Kevin Clayton: The Trip

The widening beam emanating from Atkel’s only sun illuminated the giant dock as the doors slowly parted. I was standing aboard the Bastille, a huge passenger ship, ferrying between the mayor locations in the western expanse. The company operating the ship had chosen its name carefully, because for many the western expanse was still associated with danger. Except for a handful of destinations in the most outer regions, most of the ports the ship frequented lay in relative safe areas, but as long as the region was dangerous in the minds of the average traveller it was important to convey to the would-be passenger, the greatest sense of security. It was exactly what this ship did. Its enormous size and numerous visible turrets made it look like a formidable prey for anyone with bad intentions, and I’m sure it was.
Even though I knew the dock doors were opening with an impressive speed, their huge size made it look like an immensely slow process. Soon a number of passengers who had gathered up to view our departure were already complaining. It was interesting how even the most amazing feats become normal for most people in hardly any time at all.


A couple of minutes past after the doors of the dock had completely opened, before a soft roar accompanied a slow but sure acceleration of the ship out of the dock. While the ship moved out of the dock we could see the sun slowly rise across the edge of the dock as our part of the ship emerged out of the shadows. The windows automatically darkened to prevent any real or imagined eye injury.
Once free of the dock the ship slowly opened up the engines to full while steering away in a shallow arc. Within a minute the station was no longer visible. Looking at the stars I could tell we were now heading in the general direction of SC4, the ship’s next stop. This was great because it’s exactly were I needed to be. I had considered myself lucky I had been able to book the ticket only a day ago, but there were plenty tickets left when I boarded today. Maybe they would have been able to fill up the ship if they had made additional stops in Galermo or Aistin, but then I wasn’t an expert on the exploitation of passenger ships.

Of all the people in the lounge who had been watching our departure most had left while some had taken a seat. I looked to the side. A middle aged couple were still standing in front of the window. He was standing behind with his arms around her. They seemed to be quietly enjoying the view. She looked over to me; we were standing only a few meters apart.
“Ready for adventure?” she asked as if I was supposed to know what she meant.
“I get off on SC4,” I explained. “Where are you going?”
“Us too,” she said to me.
“If we’ll make it,” he joked to her before kissing her on the cheek.
“Stop it,” she said with a mix of bliss and irritation. “It’s not funny anymore.”

“Don’t worry,” he assured her.
“Scared of flying?” I asked.
“No, not at all,” she said.
“There have been some rumours the Tallarian military is on some anti pirate exercise in the region,” he explained.
I laughed, but not in a bad way. I hadn’t heard these particular rumours, but they were all the same. At times governments, who were aware of an upcoming attack but didn’t have enough information to prevent it with certainty, would boost military readiness under the ruse of an exercise for a similar attack. This would make their forces ready for the real scenario without starting a panic and appearing weak by not being able to prevent the attack they knew would take place. Eventually the coincidences between the scheduled exercises and the attacks became hard to miss and had made this approach counterproductive and potentially started small panics every time any exercise was held.
“Either way, it can’t hurt if they are,” I said. If there was increased pirate activity in the region it was only good the Tallarian navy was on patrol. I had to admit it was a good rumour though. I continued, “It is extremely hard, if not impossible, to locate any ship travelling in the vastness of interstellar space, let alone intercept it, and even if someone could I don’t imagine any pirate taking on a ship like this.”
While I said this I thought about the last time we left Atkel. Our ship, as opposed to this one, had been completely unarmed. We got intercepted right of the system by an unknown ship. Although we don’t know this for a fact, we assume it was a continuation of a conflict we had inadvertently gotten ourselves into while on the station.
“You sound like an expert,” the woman said.
“I’m a pilot, I served in the military,” I explained.
The Hannith navy on the station had been slow to respond and we had been forced to fend for ourselves. Through some excellent piloting on my part, I managed to force our attacker into making a hard brake at some point while simultaneously allowing our ship to make a close pass at a high enough relative speed to make their cannons useless. There had been some mayor tactical errors on their part leading up to it, but it did feel like a great victory none the less, when I, watching the display, saw the dot of our missile closing in on a ship which was desperately trying to gain speed while the projectiles of its own cannons flew wide all around our ship.
Thinking back about this, I realized I couldn’t blame anyone for believing this region was still dangerous, because it was. It was me, who had just gotten used to a lot worse during my various ventures with Max.
“I know it’s stupid,” he said, referring to the pirate rumour, “but you can’t stop thinking about it.”
“It’s funny isn’t it?” I said as if I just realized this. “You realize shouldn’t, but the thought alone is so unbearable, you don’t dare to let go.”

“Well, that’s exactly what it is,” he said plain, but with some recognition.
“Then stop it,” she told him jokingly.
“That’s an interesting philosophy,” a voice behind me said.
I turned around to see a girl. I never saw her before, but she pretended to be very familiar with me by placing a hand on my shoulder. She looked pretty, in some way, with her short skirt, high heels and a deep décoleté. She wore a necklace with some big jewel in it. Altogether it was rather extravagant clothing.
“I’ve read a lot of books about it, so I can tell you more about it if you want to.”
“About what?” I asked.
I knew the type; arrogant, narcissistic, trying to force their own little ideas on everybody else as if it was the greatest gimmick. Although I would never compare myself to her, I sometimes wondered how much it applied to me.
“About what you said. About how the mind works,” the girl replied. “Imagine if you could truly understand every aspect of it. It would give you very special power over life.”
“I honestly don’t believe so,” I said.
“You just made that man see the solution to his worries lies well within his own reach, something which might have troubled him for days.”
This was so overdramatic. I didn’t believe the man in question was a person who couldn’t have a moment of peace if I hadn’t been here, not even close.
“There are just a number of pitfalls people easily slip into, and sometimes it helps to make people realize how they work,” I tried to explain while I kept my voice down so the couple wouldn’t overhear us, because I feared it might sound condescending. “That’s what all this natural education is about, at least to me.” Although she hadn’t mentioned it, I of course knew what she was talking about.
“So you interested in it as well. Maybe we can talk about it later,” the girl suggested. This was getting awkward.
A reason, I often thought, some people, and I myself have been no stranger to this, have been so passionate about this stuff, might be because we are the ones who have stepped into these pitfalls more often and more easily, which is hardly a compliment. In any case I didn’t feel like talking about it later with her.
“Thanks you, but I’m not interested,” I said.
“Well maybe you should be.”
“I’m not,” I said annoyed.
“You seem very defensive,” she said at a tone I thoroughly didn’t like.
“It might seem defensive, but I’m actually just annoyed you can’t take a hint.” This should be sufficient.
“Very well. It’s a shame though, because you will never know what you missed, but know you’re not the first one to hurt me while I trusted him to respect me,” the girl said ominous.
“Whatever. Take care,” I said as bored as I could.
“I will, and I don’t need you,” the girl said angry.
“Excellent.”

