I remember the blaring alarms the resounded through the halls

I remember the stomping of feet as the panic set in

I remember the cries and screams as fear washed over the ship

I remember the ringing of gunshots as the bandits boarded our ship

I remember the smoke streaming from the guns as they fought through the halls

I remember running through Constance's luxurious halls, now stained with blood

I remember thinking of everything I regret as I stepped over the bodies of my comrades

I remember the stars as the lights of the Constance shut off

I remember looking out into space as the planet got ever so bigger

I remember thinking of how my life couldn't get any worse

The World remembers my struggle and my strife

It watched my pain become my strength

And how the world I remember was a lie

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ethan awoke amid the burning wreckage of the Constance with his rifle still strapped around his torso, pinned to what used to be the ceiling. He pulled himself out from his would-be grave. Ethan was lucky to get away with a few bruises on his arms and legs and a broken rifle. He was standing in what looked like a hallway that broke away from ``the main ship as it entered the planet's atmosphere. Above him, the sun shined through a hole in the roof. The once-grand hallway decorated with gold and diamonds now was just a destroyed piece of scrap metal littered with the bodies of its occupants.

Ethan, with no way out, shuffled forward in the wreck.

"Heeelllppp!" yelled a voice from deeper in the hallway. Ethan rushed down the wrecked hallway stepping over bent support beams and wires nearly tripping over them. He entered a hangar bay's remains now with a bottomless pit. Ships held by what remains of their docking stations. The rest Ethan guessed were down below. Metal beams stemmed from the hangar forming unstable bridges.

"Hey, you, up here" yelled the voice from before. Ethan looked up to see a man tangled in wires. He was hanging in the middle of the hangar. "How did you get stuck up there," Ethan yelled to the man, his voice echoing through the room.

"Doesn't matter right now. Can you help me" the man yelled back

"I don't know if I can," Ethan said. He looked around and couldn't see a solution: Unless he had some way to cut the wires, he was as useless as the man trapped hanging from the ceiling.

"What about using your gun to shoot me down."

"Can't the barrels bent"

"Then why are you carrying it around," the man said in an annoyed voice.

"It could be useful later,"

The man groaned, darting his eyes around to room. "Oh, I see controls for a crane on across from you," he said excitedly.

"I don't see how that helps," Ethan skeptically said

"If we're lucky, the controls still work, and if we're lucky, they might help get me unstuck. You have to walk across the beams.

Ethan tapped his foot on the beam in front of him. Its beam creaked, shifting before Ethan could put his weight on the shaft.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Ethan said, worried that the beam would fall with him on top of it.

"Well, unless there's a way around from where you came, I don't see any other way."

Ethan sighed and prayed to any god that would answer him and stepped onto the beam. It shook with each step he took slowly. Ethan moved across the endless abyss of certain death below him. He was halfway there when the ship shook violently, making him slip. He fell back first on a beam below.

"Hey, you still alive down there" yelled the man.

Ethan groaned. He fell at least 30 feet down. He sat up, rubbing the back of his bruised skull, and yelled back, "Yeah,"

"Good, now get moving before you fall again. There's a door on the other side. Maybe you can find a way back up."

Ethan got up and continued his journey across the chasm, reaching the door, no problem. He pried the door open using his rifle like a crowbar.

"See, I told you it would be useful," Ethan yelled at the man

"Congratulations on using you're ingenuity, hurry up and get up here so you can free me."

"You don't have to be an ass."

"If you were hanging above a pit, you wouldn't be the happiest person in the world, would you"

The door opened into another hallway, destroyed like the last one. Ethan continued onward as he had no other choice. He stepped over debris as he moved deep into the hallway. As he walked, Ethan thought about the mess he got himself in. A simple vacation touring the most cultural locations across the known galaxy was what he promised. Now he got himself a ticket to the middle of nowhere.

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He heard footsteps ahead of him. Ethan stopped at an intersection. To his right was where the footsteps originated from. To his left was a staircase that probably led back into the hangar. To his front was a path that hopefully led out. He called out to the owner of the footsteps. "Hello, who's out there."

"Oh my god!" a feminine voice replied in surprise,

"Who's there."

Ethan heard footsteps rushing towards him until a person appeared out of the dim corridor. A short female with ginger hair that flowed down to her hips. Her purple-colored eyes glowed within the dark passage, and her tiny white freckled face peeked behind her messy hair. She was wearing a tattered lab coat covered in black soot with cutup black jeans. She rushed towards Ethan, giving him a tight hug. She quietly cried in his stomach. Ethan, a veteran who could survive in the direst of circumstances, was lost on what to do with a crying girl on him and her hug hurting his recently bruised back.

Ethan pat the crying girl's back as she continues to cry. Eventually, she calmed down enough to speak.

She said in a quivering voice, "I'm sorry, I just thought I . . ."

"It's alright, I understand," Ethan said, hoping to calm the girl, but he knew they needed to find a way out, "What's your name," he asked.

"Millie," she replied in a quiet voice.

"Hi, Millie, my name is Ethan. Can you let me go? You're hurting my back."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Millie said, releasing her hug on Ethan

Now that Ethan's bruise wasn't constantly being pressed on, he could take a deep sigh of relief. "Look, Millie, we need to get out of here before the ship collapses. Do you know a way out of here"

"No"

Ethan himself didn't even know why he asked this question. If Millie knew of a way out, she would've left the ship already.

"Alright, well, why don't you come with me until we can find a way out."

"Okay," Millie said in a quiet quivering voice.

