The rumble of the engines soon whined down to nothing as we floated through space. I turned to my right and looked out the main screen. Nothing much black dotted in tiny white spots. This is what I loved the most....This is what I was trying to save.

"So Strife," Jim spoke up from the seat ahead of me, "you ever been in space before?"

I laughed in spite of myself. "Yeah, once or twice." Wow, another big understatement.

"Ahhh, have you ever been to Sentinel III?"

"Nope, can't say I have...."

"Oh, well that's our first stop. We've got some equipment to pick up before we really venture out into space."

"Equipment? Like what?"

"Not a lot, just some stuff we'll need, that's all."

I shrugged. Whatever floats their boat, I guess. I got out of my seat and looked around, realizing that I was very, very hungry.

"Hey um....Where do you guys keep your food around here?"

Jim once again answered me. "That's one of the main things we're getting at Sentinel III, luckily for you we DO have some rations hidden away in the kitchen....That is IF you like chewing on dry cardboard."

Pfft, I'd chew on anything right about now. "Ok, so where's the kitchen?"

"I'll show you." Jess said, getting out of her seat and walking towards the ladder.

I followed her down without saying a word. We got down to the lower floor and she started walking to the kitchen, so I obviously continued to follow.

I guess the silence was really getting to her because she actually started to speak to me.

"So you have been up in space before, huh? I bet you had some trouble getting around since everything's either owned by the Pirates or Space Forces."

I nodded. "Yeah, this war is getting out of hand. Their idea of more territory gives you more power is insane. I mean people are dieing by the hundreds because of this, whole planets are crumpling into dust! Colonies are falling left and right! And for what?! Just so some cynical group can add another ten feet to their borders!!"

Jess looked at me in shock. I might have put a bit too much emphasis in my statement.

"Wow, you really care a lot about this war...."

I sighed. "....More then you'll ever know...."

The rest of the trip to the kitchen was a silent one, thankfully we weren't too far away from it.

Jess opened the door to the kitchen and threw me a tiny sealed up pack.

"There ya go. Good 'ol fashion M.R.E, the breakfast of champions."

I opened it up and took a sniff. It had no scent to it, that was probably saying something about it's taste, too.

I sat down at a table and took a small bite out of what SEEMED like a hamburger. Wow, just let me tell you something, let's say you get yourself a third-class style hamburger, you know with only that sad excuse for meat and two thin slices of bread that are suppose to be the bun. Now take that hamburger and run it over a couple times with a big Mac truck that just went threw the NASTYEST swamp ever conceived. Now take that now muddy and flattened hamburger and leave it in the garbage for a couple weeks to let all sorts of different molds form on it. NOW take that muddy, beaten, moldy, smelly, slimy, third-class burger and stuff in down you pie-hole. Pretty nasty huh? Yeah well....This thing was worse.

"Good stuff, huh?" Less said, clearly holding back a laugh.

I just growled at her and finished my 'food.'

Jess wanted me to throw away the wrapper to it but I told her that if that crap ever decides to come back up, she'd be thanking me for keeping this wrapper around. She just laughed and walked out of the room. Hey, I got her to laugh. Nice.

"So, how long will it take to get to Sentinel III?" I asked, rubbing my now aching stomach.

"Um.....I don't really know. Gillium, how long will it take to get to Sentinel III?"

"Exactly ten hours twelve minutes and fourteen seconds."

"Thanks, Gillium." She turned back to me. "Did you catch all that?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I did....So where's the rooms in this thing, I should probably rest up before we get there, I haven't slept in awhile."

She pointed down the hallway. "Third door on the left is vacant, you can sleep in there."

"Oh....So where's your room?"

She shook her head. "It's not going to happen so don't even try it."

I snapped my fingers playfully and she had to turn away to hide her grin. I laughed and shook my head. "Alright, whatever. I'll be sleeping in that room if anyone needs me."

I walked down the hallway and entered the room. It was actually not that bad, pretty roomy, really. There was a bed, closet, TV, and a good amount of space between them all. I laid down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Gillium's voice broke my concentration.

"Greetings, Strife. I know this is a little late for introductions but I am told that it'd better late then never. So hello, I am Gillium the-" I cut him off.

"You already told me that you're the A.I. for this ship."

"Oh, well very well then. Since we both know each other by name now I hope our relationship will be a pleasant one."

I had to laugh at that one. "Gillium, no offence or anything but I'm not a big fan of A.I. so our "relationship" may not be all that pleasant."