The girl slowly turned around and walked away after giving me a final condemning look.
“Who was that?” the woman asked me.
“No idea.”
“She certainly seemed interesting,” the man suggested jokingly.
“Yes, I’m not so into women with issues.”
“I’m sure she meant well,” the woman tried.
“We’ll never know,” I said
The view outside had become almost static with Atkel’s sun having disappeared from view.

Two days into the flight I was staring at the same stars sitting at a table in the same lounge. I took a sip from an ice cold lemon tea. The stay on the ship had just been great. The crew, the facilities on the ship, my room; everything was well taken care off. It wasn’t the most luxurious cruise, but I had been accustomed to a lot less. In addition many of the people I’d met so far had been extremely nice. I was actually surprised how many people were actually up for a quick chat about nothing in particular. With Max it wasn’t like we did everything together and we left each other ample space, but somehow we always tended to gravitate towards each other. For good reasons of course, we got along great and I truly liked her. Considering all the time we had spent together, it was astonishing I had never really gotten tired of her for only a moment, but still, it felt great to be alone.
There was a sense of freedom here, like the world lay open before me, like when I first joined the Navy or when I left it with Max. Although it wasn’t apparent in my day to day at all, whenever I looked at my live at a whole I had the feeling of being stuck in it. I knew this was only my own perception; my life was actually pretty adventurous and free, but like everyone, I was confronted with all the less ideal aspects of my particular choice, while most of the time only the green grass of other possibilities is visible, and there was of course the steady source of most of my problems which I would have to take with me wherever I went: myself. It might seem a pessimistic view to many, but it was something I knew to be true and it had turned out to be a very useful discovery. It had allowed me to, in time, reduce my perceived problems to a precious few.
Unfortunately those precious few held on like a weed, and although I had long accepted I there always would be something, this didn’t help much when they came out to plague me. I didn’t have any doubt my current little struggle was somehow sprung from the exact same source, even if I didn’t know how.
If I was having such a good time, I should be trying to enjoy it. I took another sip of my tea and opened up a magazine I picked up, containing these documentary style articles about history, other cultures and nature.
Right when I had paged to an article about the Senneth, a number of lights in the corner of my eye made me look out of the window. As I looked up I could see several beams being hurled away at great speed from the ship into the distance. I immediately recognized it as outgoing fire from the ships cannons. What looked like a solid beam was actually a stream of red hot projectiles spat out with the greatest accuracy and velocity and at the highest rate technology would allow. The beams started to curve as they seemed to move over a diagonal path from high on portside to a low point more towards the bow before the beams disappeared from my view. I stood up.

Following the brief silence, a sudden rush went through the room as the other guests who were also looking outside started to mumble or stand up as well
“Get out of here!” I yelled, “Stay away from the outside of the ship.”
The female voice of the automatic announcement kicked in a second later.

“Attention all passengers. Remain calm. Please report immediately to the Nearest. Emergency. Area. and await further instructions. Do not attempt to use escape pods.”

I had started running for the closest exit of the lounge. Even though the other guests had started moving as well, I was still the first one out of the door which made me feel a little bit bad, but I knew similar beams as the one leaving the ship might be heading our way right now. I charged through the hallway past a number of people who were standing still and wondering what was going on.
“Go, Go, Go!” I yelled.
Most of them just looked at me startled. I quickly realized I would respond the same way if some crazy lunatic came running into the hallway; emergency message or not. So I added some context, “We’re under fire, get out of here!” This of course wasn’t true, or at least there was no way for me to know, but people started moving.

“Attention all passengers. Remain calm. Please report immediately to the Nearest. Emergency. Area. and await further instructions. Do not attempt to use escape pods.”

The big red arrows on the information displays guided us deeper into the ship. By now I had gathered quite the congregation, jogging behind me. The sight of this big group running was enough for most passengers we came across, to start running as well, so I now longer had to yell at people to get them to start moving.
When it came to ship to ship combat, the saying ‘shoot first and ask questions later’ was considered a fundamental rule. Space provides very little cover and the range at which sensors can see something is there, is by definition greater than the range to make adequate identification. In interstellar space, in star systems it’s an altogether different story, two ships entering in each other sensor range solely by chance is extremely unlikely. So whenever a ship pops up on sensors it’s assumed to be there with intent. Historically this assumption has only led to adverse consequences on two occasions, when you count only those contacts which unambiguously occurred in interstellar space.
I realized our current encountered wouldn’t be, by all probability, a chance encounter.


“Attention all passengers. Remain calm. Please report immediately to the Nearest. Emergency. Area. and await further instructions. Do not attempt to use escape pods.”

