Before the reading starts there's a few things i would like to say.

One, this is the first actual story I've ever written so any and all feedback would be appreciated.

Secondly, english is not my first language and I have no beta so i apologise in advance for any mistakes that might be found within.

Hope you enjoy

Chapter 1

A bad dream

The silence was the strangest part.

It was not a comfortable silence no, it felt oppressive, like a fog clinging to everything it touched.

I was standing in what looked like a street, small one storey buildings on each side split by a muddy dirt road.

The place was a mess, it looked like someone dropped a bomb in the middle of the street. Mangled pieces of metal littered the ground, and most of the houses were falling apart.

It looked like a warzone.

It was dark, the only source of light being the crescent moon and the few street lamps that wasn't blasted to bits. It would almost have been better if they weren't there at all, the limited light gave it all a sinister feel.

Part of me was screaming that i had been here before, that something was wrong. I started walking towards a relatively unharmed building on my right. The silence was unnatural, i couldn't even hear my own footsteps, even though the street was covered in shards of broken metal and glass.

Once i got closer i saw the door had been broken down, torn of its hinges, part of the wall with it. "Something big came through here" i said to myself, something very big.

I took a step inside, i probably shouldn't have, but everything seemed so strange, so...unreal. The wall was covered in bullet holes and the room had blood splattered on the walls and part of the ceiling. No bodies though, somehow that made it all worse.

"Griffin..."

I spun around faster than I thought possible, hand moving for the gun at my belt only to find it wasn't there.

I didn't dare breath, I had heard the voice before, no idea when, but i recognized it.

It came from all around, yet nowhere at the same time; my eyes scanned the room again. That's when I noticed it, the blood was still fresh, dripping of the walls.

I ran out into the street, almost stumbling across the mangled piece of metal that was once a door, barely noticing it was covered in deep scratching marks.

And stopped dead in my tracks.

The street was filled with bodies, the silence was deafening.

Shell casings ware everywhere, some still smoking, like they were just fired a few seconds ago.

Bodies of marines, some were missing limbs, others had massive scratch marks covering their armour. Blood was still flowing from the wounds, forming small rivers of red that ran down the street.

I shakily took a few steps towards the nearest marine, the armour had a massive bloody gash across the chest area, it looked like someone slashed through the armour.

"That's impossible..." I might not be an expert in military gear, but it didn't take a genius to know, that breaking through the ceramic plating on that armour was no easy task.

Something was very wrong.

"Griffin..."

There it was again, still sounding like it was coming from everyone were at once, and I still couldn't see the source, nothing but broken bodies and burning buildings.

"The fuck is going on here" I whispered to myself, my breath was getting shaky, too many questions and too few answers.

A pressure was starting to build on my mind, like someone was squishing my head. All I could hear, was a faint buzzing sound like that of insects, it was faint, but it was there. Just at the edge of my mind.

I needed to get out of here.

Clang! My head snapped up, something moved. It sounded like a piece of metal clattering. Everything fell silent. The buzzing was gone, but the pressure was only building up, quickly moving towards the unbearable.

Footsteps, something was moving. unlike the voice, this sounded like this was coming from just down the street. It sounded like several people walking, but I couldn't be sure.

I stared down the street, the footsteps were getting closer. As the figure became visible, my breath caught in my throat. It wasn't several people, my first thought was that it was a big dog, but that thought was quickly dismissed as it took a few more steps into the light of a street lamp.

It was some kind of creature, four legs, a lithe body littered with spikes and two scythe like limps protruding from its back. As i made eye contact with the glowing orange eyes the buzzing sound returned with a vengeance, forcing me to cower my ears.

My head felt like it was about to explode.

"You can't run forever..."

I was on my knees, couldn't even remember it happening. The thing was standing right before me, only a few centimeters away from my face. I hadn't even seen it move. black dots danced across my vision, I could feel myself starting to fall.

I woke with a scream, my breathing was erratic, my mind was a jumbled mess. It took me a few minutes before the world stopped spinning and i saw were I was.

I was in my room, Marginis station.

