FTL: Faster Then Light
Amongst the Stars
A FanFict based off of the Indy game: FTL
By Indogma.
Disclaimer: This is a non-profit fan based story. The contents of the story are owned by Subset Games. In no way do the views shown reflect the views of Subset Games. Please support the official release.
Captain Harris Breg has been reluctantly assigned to the Kestrel class ship called the Good Tidings. Despite felling that he has been undermined, he accepts the command, only to regret it. His ship is a patch up out of service ship that barely has enough power to power all of it's systems. And the crew seemed to be in no better shape then the ship, both of them new to a ship and space. One a green service man with only a month planet training under his belt and a by the book academy lieutenant who took the fast tract to space command, making her just as green as the serviceman.
With an underpowered ship, and an inexperienced crew, Harris's mission just became even more difficult. He is to deliver a disk drive that contains information about the REBEL fleet that could bring the downfall of this rebellion. But he must go though uncharted and unprotected space in order to reach his destination, Dexter Prime.
Little does Harris know, that the REBEL fleet knows of their mission, and is making every effort to stop them…
-FTL: Amongst the Stars-
Chapter 1
A Bad Start
General Braken walked casually through the office of the federalist Admiral Gregson's office. Papers and documents were scattered around the floor showing that the Admiral had to leave in a hurry.
The general sighed a sigh of contentment; he had won the first battle in this rebellion here on this planet and he expected the rest of the war to flow in the same. The Federation had lost most of its fleet when the REBELS took over a space depot and most of the finest space ships of the Federation Fleet were now under the general's command.
As he pass through the office, he caught sight of his reflection in the mirror and decided fix his uniform. He was fifty years hold and his hair had almost completely turned over to white, but there were little tips of his original hair that snuck into his hair, revealing his original color to be jet black. He had a stern face, with a natural frown that seemed to pull down his mouth.
From behind him came the sound of footprints on the floor. The general turned and met eyes with the Party Leader of the Republican Entrepreneurs Behind Equal Laboring Services, Jonathan Tack, who was the General's supporter and in a way his boss.
"It is not here," Said Tack coldly to the General. The General nodded not surprised. "They must have sent it on it's way to the Federal reverse over Dexter Prime. I'm sure they be able to find our weakness there."
The General said nothing, but continued to stare out the window. "Our scouts report no sign of them in the borders, which means they are traveling through the fringe worlds."
"How can we find them their?" Asked Tack.
The General then turned from his window and said, "We have bases out there in the fringe. As do they. But we know were they have to go, and we can prepare for them."
"It still is a lot space to cover."
"Yes it is, but I have ordered every ship to send out a priority message as soon as they locate any federation ship that they come across." He then smiled a crooked smile, "We will know were they are soon enough."
"I hope you are right, General Braken. If they do know of some sort of weakness against our ships they could very well win this entire civil war." Then his tone became dark, "both of us knew there was no turning back after we captured the parliament. We need to win, if not the civilians will have our heads." He then turned to leave saying, "if you forget that, I will be more then happy to remind you general…"
"Come on, Walker! It's not damn rocket science!" Came the voice of Captain Harris to his serviceman. Both were in the armory of the ship Good Tidings, Harris was going the green service man how to guide the missile into it's launcher using a mechanical arm. Harris had been force to spoon-feed the serviceman on how to load a missile after witnessing his performance first hand. After departing Lewvin and making it to the fringe worlds, the Good Tidings ran into a rouge AI drone in the middle of an asteroid field.
After showing it was hostel, Harris ordered Walker to prepare weapons. The serviceman then readied the weapons, but in his hurry he mixed up how must power was supposed to go to each weapon, and gave the missile launcher twice as much as it needed and the laser not enough to fully charge. In the entire battle, the Good Tidings able to fire once, and that was the preloaded missile. But—adding to the list of troubles Harris had— Walker proved himself to be all thumbs with the keyboard. While setting up the AI drone as the target, Walker then punched in the drone's location wrong, and the missile wound up flying off in a complete different direction.
The ship would have been in trouble if not for the asteroid field that the Good Tidings had entered into with the drone. While the ship had minimal shields, the drown did not and within minutes of the two entering into combat the drone was torn apart from the rocks hitting it. Leaving the Good Tidings the winner by default. While Walker had made several mistakes, Harris let them go giving the serviceman the benefit of the doubt. After all it was the serviceman's first glimpse of combat.
