Moonhawk

Chapter 1 - Past Tears (Prologue)

"Quick, we have to save the rest of the crew members before it's too late!"

Their spaceship was heavily attacked. The red lights from the alarm flashed in a tactical rhythm. Everyone was in a panic. The captain of the spaceship tried to save his crew to the best of his abilities. The enemies, however, were just too strong and attacked them with all the weapons they had. They were determined to take them out once and for all.

"Captain Kyle! We won't be able to make it! The enemies are too strong!"

"Captain, the shields can't take this for much longer!" Another one notified.

Captain Kyle was overwhelmed with the situation. He felt how his panic secretly increased, and he broke out in a cold sweat. He couldn't think straight at all. It all happened way too fast for him to comprehend.

All he wanted to do now was to protect his crew and, most importantly, to protect his beloved son. His son stood beside him and looked up to the white captain, his visor full of tears.

"D-Dad?" The tiny black one was confused and very frightened at the same time. Time was running out.

"Captain, we need orders now!" a crew member exclaimed. They couldn't fight without their captain's help.

Kyle couldn't keep his fear hidden anymore. He knew that his crew was already doomed. It was hopeless. The ship already started to break apart. Its shields were breaking down with each passing moment.

As he spoke to one of his subordinates, the captain tried his best to keep his voice as calm as possible. "Evacuate everyone on this spaceship! Commander Finn, take Pitch with you. He needs to be protected at all costs. Understood?" Kyle asked sternly and looked at Finn.

"Aye, Captain!" Commander Finn understood his order, picked up Pitch, and ran as fast as he could to the escape pods. The rest of the crew followed them.

The white captain stood on the bridge, focused solely on the navigation system, while the rest of the crew tried to escape the spaceship. The attacks became more intense, and he also tried to ambush the other ship with the lasers they had. It didn't appear that the enemies' shields would break down any time soon.

"How do they do this? How... is that possible?" Kyle asked himself, overthinking how they could manage to keep their shields up that well.

The ship shook violently during the attacks. Captain Kyle couldn't keep his balance from the magnitude, and he fell to the ground. As he fell, a sharp metallic object from a wall, which broke down to the ground earlier, stabbed him near his chest like a knife. Luckily, it didn't directly jab his heart, but it was unbearably painful. He screamed and touched the object embedded in his body tearfully. It took him a while to realize what just happened to him. He tried his best to get up again and pull the sharp object out of his body. The current pain was unbearable for him. He was bleeding severely. He even felt how the blood was running on his white hand. His view began to blur slightly. He felt dizzy and gasped for air, wishing that this never happened...

The intercom of the spaceship suddenly announced a warning after the accident occurred, and Kyle became even more concerned.

< Warning! Warning! The shields are about to break down in 3 minutes. >

Meanwhile, the crew was still struggling to get to the escape pods because someone sabotaged the hallway doors. Commander Finn asked another crew member to help him to make the urgent repairs in time.

"Hurry! We can't lose any more time!" Finn yelled in total panic and held Pitch tighter in his arms.

"I'm trying, Commander. I'm trying my best! Someone did a really good job at sabotaging these doors, I... - oh! There we go, I fixed it!" The member fixed the door, and it opened.

Another laser crashed into the ship. Everyone who was still alive around Finn fell to the ground. Finn tried not to let Pitch fall from his arms. The commander noticed how much the young child fussed and how he buried his face in his clothes, desperately searching for comfort.

Once again, the intercom gave another warning:

< Warning! Warning! The shields are about to break down in 1 minute. >

Captain Kyle heard the second warning and thought deeply in silence, "I just hope they will keep my son safe..."

As he continued to think, tears started to run down from his visor. "I don't care if I die here. Just protect him, please..."

"Please keep my son safe!"

He couldn't hold his voice back and shouted the thought out loud in the hope that someone would hear his last wish. Again, even more tears on his visor showed up after he said that. With all his might, he gave his best to walk to the escape pods. He wanted to make sure that at least Pitch could make it out alive. The deep wound Kyle had made it difficult for him to run or even walk, but it was doable.

Finn looked around frantically as the roof and walls started to collapse around them. He noticed Kyle in the distance caught in the mess, trying his best to get to them.

"Wait... Captain?!" The commander was appalled when he saw Kyle like that in the distance. He noticed the deep wound on the captain's chest, which he was covering with his hand.

After Kyle was within earshot, he leaned himself on the wall with his free hand and yelled out painfully to his commander, "Finn, protect my son!"

The ship was hit again, and Kyle fell to the ground. He couldn't stand up at all. The wound was too painful to ignore. In the background, their shields completely broke. Just one more attack and the spaceship would explode.

Commander Finn looked to the captain and saw him lying in the corner. Finn was in shock to see him like that. Unfortunately, he couldn't help him. He had to protect his son, Pitch. Pitch started to cry even more; he didn't really understand what was happening right now. He just noticed how his dad was lying there in pain.

"C'mon now, Pitch. Let's get you out of here..." Finn tried to say as calmly as possible to Kyle's son.

As Finn stood up again, he continued down the hallway to evacuate the ship. But suddenly, the commander felt a hand pulling on his clothes. He couldn't believe who he saw as he looked down. It was Kyle. He managed to crawl to the commander with the last bit of determination he had. Totally exhausted, in silence gasping for more air, the captain tearfully investigated his son's anxious visor. Kyle took one of his hands and laid it gently, but shakily on his son's cheek to reassure him.

"W-wait... P-Pitch..." The captain started to speak; his voice was cracking a lot, "One last thing... Please promise me... Once you are a captain, take good care of your own crew, a-alright?" Finn noticed from his exhausted voice just how much pain Kyle was currently in. He also realized, in his thoughts, how the ship's fate was inevitable.

"Dad?" Pitch cried more after his beloved dad made his final request to him. He was totally confused. The kid was also overwhelmed by the situation. For the last time, Pitch felt his dad's gentle hand on his face. He also felt how much he trembled and how sweaty his hand was. It hurt the captain a lot to move his head up and touch Pitch's forehead. He spoke again.

"P-Pitch, I- I always want you to r- remember that I... love you..." Kyle let go of Finn's clothes after he said those words. The commander was now able to get to the exit. With his last determination, Captain Kyle watched them in the background.

The commander put Pitch in one of the capsules as he arrived and took another one for himself, closed the doors, and activated them as fast as possible. The capsules uncoupled from the ship after Finn typed something in their systems. The enemy ship prepared their very last shot.

As it crashed into Kyle's ship, it exploded.

Now floating in space with the capsules alone, Pitch observed how the ship was blown to smithereens.

He couldn't believe what had just happened and was traumatized. He wondered where his dad was.

"Daddy?" The black colored bean hoped for an answer to hear his calming voice again. But there was no response. Pitch took a while to realize that after his dad didn't answer him at all, that he'll never see him again...