Prologue
This was meant to be my first real mission outside of all the countless exercises and training I have done over the past five years or so.
I am what all the other soldiers of the empire will call a Spectre. One of the elite forces acquired through seduction or force with the innate psionic gift.
To have the ability to channel power through the mind allows further destructive tendencies beyond what advanced technology can offer.
I was originally meant to attend an internship off-world in one of those research rigs.
It would have been my first chance to see firsthand what our soldiers had to fight in the frontier of space.
It was meant to be my time to shine with my academic prowess in alien genetics and my precision in quantum electronics.
But fate had other plans.
While I was about to get shipped off to my destination. Something went awry.
With the hyperdrive shooting us to space, something triggered within me and an onset of a severe headache came on me. Before I blacked out I saw the other passengers passing out, with some bleeding out in their orifices.
A couple years into my conscription, I found I got a couple people killed with brain aneurysm and the lucky ones with a case of stroke.
....---....
I came with two other rookies in our first unsupervised mission to a Science rig way out in this middle of nowhere asteroid belt.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
We were sent out here to check out a distressed signal.
After no response for days on end we came to just observe and see what happened to the scientists onboard.
Our ship docked within the landing ports inside. One thing I can tell you it is real eerie.
First thing we noticed is how quiet everything is and certain parts have the power not running.
With some lights flickering on and off.
I checked the system map and it didn't look that big anyway.
Telepathically I told my other comrades, "Hey I will go check out the reactor core. While you guys check out the quarters and lab"
"The hell you are" replied by my other team.
"Nah I should be good. If anything happens at least I can warn you guys anyway. It's not like we don't need the power."
In my own naivete I proceeded forward on my own towards the reactor core. Drowning out the frustration by the other guys.
On the way down. A lot of the rooms were messy. Just like they had to leave in a hurry. It didn't help that it everything is so dim.
Occasional blood splatter can be seen as I flashed my light on my way to the back basement to get some power back to this place.
"Guys watch your six. Also get someone to report back to HQ on what happened so far."
Using a my telepathic pulse, I scanned my surroundings for anything fishy. Finding nothing I proceeded forward.
"Hey Markus, we just got to the mess hall now and there are some dead bodies here splayed out all over the place."
I replied with, "It could be one of those damn pirates. That patrol this sector."
As I finally got to the engine room. I ran some system diagnostics to check what happened.
In my alarm, "Guys I think both of you have to get the hell out of Dodge."
"What do you mean?"
"I think we may have tripped something on our way in. This rig is set to blow in a couple of minutes." I replied back.
"Crap. So much for an easy one."
"I'll do what I can do. Well it has been nice knowing you guys."
With a scuffling of feet over the radio, I got cracking as I somehow see if I can disable it. Although it seemed rigged to blow in an amateurish way, too much time has passed for it to matter.
I did all I could to buy them time.
I run to the nearest escape pod. Hurdling on top of overthrowned scraps on the floor.
At least those agility courses paid off somehow, as I thought wryly.
Seconds felt like minutes. As I keep running like hell. As if on queue I recalled the song 'a highway to Hell'
"Oh not now. Darn it."
With a sense of foreboding. I boarded the escape pod. But alas it was too late as the explosion shredded my escape pod.
With that. Darkness greeted me.