Technological leaps have always changed humanity, from learning to cook from simple fires changing our entire species. Farming allowed our society to change altogether. The printing press which slowly allowed for public education and so on. Wormhole travel was no different, allowing humanity to finally expand to the stars we had stared at since the dawn of our species. Professor Allenby during a seminar about the history of the United Colonies. 70 SE

I woke up not to an excellent relaxing alarm, not one of those annoying ones that move when you try to turn them off, or even a basic AI alarm. What woke me up was instead the blaring siren-like alarm and a red flashing light that instantly cut through the tired fog that had clouded my brain, added to which there was an automated voice that every few seconds would repeat “All hands on deck.” I should have known then that everything would go drastically downhill.

The emergency alarm caused me to jump out of bed, and as was protocol the first thing I did was hastily get into my form-fitting undersuit, before sliding open a drawer attached to the bottom of the bed. Inside was a set of armour known as Environmental Adaptation Armour, EAA armour uses simple nanotech to adapt to any environment including the ability to seal the suit in a vacuum. When sealed it contains an hour of oxygen when attached to an oxygen tank, which is by default built into the Navy's version.

I then grabbed my pistol, a trusty drakes-sworn magnum attaching it to the magnetic holster built into my armour's side. As much as in most branches of the army they had phased out using side arms for most deployed soldiers it had been brought back for those on space vessels, this was after a few successful surprise boardings run by the insurgents. However in case of mutiny they didn't want soldiers having access to their main weapons, therefore it was decided that each military personal on a ship would have a sidearm they kept on them at all times.

With a quick wave of my hand I triggered the lock of my room, the lock playing a quick high-pitch notification as it identified my biosignature and the door opened into hell.People were running around in an organised mess, each getting to their station and a second later someone came up to me in their own set of black EAA armour with a silver scythe clenched between a skulls teeth on the left shoulder, a marking that was mirrored on my own suit. I looked towards them, seeing the slight dent left by a low-calibre pistol upon their helm as my own helmet's holographic display registered it as Lieutenant Commander Estrid, until recently we had both been at the same rank. However, when they came to Estrid with an offer to promote her to a commander she denied it, stating she didn't feel ready for the extra responsibility.

When the rank was then offered to me a few days later with Estrid and the Captain's recommendation attached to it I felt like I had no choice but to accept it. I later found out from Estrid that the real reason she had denied the rank was because she thought it would add more work and that she “Likes the little free time I get as it is.” She had added her suggestion to promote me to command because she knew it would push me to accept which would avoid any pressure on her to take the role. A sneaky move but one I had to respect.

“What’s the situation?” I asked as I started heading to the bridge, Estrid falling in behind me as we walked past the bustling crew.

“No idea The bridge is on lockdown, the door seems to have been locked and we need your bio-sig as next in command to open it, no one is reporting from inside and all we know is that the bridge's emergency escape pod has been launched.” She informed me. The entire situation sounded like a headache and I had no idea what was going on.

“What is going through the captain's head? And why did they activate an emergency alert.” I asked. Each ship had various levels of emergency and different alarms that could be activated, however, the one that had been used this time was the basic alarm for when the situation didn't fit any of the other alarms.

However Estrid didn’t have an answer for me, and as we approached the bridge the ship suddenly rocked as if it was hit by something. A loud booming noise echoed over the ship as something was repelled by the ship's shields, as much as the shields that ran over the ship would prevent vital damage as long as they stayed up they still spread kinetic energy over the ship in a broad area, however the energy would still rock the ship. Without even looking at each other we both increased our steps.

A notification appeared in the corner of my helmet’s holographic display as Estrid sent a linking request, and when approved their vitals came up on my screen. All areas appeared green on the small human-shaped display that appeared on the display, the only areas not appearing green were her legs from just above the knees down which came up as blue instead. After a second the display vanished and a green bar and orange appeared below her name on the left side of the holo display.

However, while I only glanced over the display that came up I waved my hand over the lock to the bridge, the red light on the lock becoming orange as for a second it registered my clarence.

“Under the emergency, Commander Brooks is temporarily assigned the role of captain, Captain override approved.” Came the automated voice as the door opened, showing us just how unprepared we were. The first thing that we noticed was the fact that everyone was dead, most of them slumped over their desks as if they had been shot from behind, the second thing we noticed was that there was another ship directly above us.

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The ship shook again as the ships under cannons let out another volley, red light realising from their cannons which caused the front of the ship to glow a bright orange for a second as it hit our shields.

“How the fuck did we not know we were under attack!” I yelled out as I ran to the captain's chair, stepping over the body of the only person who had been facing the door. The man on the floor, James. Must have been the last to die, and it appeared as if he had lunged from the raider station to the captain's chair probably triggering the alarm as he was gunned down.

