Chapter Text
Today, the motto seems to be "line em' up and knock em' down." The pair of them, Cap and her, have been culling the monsters outside of Fallbrook all day. She had woken up early, and found him nursing a coffee mug in the kitchen. When she'd expressed a desire to kill alien monsters, he'd jumped at the opportunity to join her.
She relished the freedom that came with being a part of this crew. They had landed in Fallbrook almost as soon as they’d finished getting their weapons and armor ready. The whole system at their fingertips; well, so long as they had the right navkeys.
And now, she had the execution of monsters down to a science. Being able to pick the right vantage point, prioritize each of them by importance, and rain bullet hellfire down upon them was excruciatingly satisfying. Sure, it wasn't the same pirate lifestyle she so yearned after, but her aim was certainly improving.
The sun was getting higher in the sky, and another mantis's head had just exploded, when she feels a heavy, squishy, weight upon her back, and spins around haphazardly. There are still mantises (manti?) to be dealt with in front of her. How had one flanked her so easily?
But it isn’t attacking her. The enormous larvae is already a corpse. In fact, there are a lot of monster corpses behind her, which she certainly hadn't killed. No, it was the Captain who had killed those ones. Had she forgotten he was even fighting with her?
"Sorry!" He yells from the perch he'd taken up a sniping position from. She shrugs the corpse off and gets back to murdering bugs.
When they're done, he jumps down to regroup with her, and she's shaking slime out of her hair.
"Sorry, sorry." He says again. "That one was a quick bugger. Didn't think it'd get to you so fast."
"Have you been murdering the bugs in my blind spots all morning?" She asks.
"Well, yeah." He replies, not unkindly. "You know I've always got your back, Ellie."
It's said so earnestly that she can't help but believe it, just a little bit. And the Captain hasn't failed her yet, so all he gets in reply is a disbelieving snort, as opposed to whatever worse response she might've given otherwise.
"Let's go get lunch." She says instead of a real response. "I've worked up an appetite."
He smiles, and allows her to lead the way back to the ship, hoping one day she'll feel safe enough to believe him.