While Walker seemed to need improvement, the lieutenant seemed quite capable at the shields. In the asteroid field, she managed to maintain the shield constantly; making the damage the ship took a minimal. Lt. Quenant was a sort of blessing to the ship.
After jumping out of the asteroid field, the ship accidently came across an amateur pirate leisurely flying about looking for a ship to attack. As they charged their weapons to prepare to fight, Harris kept a close eye on the weapons, making sure that everything went smoothly. This time the right about to power went to each of the weapons, and both charged up nicely. But after the first missile had been fired, Walker had trouble manning the controls to reload the missile. The battle would have gone poorly for the Good Tidings if the burst laser were not operating.
When the Pirate ship was destroyed, Harris then took it upon himself to teach Walker how to reload the missile launcher. When he started training Walker, he had no idea as to how much frustration the young man was about to give him. Harris was even tempted to abandon teaching Walker all together and letting the automated controls take over for him. While slow, they could guarantee a missile would get into the launcher, provided the power was not cut to the armory for whatever reason.
"I'm trying sir!" Protested Walker, fumbling over the controls. "It doesn't like me!"
"Maybe it has a good reason," replied Harris, "I am starting to see many reasons why I might not!"
Walker then glanced at the captain spitefully, and then returned his attention to the loading bay screen. As the man looked at the controls, it made him feel like he was playing a claw game at an arcade, except if he dropped the missile, it was more than a quarter that he had lost. Each missile cost about a few years of service pay for him. After a minute of slowly adjusting the handles, Walker then guided the missile into the launcher safely, but it took him twice as long as the automated computer would have taken. Harris sighed to himself; it will have to do for know.
After leaving Walker in the armory, Harris then walked through the other stations to the cockpit, were he left the Lt. in charge of collecting scrap from the rebel fighter.
"How are things here?" Asked the captain.
Evera looked at Harris frustrated at her task and said formally, "Sir I do not see the need to gather scrap from the enemies ships. We have plenty of money, so why collect this for payment?"
"These are the fringe planets Lt. I take it this is your first time out in the fringe? Well, it is my third, and let me tell you, out here they have now real love for the federation. There are the occasional colonized planets that are still very loyal to the federation but those are very rare to find. And need I remind you Lt. that we are in the middle of the civil war? People are bound to doubt our currency entirely because they are unsure of which side will win." Harris then looked out into space and said firmly, "scrap is the only currency our here. And with what we might need in the near future, we will need everything we can afford."
He then turned back to the Lt., "understand?" The Lt. nodded slowly, still not happy about it, but understood the captain's point of view. "Good." Harris said.
He then yawned, "I will be in my quarters taking a nap, when you are finished with the scrap collecting, wake me and we will carry on." Harris turned and left the young girl alone at the helm of the ship.
After collecting the scrap from the destroyed ship, Harris then resumed piloting the Good Tidings. After another jump to an unoccupied part of space, Evera came through the door and saluted Harris. "Sir I wish to file a report!"
Harris sighed to himself it wasn't even after the first system jump, and already she was being a nuisance for him. "Against who?" As if he needed to ask.
"Serviceman Walker, sir. He has smuggled on a contraband substance onto the ship!"
"What sort of substance?" Asked Harris, hoping it was not drugs.
Evera then pulled a chocolate bar from her pocket and showed it to the captain. "These sir, Cacao Chocolate Bars. These are prohibited under the Untied Space Laws Act. I request that Walker be put on report."
Harris brought his palm to his head and messaged away a headache he could feel coming on him. He then stood up from the helm chair and looked out into space, in thought; trying to think of a way he could word what he was about to say carefully as to ensure that he would not have to deal with this every day.
"Lieutenant," started Harris, "What is the point of putting a person on report?" "To have dispensary action done against whomever violates USLA," replied Evera robotically. "That is what they tell you at the academy, but what a report really is meant to do is set an example to the rest of the crew. To ensure that a captains order is followed when he wills it." He turned and looked at her, "Makes sense?"
The Lt. shrugged not really sure of the point he was trying to make, "I-I believe so sir…"
Then Harris took the chocolate bar and held it in his hands, "Now think about how silly this sounds: you are about to put the only serviceman we have on this ship on report, for smuggling chocolate bars." Harris smiled to himself, he never really expected to be defending Walker, "Add who would this punishment service an example to? The rest of the crew being me and yourself, and I certainly don't need to flaunt my own power around to make myself feel good."