I slowly sat up, just realizing that my bed sheets were soaked with sweat.

I Put my head in my hands, taking several deep breaths.

"It was just a dream...it was just a dream" I wasn't even sure if I believed it myself. It felt so real, I still remembered everything, the bloody corpses the creature, the voice...

I took another deep breath before I looked at the clock, 04:38, I sighed to myself. "Might as well get up".

I stood up, still slightly shaking and looked around my room, it wasn't much, a bed in the corner with a small table a television and a private bathroom. Walls were sleek and grey, and the floor was made of light brown wood. It was admittedly one of the better rooms I'd stayed in.

After taking the familiarity of the place I when for the closet. Took some clean clothes at random and went for a shower, telling myself a hot bath would do a world of good.

It didn't, while It was nice to get all the sweat washed off, the dream still lingered in the back of my mind. It wasn't the first time, I'd had similar dreams before, small variations here and there. But they were getting more and more frequent, more and more detailed.

But what was it about? The place reminded me of some of the colonies I visited years back when I still worked as an inspector. It was mainly the buildings, they were a commonly used model for most new colonies, cheap to produce, sturdy and could be assembled in a matter of hours.

The place itself was a mystery though, not to mention the creature and that fucking voice…and what was it it said? you can't run forever, "I didn't even know i was running in the first place..."

I sighed to myself.

This is going nowhere, maybe i should get myself a psychiatrist. "Huh" like i have time for that. I think a drink is what i really need. I put on my boots and went for the door, opened it with a swipe of my hand and took a few steps into the hallway.

The lights flickered for a bit before turning on. The hallway was empty, no surprises there considering the time. As i began to walk in the general direction of the bar i found my thought drifting back to the dream and then promptly stopped, i needed something else to think about. Anything i told myself, anything would do. I looked to the side as I passed a massive steel door, the station, that would do, think about the station.

From the start. It was old, build over 160 years ago during the war in heaven. what else? of course, context. Back then, Humanity was at war with two alien species known as the Protos and the Zerg. One technologically advanced the other a ravenous swarm of beasts. He'd never seen any of them alive, only read about them, so much was lost in that war.

The war though, the war itself was not forgotten

The Zerg launched a massive assault, fleets beyond anything imaginable, they were said to have consumed entire solar systems before anyone knew what was going on. It was sudden, there had been no time to prepare for an attack like that. Even their enemy, the Protos were caught off guard. After a week with billions of casualties the most unlikely alliance was formed, men and Protos working against a common enemy. United by the death of their people. The dominion, the ruling government at the time fell along with earth, the capital of humanity, the defences they managed to assemble were owerun in the matter of hours.

This is where it got interesting though, when the invasion began a group calling themselves the Drekar alliance began the construction of the biggest space station in the history of humanity. They assembled a fleet, setup system wide defence platforms, fortified the planets. They turned the system into and impenetrable fortress. They build the legendary flagship known as the Morningstar, fitted with a superweapond capable of cleaving a Leviathan battlecruiser in two within seacons, a weapon the has not been fired since the war. They dared the Zerg to attack with everything they had, to distrakt, to buy more time for the Protos to do their part.

The Protos had likewise taken everything they had and was headed for the heart of the swarm, to destroy them while they were vulnerable. Exactly what happened is a matter of debate, but what we do know is that the Protos attack was successful, half of humanity was wiped from the galaxy, the Zerg spread to the winds and the Protos disappeared without a trace.

There were no celebration, it was not a war decided by winners and losers, it was decided by who was still left standing when the smoke cleared.

Luckily, i thought to myself, that my military career has been less eventful. I was mainly called out to Exploration missions, and the occasional pirate hunt.

Oh and then there were the reports, how could I forget the bloody reports, those were the bane of my existence.

"Morning Griff" Someone said, stopped and blinked a few times. I had barely noticed i had arrived at the bar.

It should be said i rarely drank anything alcohol related, the only times i did was after a particularly stressful day or like now, after one of those bloody nightmares.

