I woke up with a snort and sat up.

"Right, report!" I noticed John and St.Claire were the only ones here.

"Ah you're awake," St.Claire grinned up at me, "well perfect timing because we'll be out the warp in two minutes."

Far, far in the distance I could see a small orange dot in a black void.

"Good, good, no troubles I take it."

"None at all." Jack walked back onto the bridge and took his seat.

"Perfect." I stood and stretched again, "well be prepared for anything, we're gonna be in rebel territory. The moment we hit that warp gate I want the engines cut to 10 percent and all external lights off."

"Twenty seconds till merge with normal space."

I strapped myself back in and held on to the straps.

"Ten seconds."

I suddenly noticed a rat scuttled on deck, "How did a rodent get on here!"

Everyone turned around.

Suddenly the ship shuddered and came to a sudden stop. Everyone's body shoved into the harnesses but the unfortunate rat flew across the bridge and smashed into the window.

It stuck there.

"Holy shit. Hope that's not a bad omen." John gawked at the body and St.Claire began hyperventilating."

"Jack?"

"No problem." He grabbed the body and wiped the glass.

While that was happening I was eyeing the situation. It was quiet and it seemed as though we were the only ones out here.

"Start up the engines, keep the lights cut; Time to go exploring."

There were many planets in this system, but one particularly large one caught my attention.

"So if you were a rebel, would you pick the largest planet or the smallest?" I asked no one in general.

"Rebels have been around for years. Never know but they may have a whole entire civilization and hey, why not go for the big planet? They're only gonna get bigger."

I nodded, Jack had a point.

"Lets get in close and record everything. I'm guessing the scientists want us to land."

"If it's a rebel planet, I don't think we should land." St. Claire looked over at me with a worried look, "I don't exactly feel like dying, being raped, or over-all being captured and stuffed in a cell."

"Wouldn't blame you…" I sighed, "We will see what we can collect from up here, I doubt we'll be able to transmit back to Patraz from here."

Everyone looked grim; I couldn't even hold back my 'I think we're going to die' face.

"Oh whey!" St.Claire double checked her findings.

"What?" I was almost afraid to know what she had found.

"We've got five fighters inbound, their lasers are hot!"

"Lets go! Move, now!"

I was thrown into my seat from the sudden acceleration, yet I started to freak. One fighter was ok, but five?We will be scrap if we fight, new weapons or not.

"Get a random jump ready, I don't care where it is, as long as it's out of here! Jack send out the homing missiles."

"Aye."

I tapped my arm rest and suddenly took the controls the biggest gun we had; the heavy plasma cannon.

I called her Baby.

Many ships these days don't have the huge cannons anymore. People claimed it was too heavy, consumed too much energy and the overall accuracy of them pretty much sucked.

I hadn't used Baby much but heck, might as well give it a shot.

"Dante-Scythe has now reached thirty percent."

I was so wrapped up in this I never heard the percent reports before thirty percent. Activating the screen I could see outside the ship, with the gun placed at the top, I can swivel 360 degrees.

"Jack, re-route the lasers energy to the plasma cannon, that way Dante and the engines don't lose any energy."

I began powering up the cannon and aimed. It was kind of awkward really. Here I am in a swivel chair on the bridge yet my eyes are on top the cannon (figurativly speaking 'course).

"Dante-Scythe: seventy five percent!"

I fired my first plasma shot, it missed my target but the energy was close enough to melt one side of it. Wires sparked and small fires exploded and just as quickly went out. No oxygen in space. That was enough to short out the fighter and leave it dead in space. Though there were still four bastards that lobbed a few hundred missiles at our ass.

"Dante-Scyth, ready to-"

"Get us out of here!"

The blinding white light faded to reveal the same portal as before, at this speed we sped into the opening and beyond into the abyss. Luck was on our side, the missiles didn't get through.

"So what co-ordinates?" I relaxed, shutting down Baby's controls.

"I don't know, I chose the random function and it automatically takes us somewhere."

"Damnit." I growled and began rubbing my temples, black strands of hair clinging to my sweaty forehead.

