The Haunting Past: Deadly Sins

Awakening

"Coms, tell third squadron to move to our right flank," the man in the captain's chair said.

"Yes, commander. Relaying message to third squadron."

The battle had been all too easy, even for a raggedy group of pirates and merc's, he didn't felt comfortable with an easy victory. He had learned that every encounter had its cost.

"Tech ops, I need a bearing on those ships coming from the planet's surface. Their behavior hasn't made much sense. Their attack patterns are almost suicidal," the commander ordered.

"Jack, what do you think? Something just doesn't feel right, does it?" the commander said.

"I agree. We have the upper hand: the numbers and the strategic advantage. They should to retreat or regroup. Instead..."

"Instead they come right at us as if they were kamikaze pilots." The commander took his usual thinking position in his chair, leaning on his right elbow supporting his face with his hand.

"There is no reason to act this way. They aren't fundamentalist or bend to some sort of an ideological crusade. It's just an unfortunate colony trapped in the middle of hell," the man in the uniform interrupted.

"Sir, I am picking up a strange reading on the comm bands. There is a high and unusual amount of data being communicated... actually a very large amount of data," the comm's officer stated.

"Please be more specific lieutenant."

"Based on the interrupted message, the data amounts in tens of times you would normally witness... per ship"

"Between each ship?"

"No, sir, that is what is strange. All data is being sent to one alone ship, deeper into the enemy lines."

The commander got up from his chair, walked towards the comm's station and leaned into the holographic display.

"Can you break through the encryption? Find out why the ships are communicating with this much data," the commander wondered.

"Man to man communication is simple, machine to machine, that's another story," Jack his first officer said.

"True, normal communication is rather tightly packed by algorithms. Usually you only see larger amount of data being communicate between drones or remotely operated machines and ships," the comm's officer said.

"But ships of these size are man operated. Unless someone deliberately outfitted them to be operated remotely, but for what reason?" wondered the commander.

"Sir, I have a ship from the surface breaking enemy lines on an approach pattern towards us, it's hailing," the comm's officer said.

"Acknowledged, put it through the main," the commander said.

"Alliance fleet, stop shooting at the ships coming from the planet. I repeat, stop shooting. These ships are filled with civilians: men, women and children. Stop shooting at once! We mean no harm..."

His chest tightened and his breathing became heavy, he thought; No, it can't be...

#

As the man was slowly gained consciousness he felt as if his body had been ripped from another reality back into this one. He felt cold as if he had been just thrown into a cold dark cave. He was shivering and could not move. His vision was blurry and unclear. The man could hear a distant voice, a woman voice. He tried to focus on it, to understand it but to no avail. He could not understand what he heard, except for one word, "awake".

As the man gained more awareness he became forcefully aware of the place he was in. His surroundings were mostly devoid of light; the only real visible light to him were flashes of red and yellow colors. There was also a high pitched sound going on and off, like a siren or an alarm. The lights and the sounds triggered in the man a fearful reaction, a panic attack. This drove the man into a primitive defensive reaction and he tried violently to move, to do something to make him feel safe. But the man could not go anywhere he was trapped, his legs and arms where tied. His heart started to beat more rapidly, his breathing intensified and started to feel dizzy.