The fact that my job was as relaxing as anything could be, combined with the fact that the bartender was starting to recognise me was telling me more about my sleeping pattern than i cared to think about right now.

I forced a weak smile to my face and answered, "Morning..." dammit, what was his name again? something beginning wit think..."Denis?" i quesed.

"Dan" He said, he didn't even look surprised that i got his name wrong.

"Close enough" I said, not even trying to hide how tired i felt.

"So what do you want?"

I looked at some of the bottles standing around the desk before realizing, I didn't know what was in half of those. "Something to drink".

"Something to drink coming right up" He said, with a small hint of humor.

I found himself a table, running a hand through my hair. it was still a bit damp, a problem with having hair down to your shoulders I supposed, it took a while to dry.

deni- sory dan handed me a drink, funnily enough, he didn't say what it was and I didn't bother to ask him.

I quickly emptied the glas, the taste was horrific. The punishment for not being a bit more specific.

I ordered another glass of whatever it was, and sat quietly for some time, not thinking about anything in specific. Just enjoying the relatively silent bar.

"Griffin?" A voice sounded behind me.

"Morning Alex" I answered as i emptied another glass.

He walked over, pulled out a chair in front of me and sat down.

He was a short broad shouldered man about 1.70 height, short brown hair brown eyes and a well trimmed beard. But most importantly, he was my superior.

He looked at me like he expected me to say something. After a moment of silence, I sighed and decided to start.

"What are doing up this early?"

"Could ask you the same thing"

He answered, not even blinking. I suspected he already knew.

"Couldn't sleep"

I said after a few seconds, it was lame excuse and we both knew it. Not even sure why I bothered to hide it, he knew me too well.

"Nightmares again"

More a statement then a question.

"Yeah" I leaned back in the chair, resting my head on the headrest and closed my eyes for a moment. While talking in a tired tone.

"You know, I remember when they came once every few months...Now it feels like they're here a few times a week."

"You should get yourself a psychiatrist"

I couldn't help but smile a bit at that "Funny you say that, i told myself the same thing when i woke up this morning"

"But to answer your question" He paused, i opened an eye to look at him.

He pulled a folder out of his jacket and put it on the table in front of me.

"I got an urgent message no less than to hours ago, Telling me to assemble a team for an escort mission, along with that was a copy of this report."

I slowly picked up the folder and opened it, 14 pages. They seemed to contain information on everything from communication channels to military supplies.

"And since you didn't answer my calls i made a lucky guess to your whereabouts"

"Yeah, sorry 'bout that"

I quickly scanned through the pages, what caught my eye was the mentioning of the Northspire coalition, a massive group of outlaws, pirates and mercenaries, and some outlined numbers about communication channels.

And it was a mining colony named Awe located somewhere in the outer systems, it's primary purpose seemed to be the the harvest and refining of Ilmenite ore, nothing strange there. But, during an excavation they found...something?

I looked at Alex, making no attempt to hide the confusion on my face.

"About 20 hours ago, an excavation team on Awe discovered a crystal like material they named Dark glitter. The exact properties of this material is as of know, unknown but the scans are off the charts, preliminary readings are spitting out numbers that can't exist outside nuclear reactions."

"Your kidding me right?" I couldn't stop myself asking.

Alex cracked a half smile "I'm afraid not, unsurprisingly the Drekar Alliance command is quite interested in getting their hands on this stuff, so much in fact that two armed transports left the station just before i got here"

"Who wouldn't be?" I added "If the scans are right, a sample of that stuff could very well be worth a bloody fortune."

"Either way" He began "We suspect someone from the colony has leaked the information, communications have spiked on some of the known channels used by Northspire during the last few hours, and we expect them to try and intercept the transports"

I send him an understanding nod "I'll assemble the troops, when do we leave?"

"The escort leaves the station in two hours, captain has been notified"

"Roger that" We both got up, shock hands shortly before Parting ways.

Now very much awake I quickly made my way towards my room, I would need to call my secondary's and brief them, collect the troops and get ready for flight..."what a way to start the day" I whispered to myself while half running down the hall.