By now I had slowed down my initial sprint to an almost leisurely run in order to prevent some of the falling in the group following me. This had occurred at chokepoints and when some had started overtaking slower individuals. Clearly this wasn’t a military ship and I should take this into account.

At this point the Bastille was at about on third on its trip, so help could well be a long time away. In addition it raised the question how we were found in the first place. The detection of ships in interstellar space is incredibly difficult and requires rigorous preparation which usually includes the deployment of a vast sensor net, and even these nets have to be deployed at tactical locations, like near or around a star system or station. The Bastille was currently near neither, which made any encounter all the more strange.
I finally arrived at the gathering area and passed under the heavy bulkhead which made up the entrance of the large room. The crowd behind me poured in and mixed with the passengers already there.

“All hands, this is your captain speaking, the ship is currently under attack by an unknown force. We are currently returning fire. Report to the emergency areas. Please remain calm.”

So apparently we were under an actual attack. There was a laden calmed in the room, a few seemed exited, but many were visibly nervous.
“What’s going on?” A man, who had just walked up to me, asked.
“Don’t know we have to wait and see.”
At that point a number deafening bangs emanating from the front of the ship thundered through the structure. The entire ship trembled. The lights flickered briefly before the whole room slid into a panic.
I could feel the fear around me. While some were getting restless and started to shout, many of the passengers huddled together with the people they knew. Kids started to cry. A decent portion of the people seemed to stay calm do, but they kept to themselves or their families.
I was amazed there wasn’t any personnel here to take care of these people down. You’d imagine stationing some personnel in the gathering areas would be part of emergency procedure, in case someone needs medical attention or passengers get into a panic like now. In a few minutes some of the people here would start wandering the ship, trying to find someone to help them, tell them what’s going on, what they have to do etcetera. I started feeling pretty restless myself; a little urge to check out what was going on. I knew I wasn’t supposed to because it interfered with the essential ship operations. You just had to gear up, hold tight and wait for orders at your battle station. When I was in the navy my battle station, as a pilot, would be a briefing room, but I’ve never actually been in a ship battle, at least not one where I had to sit by and wait like we had to right now.
Briefly I thought about reporting to someone in command to offer my assistance, but it would make little sense. There were at least a couple of thousands passengers on the ship right now; the last thing they needed was everybody on the ship with military experience, or hell a pilot licence, to come knocking. When we are being boarded it might be appreciated, but not right now. A couple of minutes passed.

“All hands, this is your captain, we’ve currently broke contact with the attacker. We have been hit and we’re now assessing the damage. We will keep you posted. Please remain were you are for the time being. If there is anyone who is in need of medical attention, you can use the emergency intercom to report this. We will send a medical team as soon as possible.”

This was a relief. From the looks on everyone’s faces I could tell they felt the same. I hadn’t been scared, but I hadn’t been completely comfortable either. It wasn’t really my thing to just passively sit around. When you can contribute to the action yourself, the actual needs of the situation take up most of your attention, so there isn’t much time worry. Not to say I never feel any fear in those situations, in many cases it’s actually much more intense than the discomfort I had felt right now, but there’s a more hands on thing to it, it’s more relevant.
A woman came walking up to me.
“Hey you,” she said. I recognized her, she had been watching the departure with her husband. We’d had a drink together, but I hadn’t seen them since. “You’re a pilot right? Tallarian navy.”
“Not the Tallarian navy, but yes I am.”
“How is it possible for anyone to find us out here?” She asked.
“Good question.” It was, “I know there are these sensors being developed specifically for finding ships in interstellar space.” However as far as I knew this was all cutting edge, not something which would easily fall in the hands of pirates. Assuming we were attacked by pirates of course. I also had no idea what the capabilities of the devices were or where the development stood at the moment.
“Maybe someone from the ship signalled them,” the woman suggested.
“Could be, but such a transmission would be detected.”
“It could be an ultra low frequency tyran transmission, something which would fall away against the ships own noise.”
This sounded like a very particular theory.
“That’s a very particular theory, Ellen.” I just now remembered her name. “Care to elaborate.”
“This might sound crazy,” Ellen said skiddish, “but I’m a biologists, my field of expertise are Costacea. Ehm space squids.”
“I understand.” I was familiar with the term
“These animals communicate with high powered but an extremely low tyran emission,” Ellen continued, “Somehow I can always sense when they are around. Not directly, but somehow I just now. I don’t know how, but some of my colleagues say they have same thing.”
“Okay, and you think it’s because of this signal which they send.”
“Yes exactly, though we never tested it.” Ellen said, “But this morning I woke up with the idea there where Costacea, and I have had this all day.”
“It’s an interesting…theory.” I said while pondering how feasible it was.

“It is a theory of course,” she said apologizing, “maybe I’m just over thinking.”
“Well, it is certainly strange someone found us. Would such a signal travel far enough and fast enough to allow somebody to track a hip?”
As I asked it, I immediately realized she might not be able to answer such a question.
“If it’s strong enough; Costacea can communicate over several lightyears,” Ellen explained
“That’s would be enough. What equipment would you need?”
“Nothing which would come standard on a ship. Our group uses a number of specialized detectors. They are specifically made for the study of Costacea.”
This would explain why the ship wouldn’t be able to detect such a signal.
“You wouldn’t have one with you?” I asked. It would make things very easy.
“No, I’m on vacation and smallest one we use has a fifty meter antenna.”
“I see.”
I looked away while thinking about this. ‘This woman studies space squids and she feels like there are space squids around, so maybe there is a transmitter on board which the attackers might be using to track us.’ I didn’t expect any officer on the ship to start a full investigation upon hearing this.
“I understand this might sound crazy,” Ellen said in response to my silence, “it probably is. I only thought I should maybe tell it to someone, just to check.”
Then again, even if the theory was farfetched, Ellen didn’t seem like an unstable person who would make up some crackpot theory to explain what was happening. Somehow I knew I couldn’t just let this fly. There might not be anything in it, but if there was, it would be important and it wasn’t like I had anything better to do.
“How would you emit such a signal and how could we trace it?” I asked.
“I don’t know. We don’t have equipment to do so,” Ellen said. “We only can only measure it. Scientists are still investigating how Costacea can generate these tyrans without huge particle accelerators.”
“Would it be possible?”
“I don’t know. I’m not a physicist.”
“Maybe you can store them or something.” I suggested. I’m not a physicist either.
“I don’t know. I just study the animals”
This wasn’t going anywhere.
“Look, I just felt I should report it to someone. I don’t want to bother you with this.”
“It’s okay,” I felt a little insecure about all this myself.
Right now the ship would be engaged in a number of course corrections to prevent any pursuit.