"But, sir!" Protested Evera, "USLA is very clear—" "Out in space, lieutenant nothing is in black and white." He then sighed, "The longer you have been in command the more you see that to be truer." He then looked the young woman in the eye and said, "And I hope for your sake you learn to take that rod out of your ass, and bend a little to the rules. If not, this mission will not be enjoyable for any of us."
The lieutenant exhaled upset, and saluted the captain, turned and started to leave. "Evera!" Harris said calling after her. The Lt. stopped and glanced over her shoulder at the captain. "I will talk to him about it," he said trying giving her some gratification to her request. The lieutenant's expression did not change and she continued though the door and on her way.
As the time in the Good Tidings passed and the ship made it's way to another empty location in space, Captain Harris decided to pay Walker a visit. As soon as he opened the doors to the armory, Walker noticed the Captain walking in and started to tense.
"Sir," said Walker saluting his captain. Harris casually saluted back and said, "At ease, Walker. This isn't about the weapons." He pulled out the chocolate bar that the lieutenant had and tossed it to the serviceman saying, "The lieutenant wanted me to put you on report because you smuggled some of these onboard."
"Sir," began Walker nervously, "I am so sorry. I had now idea I could get in trouble—"
"Who said you were in trouble?" Asked the captain. Harris then smiled, "I'm just telling you if you want to have them on board, just eat them when the lieutenant is not around and make sure that the wrappers get properly disposed of, and I won't have a problem with you eating them. Deal?" Walker nodded quickly, excited at the idea of not getting in trouble. "Good," smiled Harris, this was the first time he spoke to Walker that did not make him annoyed.
Walker then looked at the bar and chuckled slightly, "You know I offered her this bar to help get on her good side. I never expect that she would use it against me." Harris shrugged, "She's had the rules banged in her head from the academy, so it only makes sense that would be expected to follow every one."
"Are all the academy officers like that, sir?" Asked Walker.
Harris shook his head, "Most of them aren't as bad. Only the officers that get the top marks are the ones who follow the rules to a t, making sure they remain of the instructors' good side. While it makes then good officers in theory, it ill prepares them for real space, were rules have to be bent to maintain order." Walker became worried, but Harris reassured him. "Don't worry, I'll make sure you are not punished for a small infraction of the rules." He then smiled, "like having chocolate bars."
Walker smiled back, happy to here that his captain had his back on this ship. Walker then chuckled, "You know, I always thought you hated me sir."
"I don't hate you Walker. I find you annoying because you are still very green, and almost need to be spoon fed everything." Harris saw that his words seemed to hurt the serviceman. "But that will change with time," he said cheering him up, "we all are green and some point in our life."
"Thank you sir," grim Walker weakly. He then sighed, "Sir I feel a should apologize for being so clumsy, I never signed up for this mission, and I feel I am just causing more damage then I am worth."
Harris laughed a little. "You want to know something Walker? I never wanted this mission either, I expected to be an admiral and leading groups of ships, not a small outdate ship with only two other crewmembers. But we go where we are told to go and do what they tell us to do. It is apart of the life serving in a space ship. And there is nothing you can do about it." Harris then began to leave the armory, ending on, "All we can do is our best and hope to get recognized."
Walker watched his captain leave the armory, and the doors close behind him. The serviceman looked at the chocolate bar, feeling his stomach grumble, Walker broke open the chocolate bar and took a bite from the rich candy. He then smiled to himself, the captain was not as mean as he first thought.
"APROACHING EXIT BEACON." Came the automated voice of the ship's AI. Harris then slowed the ship from its Faster then Light jump, and felt the sudden release of pressure from the rushing of the drive forcing the ship forward at an unnatural speed. As they dropped out of the warp, Harris let a sigh of relief even over thirty years as a spaceman, he never got over the feeling of jumping from one system to another. It always knocked the wind out of him.
As the ship began to slow to a low speed, one of the scanners detected a ship that seemed to be puppy guarding the exit beacon. Harris shook his head in thought: he didn't like it. The ship seemed to be ominous towards them.
He then decided it was batter safe then sorry, and reached over to open a channel throughout the entire ship: "Listen up. We got an unknown vessel that is hugging the exit beacon tightly. I want you two on your toes. Walker, get the weapons ready, but do not turn them out just yet. I want to know what they intend to do, and there is now reason the scare them. Quenant, I want the shield up and ready. If they attack first I want to be sure we can fire back at least. Everyone understand?"
"Yes sir!" replied the lieutenant. "You got it captain, if they fire I'll be ready to kick them in the ass!" Came Walker's enthused reply. Harris smiled to himself, it seemed like his opening up a little to the serviceman made Walker eager to please him.
