Lee Jun found himself in a large chamber filled with people. Some were looking at him with disdain and others with contempt as he shuffled forward towards the front of the room. Looking up he started to tremble, he knew this place and time all too well. It was the same room, with the same judges …his court martial hearing in the game Athenos.
All though everything was the same, it felt a million times worse now. Being a dream, he could clearly hear the whispers and the sneers of each person present. Formerly distorted and inaudible whispers became as distinct as ever.
If that weren’t enough people everywhere around him began to laugh. As tears rolled down his cheeks, people surrounded him and the sneering and jeering became louder and louder. As he covered his ears, some people began attacking him with their decorated rapiers. The horror had no end in sight, everyones blurred laughing face became clearer and clearer, till he could see hundreds of him laughing at him. He sank to his knees and howled loudly.
“GET AWAY FROM ME!” Lee Jun screamed with his eye shut and hands covering his ears.
The shadows grew longer till there was nothing but darkness and silence. Lee Jun was gone, he was somewhere else….
Black like the starry sky, Lee Jun found himself floating through space. In the distance he could see a massive ball of burning flame. It was a star, as he floated across it, he could see another smaller star. They floated together beside each other, looking calm and unmovable but he knew better. This was Alpha Dankari a binary star. These two balls of power were rotating around each other offering light, heat, life to the nearby balls of rock that were planets. It was here that he had his second triumph. Tears welled up in Lee Jun’s eyes, just like how they did the first time when he saw this scene. It could only be captured in one word, beautiful. But as the seconds passed, Lee Jun grew afraid he did no longer wanted to see this scenery any more. The very steps he climbed to success in Athenos were also the very steps of his undoing. As regret filled his chest, he closed his eyes. He wanted nothing more to do with these starry night lights. They were soon behind him but there was just more darkness everywhere….
Moving forward he soon saw a ship, his second ship to be precise. The Arc had served him well but as Lee Jun racked up the promotions, his crew grew larger and he needed a bigger battleship. After the last ambush in the asteroid belt, he had been promoted Senior Tactical officer for the entire galactic sector and gifted with a Cruiser, the Royal Arc 2.
It was the newest most powerful cruiser available at the Federation and everyone had wanted to be a captain of one. Floating through space, he could see it and in all its glory. The Federation had taken its inspiration from early animations battleships of the 20th century and merged with designs of the wet navies of the past. The Cruiser was armed with missiles and the ARC laser but in addition to those, it looked majestic with rail guns mounted in front and behind. The Royal Arc 2 looked ready to rain fire on those who dared to challenge it.
Moving along with the ship, Lee Jun could see the flashes of light up ahead exploding in space. It was the Battle of Dankari. He knew that Federation forces were in trouble. It had been a simple duty in theory, a convoy of merchants with a light escort. The Royal Ark 2 was supposed to be the flagship but had been delayed at the docks. His crew later found out that the delay had been arranged to give the BloodPack Pirates time to try and hijack the convoy. With only smaller battleships to guard the merchant vessel, the BloodPack were going for an easy kill.
In the past, Lee Jun recalled, he had been able to devise a plan to use the moon of the second planet in the solar system as a sling shot to get the extra acceleration needed to quickly reach the attack zone. This combined with some excellent targeting and defensive work from his crew was enough to scare the BloodPack attackers before the convoy could be boarded. But here now, Lee Jun was terrified to see what could go wrong, he did after all know he was dreaming; a dream he could not wake up from or control. He prayed that it shouldn’t end like the court martial hearing.
Lee Jun felt his consciousness begin pulled towards the ship, faster and faster, until once again he found himself in a different environment altogether. He was now inside the bridge of the Royal Arc 2. It was larger and very similar same as the Arc’s bridge. As if seeing everything while wearing a mask, he could see a holographic map of the galaxy they were traversing through at the moment with the convoy. The Royal Arc 2 was docked at the space station at the moment, ready to be deployed.
“Are you crazy!” shouted the Lieutenant to Lee Jun. His core crew was the same as always; so called friends from school that had been playing together. It was the same lieutenant from his last dream; his classmate Wu Fang Li. He had a knack of being loud and questioning.
“Crazy? No.” replied Lee Jun calmly as his hands automatically moved through the air, shuffling through the holographic map. “Ready the rail guns and prepare the laser shooters. We are going to target those ships as we pass by.”
“Don’t ignore me like that!” Wu Fang Li shouted as stepped in Lee Jun’s way. “The moon is the other way, using it like a slingshot might not even work! Worst case, we might be pulled into it’s orbit and crash!! There is no one Athenos who has tried something so ridiculous before! It’s unheard off!”