"Hey you said random."

"I know, I know."

"Guys… I think we're gonna find out sooner than we expected." St. Claire tightened her straps just in case.

I looked up to the window to see the portal opening just ahead.

It was strange, when we came out I saw a vastness of black. I recognized other chunks of irregular objects here and there, it was then I realised we were heading straight for a huge body of water.

"Engines! Get us up! Nose up! Helmets and strap yourselves in tight! I might have called this ship a whale but I don't think she can swim!"

We might have still been in the top atmosphere but we were coming in fast.

"Engines close to critical!"

"Keep pushing her!"

I shoved my helmet on, warning sirens blared behind the two steel doors located behind me.

"We're on the brink of an engine meltdown!"

"Flush back-up coolant through the system!"

"I did!" Jack yelled back.

I sent out a warning through the ships intercom, "All personnel proceed to emergency pods or lock-down! I repeat proceed to emergency pods or lock-down! "

I looked to St. Claire, "How long?"

"Fifty seconds till impact."

Her voice was shaking.

"Fuck it, ready or not, open hatches six through nine."

"On it." John began typing in his codes.

I looked over the pods; forty five percent of them were full. I had no idea how many made it to the lock-down cubes. Aw man, I would love to be in a lock-down cube right now, full of food, water and safety pods built right inside.

Those things could probably handle a flippin' nuclear bomb.

"Twenty seconds till impact!" St. Claire yelled.

A strong rumble went throughout the ship as hatches opened and caught the air.

"Decent slowed, engines still running hot."

"We gotta eject, NOW!"

There was no time to slow it down enough. I watched as St. Claire, Jack, and John pressed their emergency eject buttons. I did the same.

Above our heads the panelling slid away and we were shot out of the bridge. A thick plastic wrap covered our bodies and inflated into balloon like casings. My heart was racing and I felt light headed. Looking down I watched as my ship collided with the water, metal was torn off in huge chunks, and overall the ship broke in two and proceeded to sink.

Much like the others and I. Except we weren't exactly sinking into water, we were sinking in the air, hurtling towards the water. Our balloons were built for space, not the atmosphere of a planet.

That's what sucked about having a thirty year old spaceship. Everything was so damn primitive.

My balloon clunked with the water, twirled a bitand proceeded to drift towards land that's to the help of my ships wave. My poor ship. I could never use Baby again.

There was a scraping sound, my bubble has landed. I grabbed the deflation string.

Wait.

What if this planet had no oxygen? I looked at the trees. Fuck it.

Pulling the string the entire bubble balloon collapsed in from a huge hole. Oh cool, by pulling the string it ripped open the balloon, much like you pull that stray thread from your shirt and it starts to unravel your clothing.

I unstrapped myself, threw off my helmet, corrected my glasses and emerged from the deflated balloon like a new woman.

I looked around, no one was in sight. Damnit.

I began running down the sandy beach, looking for any signs. All I really cared about was St. Claire, John, and even Jack, I hoped they were ok.

Slowly I made my way off the beach and into the tree line. I was fearful alright, but I needed a higher point, if I find a tall tree or hill maybe I could see where the others went.

Out upon the vast oceans, two figures flew together to investigate somewhat of a strange sighting. In the darkness they were virtually invisible, the odd time when the moon came out behind the cloud cover, it revealed crimson red on one and deep blue on another

"So what exactly did you see?"

"An odd looking ship literally popped out of no where in the sky and hurtled towards the ocean."

"If this is a joke rookie, your head might be the right price for wasting my time."

"I promise, I know what I saw, Starscream sir. There, down there."

Down below a giant water footprint was left from the crash and still the bubbles rose, creating a white froth on the surface. Debris floated everywhere.

"You head down to the beach; I'll go back to base. Can't risk radioing in when Autobots could be around."

"Yes sir."

Starscream turned and headed back the way they came, and as the rookie transformed and landed on the beach, he startled a human hiding in the trees to a point where she fainted.

That rats deathreally was a bad omen.

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