Asteroids

A Story Inspired by the Game Asteroids

By Daniel S Jacobson

THUMP, THUMP; THUMP, THUMP, his heart went as his eyes darted from left to right. No end. No escape.

The small white triangular ship lay motionless in the vast empty void of space. All around the tiny craft flew hundreds (if not thousands) of asteroids, all varying in size, each one threatening to hit the small ship and exploding it into millions of tiny pieces.

Inside the spacecraft the pilot, Dak, tried to remain as calm as possible as he desperately tried to radio for help. "Captain Logg, do you read me?" Dak said as he pushed buttons on the multi-colored control panel. Dak waited for a response but after a moment of silence he decided to try again. "Commander Rains are you there?" Again no response. Inside Dak's chest, his heart pounded. It was slow but was loud enough to hear and it told of the panic Dak was doing his best to fight off. Desperate to get an answer Dak opted to try the radio one more time to see if he could get a reply. "Admiral Bushnell, this is sergeant Dak, please respond." Once again silence filled the cockpit.

Dak slammed his fist down on the control panel in frustration. Inside Dak's chest his heart sped up a little. "Why?" Dak said through gritted teeth. Why was he here? How did he get here? Here in this blasted asteroid belt that, as far as he could tell, went on for miles.

After a moment of trying to steady himself Dak looked back up and saw, to his horror, one of the bigger asteroids headed straight towards him. His heart immediately sped up as Dak panicked. He quickly reached for the controls and slammed the button that started the ships engine. The engine hummed to life as Dak Quickly rolled away from the asteroid. Once he was clear of the asteroid's path, Dak quickly spun the spaceship around to face it and pressed the fire button. Dak watched as a few lasers were fired from the guns mounted at the front of the ship. A few seconds later Dak heard the boom and watched as the giant rock exploded into countless, smaller chunks.

Dak grabbed the controls again and maneuvered the ship out of the path of the incoming rocks. After the danger had passed Dak pressed the engine button again and listened to the low rumbling of the engine coming to a stop. Dak looked at the control panel again. Both the meter that showed the ships fuel and the ships shields were at full capacity. Dak laid back in his seat, his heart still beating quickly, and thought about how he got into this situation.

It seemed so simple. Dak had just graduated a year ago from the Warner Academy and was considered one of the Academy's best students. He had been valedictorian during graduation and had the highest scores ever achieved by any student. In fact, he had done so well, that right after graduation he was immediately placed under the command of Captain Logg, Commander Rains, and (perhaps the most impressively) Admiral Bushnell. Dak quickly rose to the rank of Captain and that was when he was given the opportunity to test out the Academy's newest ship. The ship was a one man spacecraft designed to travel far distances. It was lightweight but had a massive laser canon on the front that could be used to defend itself. It was also the first one man ship to include hyperspace. Dak was asked to pilot the ship on her first, "real," test flight. Dak accepted the position and spent the next few months training for the mission. Finally when it came time for the test flight Dak was brought to one of the moon's bases where Logg, Rains, and Bushnell were waiting for him. After having situated himself inside the triangular ships cockpit and flying into space, Dak positioned himself the way he was told. The first part of the test flight was a test to see whether or not the hyperspace was working correctly. Dak was supposed to use it to fly to Mars and then turn around and fly right back to his starting position. Mission control had given Dak the all clear signal but right as he hit the hyperspace button Dak swore he heard Admiral Bushnell yell, "Don't…" in a panic tone over the radio. However that was the last thing Dak remembered as he hit the hyperspace button and suddenly blacked out.

When Dak finally came to, he had found himself in the asteroid belt that he was now in. As Dak thought about what had happen and the predicament he was now in, he happened to notice something. Something strange.