“Can you sense it right now?” I asked.
“Yes I think so. I mean it’s not a very direct feeling,” Ellen said.
“Can you determine where it’s coming from?”
“No, it’s not like that. I’m sorry about this,” she said embarrassed.
“It’s alright.” I would like to make her feel less stupid about it but there was so very little to go on, but if there was no way to find it, it wouldn’t matter if it was true or not.

Pirates and others had sometimes used a planted beacon to allow them to trace and attack ships, but these days most ships like this were equipped to counter this. It’s hard to hide a signal from the ship your sending it from if it also has to be strong enough to be detected lightyears away, but by hiding it well and only transmit periodically you can sometimes delay the localization of the transmitter. It had proven decisively in the battle of Dalauw were a covert operation had planted several beacons on the Godetian fleet. In the history books it was often classified as a failed operation because the Godetians had quickly detected the signals, but this had been part of the plan. The transmitters had been programmed to transmit with a low interval with multiple transmitters in the planted ships. This insured the transmitters couldn’t be found in an appreciable time. In addition there was a wide variation in delay for the first transmission for different transmitters on different ships. So even though only a few ships had been planted there was no way to know how many other ships might also have transmitters and this forced the entire fleet to retreat, allowing the Hannith to secure the system.

“Ellen, can I ask you a couple of critical questions?” I asked.
“Sure,” Ellen said understanding.
“How specific is this feeling?”
“Well it’s just my own experience, I can’t really explain how it feels. It’s not really a feeling.”
“What I need to know is how specific it is,” I repeated. “Is it specific?”
“Yes, it is, but…”
I interrupted her, “and since when did you have this?”
“This morning,” Ellen said sure.
“And you had this all day?”
“Yes I have, it’s strange.”
“So there isn’t a doubt in your mind this is the same kind of feeling you have when you’re exposed to tyran emissions.”
“Well yes.”
“Excellent. I’m gonna make a call, just wait here.”
I made my way to the crowd, which, although still anxious, seemed to have calmed down a bit. There was small group of people standing around the intercom on the wall.
“You need to tell us what’s going on! We need to know what’s happening.” A male voice said irritated and slightly panicking.
“Excuse me,” I said I pushed myself through the group towards the intercom.
A voice through the intercom responded. “Sir, you have to stay calm, we will inform you as soon as we now more.” I knew that was a lie, they sure weren’t going to disseminate tactical information to who knows who.
“But I…” the man in front of the intercom said before I grabbed him by the arm.
“I need to speak to someone of the crew,” I explained as I gently manoeuvred him to the side.
“Hello this is Luietenant Clayton, Royal Navy, I need to report something.”
“Go ahead.”
“Thank you. A scientist, who is a passenger on this ship, had detected tyran emissions from the ship since this morning,” I said as serious and aloof as I possible could. “She stipulates whoever is attacking us is possibly using these signals to track us. Could you report this to one of your seniors, they would love to know.”

“Just a moment, could you wait right there.”
“Sure.”
A couple of minutes went by as I and the group around me waited in silence.
“Sir, are you still there?” the voice from the intercom suddenly asked energetic.
“Yes.”
“Is this scientist with you?”
“She’s in this gathering area.”
“Just a moment.”
There was a short exchange on the background, but I couldn’t make out what was being said.
“We’ll send some security over to pick you up.”
“Very well, we’ll wait right here,” I said immediately.
“Stay right were you are,” the voice implored.
“We will.”

“I reported it to the ship. A security team is going to pick us up in a moment,” I said to Ellen after making my way back to her.
“Oh,” Ellen said a little worried.
“Don’t worry. You’ll be fine.”
She looked over to her husband who was sitting with a child on his lap.
“Your child?” I asked.
“No, she lost her parents, we took her with us.” “I need to tell Gerald.” She nodded towards her husband.
“Sure.”
She walked over to her husband. He looked me over for a moment, while she was apparently explaining the situation to him.

Ellen was still talking with her husband when two members of security entered the room. I walked over myself.
“I’m Lieutenant Clayton, I called in a few minutes ago,” I explained.
“Yes, we’re here to escort you to the bridge,” the officer said.
I looked over to Ellen, who was already walking towards us.
“Hello, I’m Ellen.”
“I’m Jarell, and this is Rick,” The officer pointed at his partner. “You are the scientist?”
“Eh yes. I am.”
“Could you come with us?” The officer asked.
“Of course,” Ellen said.
“Do you want me to come along with you?” I asked.
“No, I’ll be alright,” Ellen said confident.
“Just walk this way,” the officer said.
As she followed the security officers, Ellen briefly turned her head back to me.
“Thanks for everything,” she said.
“No problem.”