"You can tone down the enthusiasm, Walker. I just need you to man the weapons, not make threats that they cannot hear anyway." Replied Harris.
"Oh, yes sir. Sorry, sir." Came Walker's embarrassed response.
Harris returned his attention to the controls and steadily guided the ship towards the exit beacon. The other ship seemed to notice the Good Tidings, and started to make a course towards them. As they approach half the distance from where they started from, Harris attempted to hail the ship.
"This is First Captain Harris Breg of the Federation ship Good Tidings. What ship are you?" The other ship gave no reply, which worried Harris. He then repeated, "This is the Good Tidings, of the Federation! Please respond!" Again no answer from the other ship, by know the two ships were within firing range, forcing Harris to threaten: "If you do not reply and cool down your engines we will assume intend harm, and we will attack." But still the ship gave no reply.
"Walker!" Ordered Harris to the armory, "Power the weapons!" "Yes sir!" Came Walker's reply.
"ALERT: INCOMING PROJECTITLE." Harris look up at the window and saw the ship launching a missile at the Good Tidings.
"Oh, Shi— Brace for impact!" Harris shouted. Grabbing the yoke of the ship he then pull it up to have the ship turn sharply up. But it was too late, the missile was already locked on. After a quiet second of nothing, there was a loud explosion followed by the ship rattling.
"Armory's hit!" Shouted Walker over the communicate. Harris looked at the ship's status chart, and saw that he was correct. "Power supply has been diminished! Only the missile launcher is active! I will try to get it launched!"
"Negative, Walker! You repair the armory and get it working! Let the auto reload system worry about that!" "Yes-yes sir…" replied Walker, sounding disappointed.
Then the ship finally returned Harris's hails: "This is the REBEL Assault Ship Show Stopper, power down your weapons and prepare to be searched. If you surrender the data now, we will spare your lives." Harris exclaimed slightly, how did they know about the data so soon? "We have captured the plant of Lewvin, and your entire fleet there was defeated. The federation is falling. Surrender now, this is your final warning."
Without waiting a beat Harris hailed the REBEL ship and answered back: "Not happening, you traitors!"
"ALERT, INCOMING PROJECTILES." Came the voice of the ship's AI. Harris looked to see the ship also have a burst laser, firing three beams of energy towards the ship. They moved quicker then the missile, and Harris had no time to warn the crew and the lasers hit the Good Tidings, making the ship rock again.
The first laser hit the ship's shields, causing the shields to temporarily go down for a second or two. All the time needed for the other two to make direct hits against Good Tidings. One of the beam hit the sensors room, causing the systems to overload and the main lights of the ship to go out, and the other hit the neighboring room were the door controls were. With that attack the Good Tidings blind and unable to control their doors.
As the emergency red lights lit up, Harris shouted over the intercom: "Crew! Status report!" "Repairs halfway done! Missile's a few second away from being ready!" "Shields are back online!" Came Lt. Quenant from the shield generator room, (SGR). Then there came the sound of a light beep from the master control panel in the bridge. The missile was ready. "Missile's ready sir!" Came Walker's pressed voice. Harris the took control of the missile and aimed it for the other ship's armory. "Firing missile!" Harris shouted to the rest of the crew, and he pressed button to launch the missile.
The Good Tidings flinched back as the missile sprung from it's launcher and went flying towards the enemy. Harris watch the bright tail of the missile, and watch it pass directly through the other ship's shield and hit the ship's hull and struck the armory, damaging it. Harris could clearly see the ships' burst laser power down proof that the missile had done some damage to the armory's power supply. Now the ship was in a similar situation as the Good Tidings.
Harris then turned the ship to the left and the other ship followed suit, making the two ships orbit each other.
"Sir, Armory fully repaired! Powering up the burst laser now!" Came Walker's voice over to internship communicator. "Good job Walker," replied Harris.
For the next few seconds, there was a uneasy silence that had taken over the ship while they waited for their weapons to charge. Harris was ready, he had taken energy from the med-bay and placed towards the engine boosters, hopefully they could avoid another attack from the ship.
"ALERT, INCOMING PROJECTILE." Came the AI warning again. Harris looked out the reinforced window and saw another incoming missile. He then turned the ships yoke way up and the to left. Harris hoped he could maneuver the ship away fro the missile's path. But the sound of the missile impacting the ship ruined Harris's hope.
