In Silent Dreams

PROLOGUE - End Of The Line

"How are we looking?"

"Really bad, sir. The storm hit us hard, our main power has been shorted, and we lost our rear thrusters."

"Hit auxiliary power. Turn off all systems that are not vital to our survival."

"Already did. Auxiliary power will kick in... Ten seconds."

Ghaffer tilted his head to the windows, the electrical storm was getting worse. 

"Sir, all systems have been affected. We need to-"

"DAMN IT! OUR SHIELDS ARE GONE!"

"How? The shield subsystems are in a separate component!"

"Power surge! All systems will disable in twenty secs-"

"Aria, please save us."

CAUTION. Shields are offline. Hull integrity compromised. Atmospheric re-entry is not advised. CAUTION.

"Hit the emergency shuttle ejection."

"Are you sure about this?"

"Hit it."

"Sir, there are twenty-"

"If you are not going to do it, I will."

"Yes, sir."

Ghaffer inhaled hard, and clutched his Cerylium necklace in his left hand. He flipped the switch on the ship's automated ejection system. The ship's alarm blared. The main chassis rumbled, preparing to dislodge itself from the cockpit and exoskeleton. If the cargo shuttle had somehow miraculously survived re-entry into the planet's atmosphere without burning up into fragments, the hull could land on the supposed ocean, spreading the impact over the liquid.

The Clipper was a mere mercantile vessel, a small ship constructed with a budget so low that making a few runs carrying unimportant cargo through the Daeius System would cover the costs of purchasing an entirely new replacement. The ship itself was just enough, and sported a fifty unit cargo hold, a max speed of a hundred and seventy meters per second and even four beds. To top it off, such a small vessel with low EM signatures would be hard to pick up on long range scanners by pirates.

The Clipper, however, was not just carrying cargo. Originally plotting towards Terra Novali, the Clipper held twenty refugees. Transporting refugees illegally was a risky operation, though one that was often done by Jodus and his assistant Ghaffer. The pair was experienced with the route itself. The Dark Straits was a stretch of asteroid belts that existed once as a trading route, due to its strategic location between multiple capital stars.

The incursion of anomalies and pirates saw a decline in the use of the passage itself. However, Jodus knew of several jump anchors which he often used to get through unscathed. The Clipper's final voyage ended somewhere else instead, on an unknown planet outside the Straits.

There were no warning, no ships in sight, nothing but cold black space. The Clipper suffered internal combustion within its rear and wing engines, coupled with an electromagnetic blast on the impact shield generators.

"No! Damn it! The  shuttle is stuck in dislodge!"

Jodus was silent. He had accepted it.

The Clipper ripped through the atmosphere, then flared up and disintegrated at mach five velocity, before finally fading off into debris on the liquid surface.