That Which Dies, Floats to the Stars
By The Machinist has Fallen
Chapter 1: It all Went so Wrong
I was taught a lot of things when I was in the Academy. They taught me how to basically operate any part of a ship, with only the most basic of abilities of course. Weapons, shields, engines, piloting, I was good at piloting. Along the way, I even made some friends, a crazy gunner named Kevin, and a genius with tech and shields named Patrick. We formed a band of misfits together, but we proved ourselves to be a great crew. The Academy taught me a lot of things, but when it came to defeat, I was something of a...hothead.
Even in the simulators I hated losing. When the going got tough, and I found myself lacking, there was a lot of collateral damage. They were about to brand me unstable, and kick me out entirely, but that's when my friends showed up. They personally vouched, on their honor and pride as servicemen, that I would control myself. When someone, even two people, stick their necks out for you, then you damn well better learn to control yourself, or you might as well stop calling yourself a man. It was difficult to say the least, and I almost lost it a time or two, but I couldn't, I wouldn't allow myself to destroy the lives of my friends. So I worked hard, I personally went into a simulator and didn't stop until my temper was under control. After that, they said I was a new man, even offered an accommodation for improving so well.
That was by far the biggest party my friends and I hosted in a long time, of course the rebels had different plans. When they first attacked us, it wasn't just a crippling wound, it was like an amputation. We didn't have time to react, and we didn't have the resources to fight such a massive war. The rebels had the upper hand, and they damn well knew it. Little did those bastards know, we Federation troops had a nice big plan for them. My crew and I were tasked with a special mission, to bring vital information to our forces on the other end of the galaxy. We weren't going to let these guys finish us, and we weren't going to let them beat us.
Not a lot of people can admit or even say it, but traveling across the galaxy is a challenge I wouldn't ask of any man. We went through a lot, and it was a great show of our skill. Our ship was apply named The Damned Ones, and well, we did quite a few things to earn that on our way through the galaxy to earn that name, but I never thought our end would very much prove our name to the letter.
When we arrived, our ship had a crew transporter, a cloaking device, pegasus missile launcher, burst laser and a nice little hull laser we lifted off a derelict rebel ship. Our shields weren't that great, but they could take a couple hits before failing. Our sensors were strong enough to see into their ship, we had blast doors, and a nice little auto pilot that made life a bit simpler for us all. Once we got to the other side of the galaxy, we gave them the information, the flagship. It was a monster, a colossal weapon capable of destroying countless amounts of ships, and we had to destroy it before it got to our main forces.
If your reading this, then that means you must be wondering why I just skipped all the juicy bits, all of the nice little stories about visiting all the different planets and people. I wish I could have told you all of that, cause that would have been a nice story, but you need to know what happened at that end of the galaxy, at that damned...God forsaken part of the galaxy. Tales of heroism or hijinks mean nothing when at the very end of it all, you just make a floating graveyard.
We tried everything we could to stop them, we hit them with everything we could muster. I saw five rebel ships go down during that time, but when we met up with the flagship, it all just went to hell. Their weapons were far greater than we thought, our cloaking device only gave us so much time, and they made sure we couldn't transport anyone up there with their damned EMP weapons. We kept getting hit...there was so much fire...I had to do something, I refused to just let my friends die, not after we had gone through so much.
I fled from that battle, I jumped to the nearest beacon, then I sealed the cockpit and kept jumping. Kevin was pounding on the door, calling me a coward. Patrick was doing everything he could to override the systems and make us get back to the fight, but it was already over. When we got back, it was...horrifying. Helplessly I watched as we floated through, seeing all of the once great broken ships as they drifted by. After that, people just sort of...left the ship. We had two Engis, a Rockman, and a Zoltan besides us three. After they had all left, we were all that remained.
I was forced into one of the ship's compartments, bound and awaiting what was likely to be my execution. Death is all that a traitor like me deserved, I was ready to accept it, only if it meant I could have changed what I had done. This was one of the most basic Federation ships you could get, and it was probably one of the last that ever existed. When the door opened up, I closed my eyes, not wanting to see their faces before they killed me. Then I heard something that was truly incredible.
"Get up. There's still a fight to be had." Patrick said, and he unbound me. They had forgiven me, and I felt as though a weight was now on our shoulders that was much greater than any mission we were given by the Academy. To this day I don't know why they let me live, but I knew what our new mission now was. We were going to take down the rebels, or the People's Commonwealth as they so called themselves, and avenge every man woman and child they had killed...and I had abandoned.
First off we had to hide ourselves. It was easy enough, spray on a bit of purple paint and we were officially bandits. It wouldn't be an easy life, but it was one we had to endure. Pirates were usually killed on sight, though we weren't sure what the People's Commonwealth thought of pirates. Kevin told us about a few planets pirates could go where they wouldn't have to worry about the authorities, we hoped that was a good thing. The next thing we did was jettison everything we had that made us part of the Federation. If it was ever discovered, then we'd all be dead.
Looking out at the stars, I wondered sometimes, just what exactly we were doing. We didn't have much in terms of a plan, we didn't even have much in terms of hope, but we had to keep going, I had to keep going. Looking out at the stars, I would have thought I'd feel anger for failing, I thought I'd be the angriest I ever felt, but the tears that started to stream down my cheek said otherwise.