Author's Note: In late 2014, I started playing Fractured Space whilst it was in Early Access. It's a great game but at the time there was no backstory of any kind. So I decided I'd have a go at making one of my own using the characters and ships from the game, adding more into the story as the game's development progresses.
This is my first published story, which is pretty cool, but I apologise if I make mistakes as I get the hang of writing proper stories. If you see anything you did or didn't like, let me know so that I can try to improve.
Thanks for reading!
Everyone says the war began when Zarek Industrial blew up Ganymede, one of United Space Research's supply depots. The corporations even said so in their statements, using it as the reason to officially declare war on each other and I admit it's a convincing theory as nothing says "screw you" quite like blowing up someone's moon. But it's bullshit. This war started like any other corporate deal; in a room somewhere on comfortable chairs with handshakes and smiles whilst the money flowed around them.
Of course it would never actually be called war in those meetings - that would imply they had some measure of responsibility - and sure, they may not have known the full cost of what they were doing but they damn well knew the consequences of their actions. And they won't stop now because to do so would be like admitting they were wrong or that they are weak, both inexcusable flaws in their minds, but the more compelling reason is that it's more profitable to keep it going. I guarantee that it will be over in a day as soon as it became unprofitable.
Why do I think this you ask? Well, centuries of greed, ambition and incompetence have meant that only the most ruthless companies survive and if any weakness is seen, it's quickly pounced on by competitors like sharks on a wounded whale, quickly and efficiently taking it apart and feasting on the juicy deals and contracts within. If anything gets the corporations fired up, it's the chance that a lot of money is going to come their way very soon.
It wasn't always like this, apparently, but the governments of centuries ago didn't deal with the corruption and dirty dealing because the fierce competition kept prices low. When the corporations began using and abusing their power more openly, there was a brief resistance from the politicians but it was too late, too many were in that any resistance was swiftly crushed. Politics merely became another arena where the corporations dealt with each other. This war can't be stopped by the galactic governments even if they wanted too, the corporations hold all the power.
Listen to me, going on about the corruption in the system like a raving conspiracy theorist when they're paying me too, irony at its finest. In my defence though, I'm being paid an actual wage for an actual job instead of a bribe, which is a very fine difference but one I cling to.
My name is Marie-Anne Moreau, and I am a mercenary currently working for Zarek Industrial as a captain in their defence fleet.
-][-
Zarek Industrial approached me a few weeks before the destruction of Ganymede with the job offer of a lifetime - get paid stupid amounts of money to do what I do best, captain a spaceship to protect their interests from other parties for as long as I was able, along with a few other benefits that come with working for a mega-corporation. I've been living on ships most of my life, piloting for half that time and captain of various ships for the other half. So you could say I know a thing or two about spaceships.
Makes the job easy right?
Yeah, that's what I thought too, which is why I accepted the offer before really thinking it through. Boy do I regret that.
At first it was pretty boring, just setting up my account with life insurance, full body health checks and a billion other boring little details that they felt necessary before I could be paid. When the bureaucrats finally decided my paperwork was in order, I was given a week in boot camp to meet my fellow officers and learn the basics of the ship I'd be commanding before being packed off to one of their small research stations on the ice planet Persephone II in the Hades IV system, located in the arse-end of civilisation, to learn and acclimatise to my new ship and crew.
Once we arrived, absolutely nothing of interest happened for six weeks. Naturally, we got bored. So we decided to supplement our cheap rations with proper food 'confiscated' or taken as payment from the few traders entering our system. We were good, but kept it low-key, never taking more than we thought we could get away with as we knew what could happen if Zarek found out about our little activities. But we weren't caught and when the war started no-one cared anymore, as long as we didn't attack Zarek ships.
-][-
We first heard of the attack on Ganymede whilst watching InsteNews when the first reports started coming in.
I think everyone remembers the moment they heard the news, and the statements by Zarek and the USR are etched into my mind forever not because they're any good, but because of what they meant. It meant that two of the largest corporations in the galaxy were at war and everyone without enormous power or distance from them was going to get sucked into the fight. Of course, working for Zarek meant that we were going to be the first dragged in, but at least we were being paid for the privilege and were unlikely to be on the front lines.
Despite what you may think, we weren't terrified of what horrors might be unleashed as the two titans clashed. We were terrified of the knock-on effect that would plunge the galaxy's economy into a spiral as resources were hoarded and prices were hiked by greedy merchants and the unlucky ones became unable to get their supplies. For the common people, the war meant starvation and poverty, not battles and trauma. Even we thought starvation was going to be our main enemy, not thinking that the corporations would do more than a light skirmish here and there whilst the real battles were fought in the boardroom.
How wrong we were.
The news broadcast hadn't even finished when our comms system was slammed with orders from command and other captains' messages pleading to know what was going on. Our orders were short and simple; protect the Hades IV system from intruders and destroy or capture any enemies of the corporation, which, naturally, was in another document sent separately.
So that was the job and although none of us really thought we were going to be involved in much more than a standoff or a chase, I still made sure we were prepared for battle because I wanted to make sure we did the job right, no matter what.
If there's one thing I'm proud of, it's the fact that I run the tightest ships around and have the best-trained crews, or if they aren't then I make damn sure they become the best. They may dislike me, hate me even, but if you're in a bad situation you need to be able to rely on your crew to make as few mistakes as possible, follow orders well and even use their initiative in do-or-die situations or when I'm unable to command them for whatever reason. That initiative also allows me to step back and focus on the bigger picture and plan accordingly.
In the brief time I'd been in command of them, I'd pushed my new crew to improve their already considerable skills further and drilled them to instinctively react to orders and commands. They didn't have the confidence or flexibility to act on their own initiative yet and their teamwork needed some, well, work, but they were getting there and I believed that with time and perhaps a little trial by fire, they would grow very quickly into a team.
So when the orders were quickly followed by information that an advance squadron of USR ships had Jumped to the system's edge and were en route to Persephone II and the Zarek research station on it, we just turned around and started speeding across the darkness of space. We were about to become their worst nightmare.
Interstellar News, more commonly known as InsteNews, is a government funded and run news agency that broadcasts to every known inhabited planet in the galaxy.