As Dak was thinking, he heard a small ringing in his ear. Dak dismissed it at first but as time passed he could've sworn that the ringing was getting louder and louder. Dak listened closely and as he did the ringing noise became more of a high pitch screeching. Not only that, but the noise suddenly sounded like it was coming from two different places. The heart in Dak's chest sped up even more as Dak looked down at the radar on the control panel. As Dak looked it over he saw among the giant dots that signified the asteroids, there were two smaller dots, both moving in an irregular pattern. At first Dak was ecstatic as he thought that maybe one of his commanders had somehow found him. But that attitude soon turned to fear as he listened once more to the screeching noise and realized that it didn't sound like any ship he had ever heard of before.

This ship sounded almost, unnatural.

Dak watched the two small dots draw closer and closer. His breathing became deep and heavy and his heart pounded in his chest. The screeching noises that the two dots made continued to grow louder and louder until they made Dak's ears bleed. Finally after many agonizing minutes the two dots appeared right over Dak's position and Dak turned his head to see what they were; and he was absolutely horrified.

Coming out from behind one of the larger asteroids were two pitch-black saucers with strange white markings on them. Dak watched in terror as the two ships flew by him. He had never seen anything like them before, no ship on earth had that type of design.

As he watched the two saucers fly by, Dak held his breath and took a quick glance at the control panel. Should he try and contact the ships? Should he try to fly away? Dak was in a panic. He didn't know whether the two ships were friendly, and he was afraid that if he did anything the two ships would start firing on him.

Eventually after thinking long enough, Dak decided that because the two ships didn't seem to notice him, he would sit and wait until they were gone, and then fly in the opposite direction. So Dak waited with bated breath and watched as the two ships flew away. When the ships had gone far enough away Dak wiped the sweat off his forehead, and hit the button to turn the engine on.

BOOM!

Immediately Dak was lurched forward. Dak looked up and saw that the two alien ships were coming back towards him. They had apparently spotted him. Without a second thought Dak grabbed the controls and spun the ship around and took off in the opposite direction. As he flew Dak looked down at the control panel and saw that the one hit from the saucer had taken a third of his shields. That meant that Dak could only take 2 more hits before the ship was destroyed.

Dak's instincts took over as he flew the ship through the asteroid belt. He dived and rolled out of the way of incoming asteroids, and if he couldn't avoid one he simply blasted it with his laser. Dak continued to fly hoping that he would be able to get away from the saucers but the screeching noise told him that they were always right behind him, both of them trying to blast him out of existence.

Dak assessed the situation and tried to come up with a plan. Finally he knew that the only way he was getting out of this was to destroy the alien ships. Dak quickly came up with a plan. From what he could tell the smaller of the two saucers was a better shot, so he knew that was the one he would have to take out first. Quickly maneuvering through the asteroids, Dak lined up his ship and when the moment came, he spun the ship around to face the two saucers. When the saucer came into his targeting computer he quickly hit the fire button and watched as the lasers on his ship went flying out and hit its mark.

Immediately the small saucer exploded into millions of tiny pieces. Dak celebrated the accomplishment but that proved to be a devastating action because the larger of the two saucers fired at him again and hit his ship. The ship rocked back and forth from the blast and Dak saw that he was down to a third of his shields. One more hit and he'd be dead. Immediately springing back into action Dak formulated another plan. Once again flying through the asteroids and using them as cover, Dak piloted his ship until he had maneuvered his way behind the alien saucer. With a clear shot in his targeting computer, Dak once again fired and watched as the alien saucer exploded like the last one.

It all became quite. Dak sat back in his seat and breathed heavily, his heart racing faster than ever and his body shaking all over. Dak closed his eyes and breathed in and out for several minutes, trying to calm down. Finally once he had steadied himself and his heart had slowed down again, Dak opened his eyes, the screeching of the alien ship still ringing in his ears, and looked over the asteroid belt. The danger wasn't over yet. Those alien saucers came from somewhere, and Dak didn't want to stick around to know where. He didn't know where he was or where he was going, but Dak didn't care. He pushed to button to turned he engine back on. He then maneuvered his ship and flew off into the asteroid belt…knowing that this was only the beginning.

THUMP, THUMP; THUMP, THUMP, his heart went.