, hands resting over his chest as he watched the sky shift.
“Orion works just fine. And the past isn’t something to fear, or to suppress, or to run from. I believe we should embrace it, make it part of us in order to be better. We cannot change it, but we can change the future. I am hoping to make mine as bright as the stars in the sky”
He sighed a deep, relaxing sigh, the moon above a beautiful deep crimson and orange. He unzipped a pouch on his carrier, and took out a crystal. He admired it, and its beauty as he compared it to the moon before snapping it in half.
Astra let him talk, feeling no need to interrupt his musings. It probably helped, getting all those complex feelings out into the world and not being made fun of for it. She was new here, and there seemed to be a lot of personalities, that while generally accepting, she wondered if these kinds of speeches ever got him teased by the others. She hoped not, as he was an eloquent speaker that could probably do something with that talent when he retired. It would be a shame if he didn't because someone laughed at him for it.
"If Orion is what you want, then I shall not argue with the name you decided to keep." She said, her voice kept soft and warm. "It fits you."
Astra did look back over at Orion as he pulled out what looked like a crystal and broke it.
"Didn't take you as the crystal girlie type though." The joke was light, with no real heat, just amusement. "What’s it for?"
Orion let out a quiet chuckle, rolling the fractured crystal between his fingers. The moon’s glow caught the edges, making them shimmer in deep amber and burnt orange; almost like the eclipse itself.
“Crystal girlie type, huh?” His tone was dry, but amusement flickered beneath it. He turned the broken halves over in his palms, studying them like he had a thousand times before.
“It’s something I keep for myself,” he finally said, his voice quiet, blending into the stillness of the forest. “A reminder, maybe. A ritual. Call it whatever you want.”
He held up one half of the crystal, letting the firelight catch its surface before tucking it away. The other, he tossed toward Astra, the fractured shard rolling to a halt between her and the crackling fire.
“It’s rare. Takes years to form. And also organic. Some say if you taste it, you won’t feel hunger for days. Others say it sharpens the mind, keeps you focused.”
He paused. The flames danced in his visor as he leaned back slightly.
“Not sure I believe any of that. I just like the taste. Keeps me grounded; reminds me of times long gone.”
His gaze drifted back to the sky, where the moon now hung like a full, vibrant ruby, its edges kissed with the last traces of orange sunlight.
Astra was quick to pick up the odd crystal, holding it up to the fire so she could study the color and look of it. She polished it off a little bit, almost as fixated on it as she was on the moon turning red in the sky, her attention split between the gifted crystal and the astrological phenomenon in the sky.
"Thank you." She didn't try to taste the crystal, just held it, studied it, with reverence, like she'd just been handed a flawless diamond. She turned her gaze back to the moon.
"I didn't expect it to be that red." The comment was soft and distracted, Astra's gaze fixed on the eclipsed moon like it was the most interesting thing in the world.
“There’s a lot of things here you don’t expect. I didn’t expect you to join when we first met, you and I” Orion stoked the fire with some small timber. Analyzing Astra, he knew the look she had all to well.
“I also didn’t expect anyone to come out at this time of night. Yet here you are, defying what is predicted.”
He rose to his feet, standing against the backdrop of the lunar ruby hanging in the sky. The firelight flickered at his back, casting long shadows that stretched across the clearing. He looked up at the moon for a long moment, its deep crimson glow reflected in his visor.
“Funny how that happens.” His voice was quieter now, almost contemplative. “People, like the sky, don’t always follow expectations. They shift, change course. Sometimes, they show up when you least expect them to.”
He glanced down at Astra, his helmet ensuring his expression was unreadable.
“So what brought you here, really? The moon, the quiet… or something else?”
Astra looked up at Orion, a slight look of puzzlement crossing her face at the question.
“I came out to see the moon after you announced the eclipse was happening on Frontwire.” She shrugged a little, playing with the half of the crystal in her hand. “If it meant I could ‘wander around’ after curfew that was just a plus.” Her eyes flicked back up to the moon again.