My guts twisted a little as I leaned over the corpse of the man who had been both my captain and friend, the neat grim hole in his head showing he had been executed without even knowing he was under threat. Someone he trusted must have been the killer then, however at that moment I knew I didn't have time to piece together what had happened. Not if I wanted to save the crew, and myself anyway. I then, using the buttons on the captain's chair, changed the alert of the ship. Instead triggering the warning that we were under attack.

I then with a strong feeling of guilt pushed the captain off the chair. Sitting down and I brought up the holographic console. Triggering the captain's override control, taking a deep breath as I relaxed. Then there was a sharp sensation as a needle pressed into my suit, it opened very slightly to allow it through before the needle went into my cervical spine.

I don't really know how to describe the feeling when you connect with a ship, it is incredibly difficult to explain to someone who has never gone through it before. It is very similar to how I imagine a toddler must feel when they become aware of their limbs, a sensation we all forget as we grow far past that age. Suddenly you are not only yourself but something much bigger, and as if you suddenly noticed you have legs and arms you now have wings and engines. You are both yourself and the ship at the same time.

It is a very risky move that is usually only used in an emergency just because of how demanding it can be to the brain. Already incredibly far away I could feel blood leaking from my nose, but the sensation felt a world away.

As my mind wrapped itself around the control and feeling it now had I could tell something was off, senses that seemed to be missing. I could tell that someone had not only disabled but completely destroyed both the radar system and our own weapon system. Not only were we unable to fight back but we could not even tell if other ships were nearby. If that was not dire enough the ship above us released another volley of hits and with a flash of blinding light and a system-wide warning our shields collapsed. A sensation as if I had just been violently slapped hit me at the same time as I felt the shields fail through my connection.

Knowing that we had no chance to fight I planned to do the only thing we could, flee to try and fight another day. The nearest planet I knew was close to where we were, after all, we had only just come into the system through our warp gate. The warp gate on this end had been built not too far from the Ularian Colony, however, if I could get us to Ularian before the other ship ripped us apart was another question.

I watched through both the ship's cameras and my own distant eyes as the ship and I began to suddenly turn. A sudden blast of the top bound stabilisers pushed the ship down as I engaged the main engines sending us hurtling down below the other ship. Then with a blast of stabilisers on two different sides of the ship, the top of the left-wing and the bottom of the right-wing I sent our ship into a roll as our purser shot another volley of laser fire at us.

I don't know if you have ever been shot, it hurts. As if a sudden force punched through your body while ripping parts of you away. And while connected with the ship every single hit that would hit it would feel like that to me. So when a hole was made in the right wing it felt as if someone had just shot through my own arm. Far away I could hear my own scream of pain, however, the brain is a terrifyingly powerful force, and adrenaline quickly numbed the sensation as my brain filled me with the instinct to run no matter the pain.

With my teeth gritted I looked around for anything we could use to help the ship survive, and then with mad determination I sent us hurtling towards one of Ularians moons, heading in at a speed and direction which would leave almost no room for error with what I had planned. If I was slightly off I was about to send us into a fiery explosion as we crashed into the very moon itself. However, at the last second, I managed to fix our trajectory, instead entering the moon's gravitational pull and with another boost of the engines using it to slingshot us towards the planet.

The other ship was smarter than I had given them credit for it seemed, even though they hadn't followed the same move I had made they must have predicted me. Because as we sped forward three more shots hit us. Agony ran through me as one of the engines was destroyed, part of the ship connecting the bridge was pulled open and the left wing was ripped off. It took almost all I had to keep myself couscous as I tried to keep the ship moving, having to disable the engines on the left side as we approached the planet. I felt parts of the ship locking down to prevent decompression, knowing Estrid and myself were split from the other parts of the ship.

I knew that it was almost impossible to land the ship in the condition it was in, that it would be a miracle if the ship wasn't ripped apart and that I could bring it nowhere near any of the settlements on the planet. After all, if I tried to land near them I would more likely crash into buildings than get anywhere near the docs. So as soon as I had the ship slightly level with the planet, getting ready to try planet entry I sent one last emergency through the ship. An order to abandon ship and as we entered the planet's atmosphere I felt the sensation of multiple drop pods disconnecting from the ship.

I cannot lie, sometimes there are good feelings when connected to a ship, the sensation of a freefall and flying can be so freeing and if like me you're an adrenaline junky it is almost addictive. After all, had humanity not longed for the ability to fly since we first looked up at the sky? However, when you know that the end of this fall will most likely end in your death it does strip away a lot of the fun. The fact that the traitor had taken the only drop pod that was on the bridge meant that Estrid and I only had one chance for survival, I had to do the borderline impossible and land a ship that was falling apart.

I aimed for the flattest area of land I could see, whispering a prayer for the gods of nature to forgive what I was about to do as I disabled almost all the ship's systems, using the power to activate the shields just in front of the bridge as the ship crashed into the woods. Agony stripped my consciousness away as I felt the ship get shredded from various impact locations, my body feeling as if it was being ripped apart as everything faded to black.