I spend my time talking with Gerald. Figuring the parents must be worried sick, I also decided to call in the name of the child. An hour later there was a second attack and the ship was hit again, this time much more severe, but the Bastille managed to fight of this attack as well. Later on Ellen explained to me a half sedated baby Costacea was found in a depressurized tank in cargo. There had been no other choice but to kill the animal. The Bastille diverted to Aistin, the nearest port. It was quite the headline.

I managed to board a luxurious cruise ship for SC4 a few days later. A day after departure I was standing on the outside hull of said cruise ship, while it rapidly descended for the planet of Kaidos, a mostly oceanic planet with only a hundred of small archipelagos scattered about it. Our current height was several klicks, but a sunny featureless blue sky gave me an open view towards the surface. One of these archipelagos was visible on the left of our current steep descend trajectory. I assumed the pilot was purposefully steering the ship for the island, but he was clearly losing control. If I would jump of now, I estimated my emergency parachute wouldn’t take me all the way to the island, so I decided to wait. Flames were screaming out of the sides of the ship and it rocked and trembled as it coasted down to the surface. I say coasted, but I could barely keep myself afoot. The speed the air was rushing by made it weird to breath, my clothes flappered violently around my body and if it wasn’t for the gravity boots I was wearing and the artificial gravity leaking out of the roof of ship, I wouldn’t be standing here. When the island came up on the left of the ship, we had lost most of our altitude. The rocking of the ship became more severe and the hurl of the engines became deafening as they raged at full power to slow down the decent of the ship, which they did but not enough to prevent it from going down. From the sound the engines made I knew this was a last ditch effort. The stress of an intermittent propellant flow thumping against the projector surfaces would break them. Up until now the pilot had kept the engines running just below what the propellant flow reaching the engines would allow, but with the ocean surface closing fast, keeping the engines in one piece became less and less of a long term priority. The island passed beside the left of the ship. The ship was low enough to allow me to see the grassy hills which made up the island, with isolated trees scattered about it. It wasn’t more then a couple of miles in diameter. With the ship almost passing the island I was getting ready to jump, but the ship banked left; following the coast but remaining above water. Maybe we were going for a shallow water landing.

It seemed like the best bet in this situation but it wasn’t good enough; after rounding another quarter of the island, the engines gave out. All praise to the pilot though, I doubt I could have done a better job, but with still a several hundred meters of height, this wouldn’t end well. As the ship suddenly fell out of the sky I reached down to deactivate my boots with one hand. With the other I pulled open the chute.
And enormous jolt pulled me away from the ship. The first seconds I passively looked down as the ship thundered down towards the ocean. The ship wasn’t enormous, but still the sight of the object hitting the ocean was indescribable.
I shifted my attention to my own situation. Looking down over the harness I couldn’t find those handles you see parachutists use to steer the thing left and right. It seemed like I would be landing in water. I wondered how dangerous it would be doing so. Whether the ropes would tangle you and the chute pull you under. Since my descent rate was pretty low I had the opportunity to calm down a bit a go over the harness to see which straps needed to be opened to don the harness. It looked straightforward and a parachute wouldn’t sink immediately or anything. I noticed I had some considerable forward speed as I closed with the water. As my legs hit the water and went under they immediately braked me slamming the rest of my body forward into the ocean. I spat out some water as I raised my head above the surface and noticed the chute and the cables which had worried me the most, had landed clear in front of me. My clothes, the harness, the chute bag, not to mention the boots were heavy though and I had to use my arms to keep my afloat. After splashing around for a minute in the lukewarm water I took a deep breath and used my hands to open the three straps of the harness while the boots pulled me under. I managed to undo one strap but it was hard to do under water and they were all tight so there wasn’t much leeway in belts. I stopped messing with the second strap and started swimming up because my breath was running out. In six strokes or so I reached the surface but in doing so my right arm had got tangled with some of the cables. I took another deep breath and started to undo the second strap. The second strap was a lot harder then the first, because I had made a two knots on this one, instead of properly feeding the belt through the mechanism. At the time, I had been in a hurry putting the thing on, being able to get it off hadn’t seemed a primary concern. When I finally got the first knot on the second strap loose, I didn’t have the breath to start on the second. As I was about to swim up I noticed a large dark object in the distance in front of me about twice the depth as I. I slightly panicked when I realised It was my own parachute, sinking fast. After swimming up to the surface again and gasping for air, I already felt some tug on the cables. Knowing I wouldn’t have endless tries to get this harness off, I took some quick breaths and continued with the second strap. Maybe it was the water making the belts swell, maybe it was the sight of the parachute sinking below me, but the last knot on this strap just wouldn’t budge. The pressure on my ears started getting really painful as sank deeper and deeper. Finally, with my lungs ready to burst, I wiggled the knot enough to get my finger under a noose, allowing me to pull it open. I already started to paddle with my legs as I pulled the second strap open. As I spread out my arms in my first stroke to the surface far above me, I realized I needed to stay calm just in case the sinking parachute wouldn’t allow me reach the surface to take another breath. A few meters short of the surface this did indeed happen. I expanded some more oxygen as I thrashed around in a panic, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get closer. For a few seconds I believed I was going to die, but I also knew I would make this faith a cetainty if I didn’t regain my calm. I stopped trying to claw up to the surface and instead focused on the last strap running across my chest. The pain in my chest swelled while I was finicking with the mechanism, but at some point when it seemed it couldn’t get any worse the pain suddenly lessened. I sank many more meters before finally undoing the strap and being able to break free from the harness. Swimming slowly up to the surface, the excruciating pain in my lungs was all but gone.

