First Assignment
13 Jul 2020Kerstone
Born and raised on Mars, in a French settlement that my parents reached after fleeing the war between the Old England and Scotland in 3240. After graduation of the Pilot's Federation, I was sent to defend a random outpost out on the fringes of the human bubble.First day I met my superior, Philip Moore, a junior lieutenant, that did not know much more than me on how to defend an outpost. Over the first month, we bonded, spent much of our time patrolling the system in our old Cobra MKIII issued by the Federation.
Like we imagined, nothing interesting was happening in this lost system, so we started to let go, and spent more time in the pub drinking beer and whisky all day long.
That’s when it happened, 10am, we were already wasted by alcohol. The radio officer bursted in, shouting that an attack was underway on asteroid miners next to the second planet.
We went for our Cobra and left the outpost resolutely determined to show these pirates who called the shots in this system. We dropped in and found three pirates, picking up the fruits of their labour. The miners were no more, and it was our fault.
We started the hostility and opened fire on them immediately. The thing is, we were so wasted we didn’t even pay attention to the fact that they were all three engineered ships, we didn’t stand a chance.
We fought a few minutes that seemed to last an hour. My ship suffered major damage to the engine, generator and life support. I was dead in the water, couldn’t move, couldn’t fight back, and my oxygen was leaking in space. Philip wasn’t in a great shape too, his hull was perforated in multiple spots, his weapons were disabled.
I was hoping that he could bargain for our life with the pirates, but instead of that I saw him run away leaving me alone, with no hope of survival. As I watched him fly away, he engaged his Frame Shift Drive and went to super cruise.
My end was near, I turned my attention to the pirates who were now directly in front of me ready to shoot. I could see them, in their cockpit, chatting over the radio and laugh, probably about me and the fact that my friend left me to die. My radio started to crackle, the lead pirate was contacting me, he asked me if I was ready to die and if I wanted him to blow me up or if I wanted to wait for the oxygen to run out. I chose to not answer and heard them laugh hard. They left me after a minute and went on their merry way still laughing over the radio.
I was alone, the oxygen still leaking. A couple of minutes left to live. Nineteen years old and my life was forfeit. I had no choice left, I went to the cargo area, and climbed in an emergency pod hoping for someone to come and get me. I ejected the pod and started the sleep inducer. I faded away in a matter of seconds and started to dream of better days and revenge on the coward who left me for dead.