It’s cold. The night air rushes through my hair, chilling my eartips to numbness. The bleak desert tundra sprawls out around me, the breaking light of the sun just beginning to tint the sky grey. The flight seemed to go on forever, the thrumming of the steel wings and the thrusters to keep me company. Before day broke, I would have to land to avoid being spotted. Even now, the dull glow my flight generated was suspicious, but a glinting speck overhead with a dark particle trail would be far more suspicious.
The land I was traversing was desolate. Nothing was alive, only the occasional bleached corpse was highlighted in the cool blue of the HUD. Alone with my thoughts, which were few and quiet, my mind lay between sleep and half-attention on my travel.