“There are many things you may or may not have heard of while in Athenos. Legends are created by those who dare to take the risks not the cowards who hide behind the shadows.” Lee Jun calmly replied as he walked past Wu Fang to take this commander seat.”
“…” Wu Fang had nothing to say.
"If we were to use only our thrusters, we won’t be able to reach the convoy within time. They are already engaging the enemy. Taking a slight detour towards the moon and using it as a catapult will get us there a good thirty minutes earlier. I did all the maths and punched in the coordinates and which angle we need to take the leap.” Lee Jun slowly explained his plan to Wu Fang. “Theoretically, we switch on thrusters at that point at full power, we'll get a brief but powerful accelerated launch. Doubtless to say, there is a degree of risk, but both navigation and engineer have confirmed that we can do it. To sum it up, if we want to save the convoy, there is no other option."
"Very well Lee, I don't like the risk to the ship but your right we have no choice. Had it not been for that person on the convoy, I would have never agreed to this ridiculous plan." Wu Fang replied resigning his fate in the hands of the eccentric genius Lee Jun.
Lee Jun smiled, he always won these debates.
As they began to make the pass at the moon, everything unraveled the way it had as Lee Jun recalled. However, this was a dream and something had to go wrong. They moved forward faster and faster, so far there was no problem. As they came up behind the moon they entered into its shadow... Lee Jun instinctively knew there was something wrong now; they had never entered its shadow.
BOOM!!! The Royal Ark 2 shook violent as it reeled under the shockwave of an explosion. All the emergency lights turned on in the bridge. Lee Jun gripped on to his arm rests tightly.
"Captain we hit a mine, we're losing power, entering spin"
"How'd you miss a mine!" screamed Wu Fang as he brought up a screen to check the damage.
"I don't know there shouldn’t have been any mines here!" Lee Jun screamed as he scrambled to relay the energy around the ship to deal with the damage.
"Well you better hope there's nothing left of us at the end of this otherwise, my hands are going to be around your neck!" Wu Fang shouted at him.
Lee Jun watched through the smoke as they spun in an inward fashion. As they entered into shorter range he could hear the screams for help, and see the explosions one after another. The Royal Arc 2 was completely wrecked. A space mine is every navigators nightmare. Camouflaged black like space, made of wave absorbent material, they are nearly impossible to detect as they lay motionless in space awaiting for their prey.
Meanwhile a quest box popped up in front of Lee Jun.
“The convoy and its escorts have fallen to the BloodPack. Mission failed.”
Lee Jun hurriedly closed the in game window and focused on salvaging of what remained of his cruiser. Although only a dream, Lee Jun was completely absorbed in it’s pace, completely forgetting that it was unreal. With only minimal support systems, they could only watch as their battleship headed closer and closer towards collision with the moon.
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
Once again Lee Jun found himself in a dire state, the entire crew in the bridge stared at him. Their eyes looked at him, begging him to save them. Frightened and terrified of that look, Lee Jun sunk into his seat, hoping he would disappear. No matter how much he tried, he could not close his eyes. When his vision of the bridge finally faded, all he could he was a cruel yet familiar laughter…
When Lee Jun opened his eyes, he found himself again in a large chamber filled with people looking at him with disdain, with contempt as he shuffled forward towards the front of the room. It was like déjà vu. Looking up he started to tremble, why was he back in this room! It was the court martial hearing! Why did he always end up coming back here? He sank to his knees and began crying in his dreams.
Tearing himself away from the memory from the pain he looked around and felt fear. Just like before he was magically whisked away from the frightful memory and found himself somewhere else…
He was now boarding a small shuttle; it was an operation to board the BloodPack planet HQ. For good or worse, Lee Jun went with the flow. He was leading the advance team, it was his job to get in there and take out the defense network. Normally, sending the commander to the frontlines was unheard off, but Lee Jun was an exceptionally brilliant hacker. There was no second to his skill sets in the game. His past record of success with computer hacking and off the cuff ideas, earned him a place in his own advance offense unit. Given his high status of a commander, along with him were a dozen Federation Marines to protect him while he was inside. Lee Jun recalled he had been excited and terrified for this would be his first time in ground combat. Although, it was an adventurous quest this mission panned out terribly.
Four shuttles carrying the strike team were hovering at sub orbital awaiting further commands.
"Cockpit to control, we are ready to land.”
“Control to cockpit, deploy the strike team.” Wu Fang ordered.
“This is your pilot, please be ready, we're going in.”
The shuttle began to shudder and heat up, going down faster and faster. In the midst of the descent, Lee Jun could hear snippets on his com radio...