"Oh, I see."

I scoffed, this I why I hated A.I. They had no feelings whatsoever. They couldn't even act sad after someone says something offensive to them.

Gillium stopped talking to me and I finally started to doze off. Man, I was more tired then I thought, it took almost no time for me to pass out and start counting Z's.

~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~

Sometimes I wonder if it was even worth the trouble, my cause I mean. So many lives lost, so many homes destroyed, so much.....Destruction.

I suppose I should fill you in on what my cause actually is. Well I'll tell you in thing, if after you're done reading this and you think I'm just another no-name extremist who just wants to be a thorn in the side of government then you can just go to hell. You obviously don't want to change this place for the better so you're clearly not worth my time.

Anyways, I guess my cause started when this whole mess escaladed into the full out war it is today. I remember hearing stories from Volk and Sky about a long time ago how the three man forces of the universe, Pirates, Space Forces, and the Outlaws, were actually balanced in power. It was almost like clockwork, Space Forces obeyed the laws and unforced them fairly upon those who didn't, Pirates broke laws and all together were a pain in the ass, and finally Outlaws were there to make sure either one of them didn't get too out of hand.

Well, something in that clock broke because they became WAY out of hand. It started with the cops first. They had areas of influence around the universe and started forcing tighter and tighter laws on them. They just kept getting more outrageous and absurd. It basically gave rewards to the rich and punished the poor. Oh and by the way....There were no rich people....

They punishments were worse then the laws. Some of the worst was exile, jail, and even death. Yeah, that's right they killed poor people. How twisted.

The Pirates quickly followed suite, claiming their own areas of influence and controlling them with their own iron fist. The Pirate's rule was much different then the Space Forces, though. The Space Forces hide behind the laws they created as a shield from the public, Pirates used good 'ol fear to get what they wanted.

Their ruling over the lands were strict and to the point. If someone disobeyed their ideals then they were killed on the spot. Not only that but they were publicly executed as if to say "Ok, if you want to disobey us then this is what will happen." Sick freaks.

Well, I decided that this should be changed and quickly since free space was running thin. I guess you could say that I was just a silly boy with a dream that would never be reality and that may have been right if I had never met Sky and Volk. When I was eight or so I told them about how badly I wanted this galaxy to change, they obviously thought that this was just some banter from a child but everyday I talked about it and everyday they listened until finally my own dream became theirs.

They were both in a lot of armies so they had a lot of friends that would fight for my cause which I was very relieved to hear about. So in about four short months we had a base on a neutral planet and about fifty people ready to do anything it took to change fate.

Here's the oddest part. We were actually succeeding! Each day we went out and liberated one more planet from the enemy, the people so happy that most even joined in my cause! It was so amazing.

About a year into this our base was bigger then ever and we had more then a thousand solders working just for us. Sure it wasn't enough to fight any flat out wars but we were more then hanging in there.

My cause had it's ups and downs, I won't lie to you. Not every job ended in victory. Some days we just couldn't push through the defenses and we lost half of our troops. Sometimes people didn't WANT our help, saying that the enemy's rule was a least more structurally sound then just hoping around through space like we were.

But the biggest hit to our group happened when Sky, Volk, some of our troopers and me were out on a routine patrol of free space. When the call came in it was filled with so much static that you couldn't hear most of what the person was saying.

The only thing that made us worry was that attached to the message was a distress beacon. And worst of all the coordinates of the message came from our very own base.

Everyone in the ship were white as ghosts. It took a while for us to respond and move as fast as we could back to base.

When we finally got there we found everything in shambles. There wasn't one thing in that building that wasn't destroyed....Not one person who was left alive.

We didn't know what to do. This was the end of the line, it was over, nothing left. The five troopers with us got the idea and started to run off. They didn't want to end up like their comrades.

Yet Sky and Volk stayed with me. They had been there for as long as I could remember and they weren't about to leave now. Not only that but they still had the tiniest glimpse of hope left in my cause and that was I all needed. I stood up and looked defiantly at the burning wreckage before us. No matter what my dream will be fulfilled.

-------------*-------------*--------------*-------------*--------------*---- ---------*---------------*

Author's note: Ok, there it is. My next chapter. Sorry this took so long to put up but I've been UBER sick for the last couple days and still am kinda so updates might be slow. Ok, that's all I got for today not a big speech like always.

Anyways, I'm Blades. "Good reading equals good times." I'm out.