The swim to the island was a long one. I was moving through the surf when I spotted another spaceship descending from the sky. Although I hadn’t seen it I assumed this was the ship which had shot us down. Whoever was on it would sure want check out its catch so I immediately started heading inland after hitting the beach. From the sky the island had looked abandoned and from here it was no different. While I ran through the knee high grass, behind me the ship made a low pass over the beach before circling around the location our ship had hit the water. Looking behind I could see it was a Raven-class scout ship, although I doubted the Joseon navy was piloting it. It’s a popular export model especially for those operating in the west. After making an additional turn over the sea it slowly flew towards the shore. Since there was no better cover nearby, I lay low in the grass. After reaching the shore the ship hovered in the sky. I’m sure a Raven-class scout ship had the equipment to make an automatic scan for man sized heat signatures. I wasn’t sure how much a little grass and wet clothes would mess this up. After a minute the Raven slowly descended near the beach close to were the ship had crashed.
When it disappeared from view behind some small hills I got up again. In case they had spotted me I had to make some ground fast. Instead of the more intuitive and predictable movement directly in the opposite direction I started running for the centre of the island. The terrain also seemed to be hillier further down the island, which would make it easier to hide, but as I made my way inland I spotted a silhouette appearing over one of the hills between me and the ship.
I duck to the ground. They must have spotted me from the air. It clearly was a man, two others appeared to the left and to the right of it and they were heading in my direction. I started crawling through the grass to a pair of lonely trees nearer to the beach. My heart was pounding. I cut my hands open on some thorns emanating from a thin vine which ran along the ground. The small wounds started bleeding but there was no time for it now. At the moment I could only see two of the men. As they came down the hill they would soon be out of sight for at least a brief moment. I waited for the last on to disappear before bringing my self up to a kneel. While keeping low I quickly moved to the trees.

As I kneeled down behind one of the trees and peered around it, I already could see the man nearest to the beach, heading roughly in my direction. He was carrying something, I assumed it to be a rifle. The other two were out of my sight for now. I breathed slow and consciously, trying to clear my mind.
I knew my chances of bringing this to a good end were slim. If they captured me, or, I allowed myself to be captured, it would mean either dead or slavery. So no matter how small my chances may be, there was only one way to go here.
The trees over here gave me cover, but they stood out in the terrain and would do me little good once they got close. More towards the beach there were some hills. Well, they weren’t hills exactly; more like small grassy heaps of sand. The third man was heading for them right now. I couldn’t see the other two at the moment, but if they stayed out of sight and I stayed low, I guessed I could get to those dunes before him, without him seeing me. I looked to the side to check for the others. There was of course no way to know were they were and they could pop up whenever.

I decided to first head towards the beach; the terrain got lower towards the ocean and it would be easier to approach those dunes without the one guy seeing me. Squatting down as low a possible I slowly started moving in the direction of the beach. I kept my eyes towards were I expected the other two would be, to drop down the moment I spotted them, but they didn’t appear. Maybe they were further inland going for the surround, I thought. Once I felt I was far enough I started heading for the dunes and picked up the pace. I didn’t know what to do when I got there; I didn’t have any weapons. I only knew it would increase my options compared to hiding behind a tree in an open field, the rest didn’t matter for now. Maybe I would get the drop on this guy.

Me laying low, letting him pass and then ambushing him from behind sounded like a good plan in theory. In practice it would probably get me killed. I’m sure he might be pretty startled for a moment when he suddenly senses me sneaking or charging him from behind, but that would be it. Anybody with his guard up and rifle would be expected to be able to do in one man. I wasn’t some stealthy commando. Even if he didn’t have a rifle I would still have to kill a person who would be trying to kill me just as hard and the guy was bound to be a rough individual.
I manoeuvred my way through the small dunes not really knowing what I was looking for until right then and there in a clearing in the dunes I found a tent. Or actually more like one rag suspended by some sticks over a hole. Without hesitation I slid in, feet first. About waist deep and two by one at the most, it was small. I first mistook what stood in the corner of the hole for a stick of white wood, but after I grabbed it, I immediately felt it was considerable harder and heavier. I was weighing the thing in my hand and imagining smashing someone’s head in with it, when I noticed piece of cloth lying on the floor. At first it looked like it had just been thrown into the corner haphazardly but I felt there was something else rolled up inside of it as I picked it up. I quickly lifted up the cloth and an axe rolled out on the floor in front of me. It was a small double sided type. I stepped out of the hole with the axe clenched in my hand. All things considered, things were going pretty sweet.
I carefully crawled up to the top of a dune to see if I could get a glimpse of my opponent. A minute went by until someone appeared above a dune maybe thirty meters away. I immediately duck my head down. I hadn’t seen much but it was enough. The individual was armed, as I had expected, but I was reasonably confident I wasn’t seen.
I slowly raised my head again, assuming the individual would walk down the other side of the dune and then manoeuvre between the dunes, like I was doing. The moment I was able to peer over the dune I was instead looking straight at the person who was instead walking along the top of the dune. They were of course trying to find someone while I was trying not to be seen, the latter being less of a consideration for them. I lowered my head again as fast as possible, but I knew I was made. It didn’t matter, I told myself as I charged down the my dune, this would’ve happened sooner or later. I ran along the bottom of the dunes, zigzagging in between them around the right flank of my opponent. It was a gamble, I knew, something I would rather not depend on, but the other two would likely converge on my position, so I needed to get this over as fast as possible before they were here. While sprinting from one dune to another, I was spotted again. For a moment, I could make eye contact. They would now know I wasn’t armed. I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins. I was truly scared and knew I had every reason to be. Coming around the next dune I decided to veer more right to get myself behind my opponent, who could surely anticipate this if not directly see me doing this; by now I was to exasperated to really pay attention. The air was hot, maybe a little low on oxygen. I was breathing heavily from what had been a short sprint up till now. As I charged through a long ditch between dunes, my mind more on planning my next move than anything else, there was a sudden yell from the side of the ditch. “Where do you think your going!? Hold it right there!”