"Taking fire, need cov-“
"Shuttle two is down, I repeat, Shuttle two is down…”
*STATIC*
"Keep proceeding!” Wu Fang ordered, there was a certain coldness in his voice.
"Willy here, Shuttle 4, is hit…-ARGHH!”
The mariners in Lee Jun’s began whispering to each other, ‘half the strike team is dead!’ Panic was visibly set in and the team’s morale was down.
"Just shut up and pray.” Lee Jun blurted out as he gripped on to his safety gear. As captain, he could only be stern.
As their shuttle landed safely, the safety gear unfastened and the rear door of the craft opened up. The mariners quickly exited the shuttle and assembled in a protective formation. They had finally landed on the planet. Judging by the fireballs in the sky, they had lost the other three shuttles.
“Go, go, go, we can't turn back now!” Lee Jun shouted as the marines stood dazed. Regaining their composure they slowly headed towards the enemy outpost. As long as they could get Lee Jun inside any enemy base, they would be able to accomplish their mission and pull down the enemy defense network.
Lee Jun began to tremble; it was just like that time. From here on out everything went wrong with this mission. Unlike all his previous memories, Lee Jun was not frightened here, if anything his heart burnt with fury. This was the very mission he was betrayed. As if on cue, a stun mine went off. Then there was a loud bang and screaming, as the marines moved for the door of the outpost to take cover, Lee Jun quietly followed.
Looking over the shoulders of the mariners how covered him; he could see he was standing in a cess pool of blood. The Corporal of this team had been hit and all his innards lay spread all over the place. Lee threw up and started to fall to his knees when one of the marines grabbed him and dragged him forward. They started running toward the bunkers in front of them.
Running forward Lee Jun wasn't aware of the tears streaking down his face, or least he hadn't the first time. This time he was able to feel each tear rolling down his cheeks, he felt so ashamed for being such a wimp. The mere sight of blood then used to give him the chills.
There were fires, lasers, explosions, bodies, and screaming everywhere. If there was a hell Lee Jun had been sure that this was it. Somehow they had made it inside the outpost but there were less of them now. Only a handful had made it this far but they had to keep going to finish the mission. One of the marines handed him a gun as they consolidated their position. Lee Jun held on to it even though he didn't have the skills to use it. Even if he fired shots most of them were likely to miss. Regardless of his accuracy, the situation now demanded him to carry it as they moved forward. The Marines picked up their pace and Lee Jun stumbled and fumbled, as he barely managed to keep up with them.
Pushing forward, they made it inside, moving steadily deeper. Each step, each doorway paved in blood until they had made it to the last door. By this point there were only two marines left and Lee was virtually painted red in blood and burns.
This mission was where learnt the true meaning of war; the screams of horror and the blood. The violence was nothing like he had experienced in space where it was clean and quiet. Space wars simply involved planning and strategies, a few laser showers and voila the mission would be accomplished!
However, the frontlines were far more unnerving. As the last two marines went through the door there was a hail of laser fire that hit them. Their bodies jerking back like leaves on a breeze, they died before they could even hit the ground. Fortunately, for Lee Jun, one of them had thrown a grenade through the door and there was a pair of explosions which blew the marines bodies back out onto Lee Jun.
At this point it was too much he just couldn't do it anymore, his mind wanted to fight on but his body refused to budge. The marines were gone, he was covered in blood, and there were enemies at the end of the hallway. Lee Jun ran back the way they came until he found a small hole, a closet whatever it was it was and hid himself there. It was small dark and dingy but safe. As he hid here, the laughing started….the same recurring cold and cruel laughter……the floor of the cabinet gave away and Lee Jun hung on to an invisible ledge….the laugh grew louder and louder……
Suddenly Lee Jun found himself in a large chamber it was filled with people in uniform, his uniform. Everyone present looked at him with disdain and contempt. As he stumbled forward towards the front of the chamber, he was forced to halt in front of the tribunal. He was back at his court martial hearing. The judges were passing out the judgment. Like in the past they took it all away from him. He was stripped of his ranks, his awards, his achievements and uniform. His formal sword which marked him as an officer was broken and thrown at his feet.
As he stood there staring at months of work washed away, he could see Wu Fang in the distance laughing away. Lee Jun’s loss was Wu Fang’s gain. Blindly trusting him…all of it …just to be betrayed.
No one called out to Lee Jun, no one came to him. Everyone just left him to sink to the ground alone, broken.
The cold laughter that haunted him returned…there is no escape from your past. There is no escape from your fears…
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Authors Note:
1. Confusing chapter.....maybe I should work on it a bit more.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Connect to Royal Road – Elementarem Vim next Chapter?YesNo
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------