Ethan, now accompanied by Millie, hoped the stairs would lead back into the hangar so he could try to free the cable-trapped man and gain another companion. But, on the way there, Ethan decided to fill the void with some small talk.

"Soooo Millie, what were you doing before you ended up in this mess."

"Do you mean where I was during the boarding or-"

"I mean, what your job was like, how did you make a living" Ethan clarified, lifting a beam so they could pass.

"I was a doctor."

"A Doctor!" Ethan said in surprise. The only doctors he's ever known of were the pretentious group of people that took joy in experimenting on the poor for the so-called betterment of the people. After all, he was one of them. Ethan's opinion of Millie immediately dropped. "What was a doctor doing on a ship like the Constance."

"It was the only ship heading towards the Rim. I wanted to continue helping those in need,"

"Oh, that's very noble of you."

"Thank you," Millie said with a smile. "What about you? What did you do?"

"I was a Sergeant under the command of a warlord."

Now it was Millie's turn to be surprised. "Really, which one."

Ethan didn't want to say that his warlord Baron Umfrey and his Red Army were known for committing multiple atrocities against his enemies and allies. But, even if Ethan didn't commit the atrocities himself, he was still associated with them.

"It doesn't matter now. I don't plan on going back."

Soldiers in the Red Army mostly made of failed experiments from so-called doctors or children trained since age 10. Once you're drafted theirs no leaving. You live and die as a soldier. Most people believed this was so spies would have a more challenging time infiltrating the army. Ethan thought it was so his Soldiers couldn't desert since war was all they knew.

Millie could sense that she had brought up something she shouldn't have. However, that didn't stop her guessing that one of the more immoral warlords treated life like trash. The rest of the walk was quiet, and neither wanted to speak up.

The long quiet walk came to an end when Ethan noticed a scabbard in the hands of a deadman. Ethan believed he would find the scabbard's partner down the hall.

"Why did you pick up whatever that is," Millie said, confused

"It's a scabbard?" Ethan replied nonchalantly. "I'm lucky the sword shouldn't be to far."

Millie believed that finding a sword in this mess would be impossible. Until the couple came upon a door, a sword stuck in the control panel prevented the two from moving forward. Ethan immediately pulled the sword from the panel opening the door. Ethan sheathes the blade and moves through the door. Lucky for him, it led back to the hangar.

"If you don't stop complaining, I'm not going to help you," said a feminine voice

"Oh, you wouldn't dare, Anabel," said the man from before. "What would mom say,"

"She would say shut up before she leaves you there to, Louie," Anabel replied

"How about we calm down," said a new masculine voice

"Honey, I know you're trying to be helpful right now, but please, SHUTUP."

"Yeah, Shutup Bryon"

"God, I wish you're the one that's adopted," Anabel said to Louie

The door led right towards the crane control panel now used by a new group of two. One was a woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. Her face glistened in the dim lighting of the abyssal hangar. She wore a tattered bodycon red dress with dirty soot-covered gold rings on her fingers.

Beside her was a man wearing a tattered designer suit. His long black glossy hair flowed down his back. His eyes were dark brown eyes were camouflaged in the darkness of the hanger. He seemed to shrink into his clothes like a turtle.

"Well, if it isn't, Mr. Inguenity," Louie said

"It's Ethan"

"Well, Ethan, can you save me before my idiot adopted sister gets me killed,"

"I'm not adopted, Louie. You're the one that's adopted," Anabel replied angrily.

"Please, guys, we need to-"

"SHUTUP, BRYON" Louie and Anabel yelled, making him shrink further into his designer shell.

Now that Ethan had a different view of the hangar, he could see where Louie's lifeline was attached. The crane was directly linked to wires that imprisoned Louie.

"Now I see why you wanted me to get to the crane controls,"

"Oh do yah," Louie said sarcastically. "It's not like I would tell my would-be savior to risk his life to make something pointless, would I."

"Man, you really are an ass."

"Yeah, yeah, less talking, more helping."

Anabel and Bryon couldn't figure out the controls and were more than willing to leave Louie to suffer until he learned some manners. However, Ethan already knew the controls and swiftly moved the asshole in chains over towards them. Unsheathing his newly acquired sword cut him down.

With Louie free, Ethan could get a closer look at him. He was also wearing a

"Alright, now that your glorious leader is free, does anyone know a way out."

"Louie, you pretentious motherless asshole," Anabel said, ready the slap Louie across his ugly mug.

"Hey, calm down, and how many times do I have to say it? You're the adopted one."

Millie spoke up before Anabel gave Louie a beating he deserved. "I know a way out, but I couldn't open the door because it required a code,"

"I know the code," Ethan said. "I was a part of the security here, so it should be simple,"

"Lucky us now, let's get out of here, I don't know about you guys, but I had enough of this place."

The group of 2 grew to 5. They moved back towards the intersection and down Millie's hall. It led towards a vehicle bay. Unlike the rest of the ship, the vehicle bay was much better. The ceiling and walls were primarily left undamaged. Unfortunately, the cars inside the bay tore themselves apart in the crash, resulting in a pile of scrap metal on the bay's far side.

A destroyed control tower was to the group's left. A wall had fallen, forming a ramp into the tower. Ethan moved up the ramp into the tower without Millie's guidance, activating the panel. A loud creak resonated from the bay doors as sunlight broke through of opening. The group moved through the doors revealing an untamed forest below them, and a ramp lowered into a clearing.

"What now?" Louie asked Ethan

Suprised, Ethan replied with a chuckle. "I thought you were the leader,"

"Yeah, but you're the one with a sword," Louie said with a shrug

"I don't know,"