CHAPTER 1
ESCAPE
F.S. NORCHWICK, 40,000 KM FROM BELVON-49
This magnificent freighter ship is carrying 2,018 passengers, 12 ships, 3 cruisers, and around 15,000 tons of freight. Glenn Romero, a former federation captain, is sipping a slug drink with a name he couldn't pronounce while thinking of the horrors of the mission he just completed 2 weeks ago. Glenn is now living a more quite life. On his way to back to his home-planet, Nindwisk-25.
"Well this isn't to bad" Glenn thought to himself. "It's slimy but rather sweet". The bar is packed, but quite. Nobody recognizes his face even though he just saved galaxy. He stares at the redwood, thinking, just thinking, what he did. He saved the galaxy, became a hero, but all the things he did on that ship. That out-of-date, sluggish, Kestrel Cruiser. He killed so many people. So many fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, friends and foes. Little did he know that he wouldn't have much time to grief in bad memories.
The bartender, a Mantis, snaps him out of it. "Hey buddy, you okay? You look like you could need another shot." He says. "Huh? Oh, I'm fine, thanks." Glenn replies. He walks out of the ship's bar, noticing a rock couple walking past him. He walks through the long, white, corridor. Making a beeline for his room, when suddenly, he hears that haunting message go through the intercom. Red Alert. Not again.
He feels the floor rumble and hear distant screams. A man with large glasses runs out of a room adjacent to Glenn's. "Amy man the weapo-" Glenn said acting on impulse. "… Get to the life ships!" The man goes back inside and seconds later comes out with a over-night bag. He and the man run straight to the side of the ship. They come across a crowd of people trying to open the airlocks of the docked life ships. "Why won't it open?" Glenn hears among the loud voices of the struggling people. He runs to a woman and her son desperately trying to open an airlock. Reacting, Glenn tries to put his fingers through the crack, barely able to sink a fingernail in it. The man he saw earlier has disappeared. Glenn pulls as hard as he can. He was quite a strong man but he couldn't pry open the airlock doors. He looks back and finds the man he saw earlier with an ion crowbar in his hands. He sticks it into the crack and manages to break it free. The man and the woman with her child run inside but Glenn stays outside waving his hand, inviting others to the ship. Another man, tall, comes running and goes inside the ship. Through the panic and chaos, Glenn sees a man with no legs lying on the ground next to a wheelchair. He rushes to him, picking him up and putting him in the wheelchair just as an explosion goes off in the background. He pushes the legless man back to the life ship and makes it just in time as the airlock closes. He goes to the pilot seat, activating the controls. He hears the woman yell "Hey, what about the others?" Just as she said that, another, more larger explosion goes off. He detaches the life ship, and flies off a good distance away from the F.S. Norchwick. He looks behind and sees the entire back half of the ship completely shredded off the rest of the ship. Another explosion goes off, now in the front half. Finally, a single, massive explosion tears the ship apart, damaging the life ship. Life ship 17, now spinning out of control, is struggling to keep her crew alive.
Next chapter coming 10th February!