After the rocking stopped, Harris looked over at the systems, the med bay was hit, but there was no power there and no present need for it. He was grateful for the fact that the important systems were spared.
"WARING:" came the ship's computer, "HULL INTERGRITY AT 50%"
Harris then swung his head at the nearby terminal that showed the ships stats, he had completely forgotten that his ship was damaged from the fight with the AI in asteroid field and from the pirate ship. "Dammit," Harris said under his breath. He clenched his teeth as he ran through the options he could do.
If he continued the fight the ship could take a massive damage, or even be destroyed; while the fighter was not a quarter damaged. Then there was the option of retreating and jumping through the beacon. It would insure minimal damage and would help the ship's chances to survive this seeming impossible mission.
Harris then shook his head defeated and cast his voice over the ship, "Crew prepare for FTL jump! We are disengaging!"
"But sir!" Protested the lieutenant.
"This is no time debate lieutenant! Were abandoning the fight! And that is an order!"
"Yes sir," said the lieutenant reluctantly.
Harris then moved the ship towards a course for the beacon at full speed.
"Missile's ready captain!" Reported Walker.
Harris then aimed the missile at the engines of the enemy ship. The missile took off from the Kestrel ship and hit the Show Stopper where the engine room was believed to be. After the direct it, the REBEL ship's engines faded in power, showing that they were damaged but not completely destroyed.
Harris then focused his attention at the beacon and judged within the next minute or two they would be in jumping distance of the beacon. Harris did not know what other beacons were connected to this one, but when they got within the range of the beacon, they would know.
But the ship's AI broke Harris's concentration again. "ALERT: INCOMING PROJECTILE." Harris was impressed on how fast the missiles of the enemy ship were being loaded, they must have a seasoned gunner.
"Sir!" Came Walker's voice over his personal intercom, "Burst Laser ready to—" then the missile hit the ship, making it rock again and cut off Walker.
"Walker! What happened?!"
For a moment there was no answer from the armory. The over the ship intercom there came a weak reply, "Armories been hit again, sir. Burst laser is down and a fire has broken out."
"Walker, are you alright?"
"A little woozy from the hit, but I am fine. I am going to try to put out this fire."
"Walker, don't try to be a damn hero. Lt. Quenart! Go assist him!"
"I can… handle it… sir." Walker said trying to sound strong.
"Go lieutenant!" Order Harris ignoring Walker. "The shields will be fine on their own!"
"Yes sir!" Said Evera.
Harris returned his gaze to the space in front of him. The beacon was closer now, but still out of range to trigger the FTL drive. The enemy ship was now square with the Good Tidings left broadside. Harris was not expecting an attack from the ship, since the first missile they launched hit the ship's weapon system.
"Sir," came the lieutenant's stressed voice, "The doors are sealed shut! The magnetic locks are activated and I cannot open them manually!"
"Try forcing them open! If that fire reached the engines or the oxygen system we are in trouble!"
"INCOMING TRANSMITTION:" It was a hail from the ship Show Stopper, "Are you running scared like the federal scum you are?" Taunted the captain of the other ship. "If you run we will follow you!"
Harris growled quietly at the captain threat, if they did follow them, the REBEL ship could easily make there mission that much harder.
Then there came a small beep followed by a weaken Walker saying, "Artimus Missile ready… sir."
"Thank you Walker," replied Harris softly. Harris then targeted the missile for the engine, hoping to take out the remaining systems that were functioning in the engine room. From what he could tell, they other ship's crew had not repaired any of the engines yet. After carefully aiming at the enemy ship, Harris then launched the missile.
As the missile crossed in front of the ship, Harris watched it as it flew away from the launcher and hit the Show Stopper right in the engine room. Now the ship's engines were completely powered down and the ship began to free float in space. Harris let a quiet cheer expel from his lips, but he knew it was only a delaying tactic. He estimated they had a few minutes before the crew fixed some of the engines, and were moving again.
"ALERT: ENTIRE ARMORY'S SYSTEMS DISABLED, PLEASE SEND REPAIR CREW TO INVESTIAGE." Harris then sighed relieved, if he had waited any longer the missile would not have the power to be launched. It mush have been because of the fire.
"Captain! I cannot open the doors to the armory!" Evera shouted over the intercom, "I need your help!"
"I'll be there in one minute!" Shouted Harris back. He needed to trigger the FTL jump before he could leave the bridge. The coordinates had to be placed manually, if he abandoned the controls now to help Evera then there is the chance that the REBEL ship could very well destroy them, and then there would be now way for the two for them to help Walker at all.