I froze in place immediately.
“I got him,” the woman spoke into a radio on his wrist.
She slowly stepped down through the soft sand until she was standing about two meters to my right.
“What the hell were you doing? You were going to kill me with your little axe?” She asked mocking. “Drop it!”
I dropped it while slightly looking the other way.
“Now turn around.”
“The other way,” she immediately said after I started turning away from her.
I slowly started turning towards her.
“Trying to be a hero,” she said arrogant. “Not so tough now, right. What’s your name?”
I stayed silent instead. My hands were shaking, I was breathing heavy and fast and had a crazed look in my eyes, looking at her, but staring in the distance.
“Everything okay. He’s pretty scared,” She said into the radio. For a moment she seemed to be listening to a response. “I’ll ask.” She said shortly after.
“Is there anyone else alive?” She asked me.
“What?” I said confused, like I imagined someone in utter shock might respond.
She stepped closer and put her gun at my throat.
“I said…” she said just before my left hand flew up towards the rifle.
I pushed it to the right and stepped inward towards her. At the same time I released the sleeve of my right arm from my hand allowing the white stick, or piece of bone, whatever it was, to slide out. I caught the end of the stick just as it dropped clear from my sleeve. She still had both hands on the rifle. She tried vehemently to twist the rifle away from me, but since I only needed to hold the weapon down, I could just lean down on it with one arm, as long as I stayed close. With my other arm I raised the stick behind my head and swung it at her full force. In and amazing reflex, she dropped low while blocking the stick with her arm, which, a mere moment ago, had still been holding on to the rifle. I brought the stick back up and smashed down again with all my strength.
After the stick came down upon her arm the fourth time, I could see the strength of this arm block was already dwindling as she allowed her arm to loosely move in as it absorbed the hit once more. By the sixth hit, she was just leaning forward with her head while simply holding the arm over the back of it to absorb the blow. I threw her of balance by jerking the rifle towards me with my left arm and struck down the bottom end of the stick, which extended slightly beneath my hand, on the back of her head. She fell to the ground on her side still holding onto the grip of the rifle. After dropping the stick and stepping down on her arm, I grabbed the rifle with both hands and forcefully pulled it free. Things were looking better now.
I aimed down and discharged the rifle. I knew it would be better not to alarm the other two, but I didn’t feel like getting into another struggle in an attempt to kill her silently. I was just about to move out when I glanced over the radio on her wrist. Less than a minute ago she had had a brief conversation, although I hadn’t heard the other side. Kneeling down beside her, I turned her now lifeless head to the other side and noticed the small earpiece in her ear.

“Kel, what’s going on? Jesus,” I heard a male voice bark through the earpice, shortly after putting it in. I immediately strapped off, what I assumed to be the radio itself, from her wrist and put it in my pocket and started backtracking.
“Zeke, where are you now?” The same voice said while I manoeuvred between the dunes in search for a place from which I could safely observe the area inland.
“About two hundred to your left, I moving to Kel’s position now,” another man said, who was probably running, based on the sound of his breathing. “Kel come in. Got any visuals?” Zeke uttered slightly panicked.
“Wait up.”
“Cover me, I’m moving in,” Zeke said. By the sound of it he was still running.
“I don’t know where you are yet. Hold position. Kel, what’s your status.”
“Goddamnit.” The man said after Kel didn’t respond. “Franklin, are you getting this?” the man asked calm but tense before shouting into the radio, “Franklin! Come in!”
“What’s up Tubs.” Franklin said relaxed.
“We. Have. A situation. Tell Heisha and Ghost to suit up and get over here,” Tubs ordered
“Should I come as well?” Franklin asked.
“No. As soon as they’re out, take off with the ship,” Tubs explained, “We need some eyes in the sky.”
“Got it, Tubs,” Franklin said.
Once Franklin would get some eyes in the sky things would be going downhill for me. I was already sorry for not making the effort to choke Kel instead of shooting her and alarming everybody, like I had done a mere moment ago.
“Zeke, I see you,” Tubs said.
Looking through the scope of the rifle, while lying on the side of a dune, with my upper body concealed in the grass on top of it, I could see Zeke as well. He was nearing the dunes. I thought about letting Zeke slip for now to scan for Tubs first, as he seemed to be calling the shots, but it seemed better to take out Zeke while I had the chance and take things from there. Zeke was about two hundred meters out from my position. While I peered through my scope, I thought back at the first time I had shot somebody. It had been during the invasion of Lyria in the days I was still serving with the Royal Navy. We had come under fire while approaching a town and were pinned down between some reeds. A couple of youngsters from the local militia had come charging out of the town. I remembered Max had ordered us to hold out fire until they were real close. It had been my first time in combat. By now I had was much more experienced and had had a lot more training. I could comfortably shoot somebody at two hundred meters. I waited for Zeke to come closer though, since I wasn’t familiar with this rifle. I fiddled with buttons of the scope until the zoom was three-point-two, about the way I liked it and took aim. Zeke had disappeared out of sight for a few seconds as he reached one of the most inland dunes. A second later he reached the top of the dune and stood tall, silhouetting himself blatantly, as he scanned the dunes in front of him. From his behaviour I could tell he was inexperienced; I changed my mind about taking him out first. It was Tubs, who was scanning these dunes, I needed to be worried about. If I killed Zeke I would give away my location to him.