“It was either this or climb onto the barracks roof to watch and I was getting the vibe that wouldn’t be appreciated.” She gave a small chuckle. “So best come out here, watch the moon, maybe get to know a fellow rifleman as more than just a pretty guy in armor.” Her fidgeting with the crystal paused as she realized she’d accidentally said an ‘inside thought’ out loud, and her gaze immediately dropped off to the side. “Sorry that was inappropriate. I just appreciate the armor and such, its pretty eye-catching.”
Orion blinked once, slowly, as if replaying her words in his head just to make sure he heard them right. Then, without missing a beat, he let out a thoughtful hum.
“Huh. So all this time, I thought you came out here for the moon, maybe the quiet; but really, it was for the armor?” He exhaled through his nose, shaking his head slightly. “I’d say I’m flattered, but I think that honor goes to my plating. You don’t look half bad yourself.”
He gave a small, amused glance at his own gear before looking back at her, watching the way she suddenly found a deep interest in looking anywhere but at him.
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell the others. If word gets out that the new recruit has a thing for equipment aesthetics, next thing you know, half the squad’s gonna start polishing their kits for inspection.” He picked up a small rock, rolling it between his fingers before tossing it into the fire.
“But hey,” he added, smirking just enough that it was barely noticeable, “if you ever wanna trade notes on armor preferences, I’ll make sure to bring a chart next time.”
Astra wished she could sink into the ground. She had not intended to say that, it had just kinda slipped off the tongue, too comfortable and distracted to mind her words properly. The fact Orion acknowledged it after the fact was even worse.
She was grateful that he wasn’t mad, but the teasing was almost worse. At least mad meant there was a good chance it would never come up in conversation again. While Orion didn’t seem the type to use it as ammo, it was still embarrassing as all hell, and she doubted the rest of Osiris would be as chill with that knowledge as he was.
“I swear I came out here to watch the eclipse. Everything else is secondary. Astra stressed, still avoiding looking at Orion directly. She prayed the fire and general darkness meant he couldn’t see how red her face felt.
“Astra, relax. It’s fine, I promise.” Orion’s tone was even, the quiet amusement still lingering as he moved toward her. “I can tell just by the way you’re avoiding eye contact that you’re about as red as the moon right now.”
He chuckled, stopping just beside her, the fire casting flickering shadows across his armor.
“And don’t worry, I won’t tell a soul. Secrets are safe with me.” His voice was steady, reassuring, but with that same edge of knowing amusement. “Besides, you didn’t say anything wrong. If this is the worst thing I’ve heard out here, I’d be counting my blessings. Trust me, people talk when they think no one’s listening.”
As he passed, he reached out and ruffled her hair, a casual, almost absent gesture; one that said this wasn’t a big deal, stop overthinking it. A gesture nobody had seen from Orion.
“I’ll be back. Need to grab more firewood.” He glanced toward the treeline, then back at the fire. “Think I’ll sleep out here tonight. You’re welcome to stay or go, it’s your choice. But I’ve enjoyed your company.”
Then, without another word, he disappeared into the darkness, the soft glow of his gear fading to nothing. It was as if the night had swallowed him whole.
Astra watched Orion wander off, feeling only slightly less nervous even with his reassurances. She was just so used to such slip ups coming back to bite her she usually guarded herself against saying it. Trying to be normal like everyone else so she didn’t get snapped at or made fun of was a fact of life. Perhaps choosing to join up with a fairly rough and mixed bag of a PMC was not the best choice to not get herself hazed.
But she liked it here. She didn’t really understand why she liked it anymore than the farm or say, how she might have fit into the Militia. It was rough around the edges, with a variety of personalities ranging from kind to distant and possibly mean. She’d heard the warnings about some of them.
She looked back up at the moon, the red tinge starting to fade as the shadow of Harmony finally started to fall off it.
She decided to stay. She was in no rush to get back to base on a beautiful night like this.