After a few seconds of gut wrenching silence for Harris in the bridge alone, the AI final report: "FTL JUMP LINK ESTABLISHED WITH EXIT BEACON. PLEASE CHOOSE DESTINATION."
On the control panel, two possible beacons showed up. One was the system of Fasy, and the other Zurt. Harris, not thinking about the destinations panicked and hurried, picked Fasy as the ship's next location. In his mind he concluded, "Anywhere is better then here!" After selecting the button for the system, the AI then said: "PREPARING FTL DRIVE, PLEASE BRACE FOR JUMP."
"Evera, Walker, prepare for jump!" Shouted Harris over the ship's intercom. A split second later, the ship then jumped into FTL. The pressure pushed Harris back deeper into his seat until the ship reached it's peak speed and the pressure slowly tapered off of Harris.
As soon as he could move, Harris ran towards the armory. As he passed through the SGR he found Lt. Quenant, still trying to force the armory's doors to open with her bear hands. "Wait a minute!" Harris yelled pulling her away from the doors. He then pointed her at a flashing rid light in the shape of an O2 over the top of the door. "The room is deoxidized! The last missile must have ripped open a breach."
The two of them then pulled out their temporary oxygen masks and put them over their mouths. "I hope Walker is ok," said Evera looking at Harris concerned.
"Hopefully he decided to get out of there, but we can't worry about that now. Our priority right now is to seal the breach. If we don't we could wind up loosing all of our weapon systems into space entirely." He looked at the lieutenant after put his mask on who nodded her head understanding. She had heard of recorded instances were an entire ship let a system room be flooded by space. And within an hour the entire room was bare of systems and parts.
Both of them walked up to the door and wedged their hands into the crack of the door. Harris looked at Evera and asked, "Ready?" She nodded. "On my single, one two, three, pull!" Together the two of them forced the crack to widen. As they did they could feel the air rush past their faces into the room, proving that there was no air in the armory.
As they forced crack of the door open to go past a foot, the door's magnetic locks were far enough away that their connection with each other was cut and the doors flew open. As the doors opened for the two of them all of the air in the room behind them started to blow into the armory.
Both looked around and saw in the floor in front of them a whole in the floor about the size of one of their foot. Harris then pointed to a square piece of metal beside a portable metal torch. "Grab that piece of scrap metal, and put it on the breach! I'll grab the heat torch!"
Within seconds, Evera had placed the metal over the hole in the floor and the air seemed to stop. Then Harris came in with the torch and fired it up. It was a high-powered heating torch that carried it's own oxygen, just in case they needed to patch something in an environment without oxygen in it. He then placed the torch on the outside of the piece of metal and lit up the flame. The bright flame fused the very edge of the metal to the floor, sealing the piece of metal to the ground and ensuring no air could escape from the ship.
After Harris traced the torch around the metal, the ship's AI reported: "HULL BREACH REPAIRED. OXYGEN RETURNING TO THE ARMORY." Harris let a sigh of relief, that was one problem solved. He then looked at the lieutenant to say she did well. But her attention was somewhere else.
Lt. Quenant seemed to be staring deeper into the armory, her eyes were full of terror and she seemed to be trembling slightly. Harris slowly turned his head to see what she was looking at: it was Walker, face down on the floor motionless.
Harris slowly walked over to him to check on him, he was less then optimistic of the youngman's fate but he still wanted to hope there was a spark of life left. He then lightly turned Walker's body over, to filch at what he saw. The fire must have reached him before it burnt out because of the lack or air. His face was covered in fresh deep burns and some of his hair and scalp were burnt too. If he was alive he would not have much to live for.
"Is-is is he dead?" Asked the lieutenant still in shock. Harris looked at her and nodded once slowly. Then as the oxygen began to flow freely in the room again, the foul smell of burnt flesh and hair began to choke the room. The lieutenant the began to gag, and pant heavily, "Oh, oh my god…" She then felt vomit come up in her throat. She then ran up and bolted out of the room, tears in her eyes and hands on her mouth.
Harris left her alone and returned to the dead servicemen. He then sighed depressed, "Dammit Walker. Just when I was starting to like you!" This was a very bad start for the Good Tidings or it's mission. They were not even to the second beacon in the fringe planets, and they had already lost a man. Harris then looked at the small part of Walker's face that was not burnt, it reminded Harris that he was no more then twenty years old. To young to die, Harris thought; far too young.
He then curse louder, "Goddamn this mission!"