I slowly inched to the side to get a better view inland.
“Zeke, report,” Tubs said.
“I got nothing. Last place I saw her was somewhere over here.” In the corner of my eye I could see Zeke move down in between the dunes.
“Zeke, hold up!” Tubs ordered firm. “I can’t follow you in there. Wait for the others.”
“I got this,” Zeke said both worried and annoyed.
“No you don’t.” Tubs said, “Focus Zeke. If she was still alive she would have called in already. No need to rush things now.”
This Tubs needed to go.
I was already carefully scanning the area, where I believed Tubs to be. On the side of an inland hill I spotted something. I tried to zoom in close, but the maximum zoom was only so much, but I could kind of make out someone lying there. If it indeed was a person then this person appeared to be in a prone position and I could make out something that could be a rifle. I estimated the range about three fifty maybe four. After steadying my aim, I held my breath and calmly depressed the trigger. Through the scope I could see the trace of a burst of red hot grains through the air. I took a moment to adjust my aim, before placing a number of quick consecutive shots upon the same target. There was movement and the target disappeared further beneath the grass.
“Under fire! I’m hit!” Tubs yelled in agony, motivating me to fire some more shots in the same spot. For a moment some unaimed automatic fire sprayed in my general direction from his position.
“Do you know were it’s coming from,” Zeke asked panicked.
Tubs didn’t reply. I shifted my focus back to the dunes just in time to see Zeke storming through them. He was moving in my direction, but apparently he hadn’t established my exact position yet. It was an easy shot and Zeke’s body plummeted down to the ground mid sprint.
“Tubs what’s going on?” A new female voice asked ready. This must be Heisha.
“I got..,” there was some rattled breathing before Tubs continued, “…hit.”

“Where are you?” Heisha asked.
“I can see the ship,” Tubs said clearly not doing very well. “On its ten o’clock, few hundred meter.”
“I see you Tubs! Hold tight!” I recognized this voice immediately. It was Ghost.
“He’s near the beach,” Tubs said in pain.
“Fuck this shit. Heisha get to Tubs,” Ghost said angry as always. “I’ll deal with this.”
“No,” Tubs said, “He’s got…” He was breathing heavily.
“Tubs hold on,” Heisha said.
“He’s got a bead on my location.” It seemed to take all his strength just to talk, “Take him out first. Have Franklin…”
“Tubs!” Heisha shouted as Tubs fell silent.
I knew I had to hurry. I had already left the dunes and was now traversing more even terrain on my way to where their ship had landed.

“He’s going…” Tubs exclaimed before he seemed to completely choke on some fluids. It was a horrific sound.

“Stay the fuck here!” Ghosts yelled over the radio. “You’re gonna get yourself killed.”
Apparently there were some focusing issues on the other team. I started sprinting for the hills between me and the ship. The slope up the hill was shallow. The hill itself maybe five meters in height. I slowed down as I almost reached the top. I could hear the engines of the ship powering up on the other side.
“Hurry the fuck up, Franklin! People are dying!” Ghost raged.
Somewhere on the other side of these hills Ghost and Heisha would be waiting, although Heisha might be on her way to Tubs instead. I decided to circle around the side of the hill instead of moving directly over the top. Knowing Ghost, he would shoot me the moment I silhouetted any part of myself anywhere over the top of these hill.
As I moved further round the hill, there was a sudden roar of engines and the Raven leaped into the sky. I knew there was no way I was going to make this now. Even if I would manage to kill of these two, there would be a vengeful Franklin, flying around in a heavily armed ship. Maybe if I would have been a little less careful, I might have reached the ship in time. For a moment a slight feeling of disappointment came over me, but as I realized how far I gotten despite, well basically, everything, I knew I should go easy on myself. There was nothing else to it.
“Report, Franklin!” Ghost ordered impatient.
“In a moment.”
With a new ease, mixed with a slight defeatism but an ease nonetheless, I continued my way around the hill. The ship had moved a little inland and was now hovering above a hundred meters in the air. I hurried along the back of the hill were I assumed Ghost to be somewhere.
“I got two signatures,” Franklin started, “one lying east side of a hill, north west of your position.”
“Copy. Where’s north?!” Ghost asked.
“Do you see the sun?”
“Yes.”
“North is two o-clock from it,” Franklin explained.
“Copy. That’s Tubs.”
“He’s slowly moving towards Tubs,” Franklin said.
This was my moment.
“Thanks for the heads up Franklin,” I said cheerful into the radio, “I can already hear him coughing. You can watch me kill him in a moment.”
“Who the fuck is this?!” Ghost demanded.
“It’s me, Ghost. Kevin,” I said. “Don’t you remember me? Oh, I just killed all your new friends. Sorry.”
“You’re going to fucking die, asshole!” Ghost said.
A thunderous low roar filled the sky as Franklin opened fire from the ship, in all probability blowing up Heisha.

“Blue on Blue!!!” Ghost screamed from the top of his lungs.
It was hard to make out, but under his screaming through the radio, I could hear him directly. The sound seemed to come from further inland. I started a sprint.
“Franklin, hold your fucking fire,” Ghost said. “You’re shooting Heisha, you fucking idiot.”

“What?” Franklin asked in disbelief.
“Fuck!” Ghost exclaimed in frustration.
Then, right in front of me, a man came marching down a hill. I stopped, he looked over to me. Within a split second I fired. With a body riddled with bullets, he came tumbling down the hill. Ghost had saved my live at least once, back on Dania, but I wouldn’t trust him for the world. As his body came to a stop, I made a hard sprint towards it and slid myself underneath the best I could.



“Ghost?” Franklin asked scared. “Ghost, what’s going on?”

“Ghost come in.”

“Heisha, are you there?”

“Oh dear god!” Franklin cried out, weeping.

“Anyone?! Please.”

The ship circled the island and made a number of low passes, but flew off eventually.
I spent another three hours underneath the body, just in case the ship would still be scanning from orbit.

A Tallarian destroyer arrived a day and a half later and I was briefly detained. In the following days they managed to rescue a small number of survivors from the wreckage. I spend another two weeks aboard the ship before we finally made port and I could resume my journey to SC4, instead I decided to enlist.