Leila's Journal: A Record of Leila Konani's Adventures In Space

Entry 2: July 30th, 2439

Dear Estelle,

Hi again. So, you're probably wondering what's happened in the past week. What's that you say? You aren't? Well, too bad! You're gonna find out anyway.

Anyway, so the week went pretty normally up until yesterday. Why? Because yesterday was my first real fight! The Jinus launched a scout patrol to try and penetrate the Duguay Line, and my patrol was the closest to them, so we were sent to head them off.

We followed normal protocol, broadcasting a message to them in the Universal Language, telling them to please leave in peace, we wished them no harm, blah, blah, blah, I am a pre-recorded message that spouts bullshit about peace and unity, you get the gist.

The Jinus scout patrol completely disregarded our message, which meant we were free to open fire on them! As they attempted to cross the border, Finamin maneuvered our ship around to face off against the Jinus. After a few minutes of ship sparring, Captain Fotsteader gave the order for Iman, Rossvasi, and I to take a pod and confront them on their ship. I was so excited Captain Fotsteader put his hand on my shoulder and told me to, "Calm the fuck down, kid. They ain't going anywhere, ya little shit."

Captain Fotsteader likes calling me a "little shit."

He's interesting. Back to the story! Iman, Rossvasi, and I loaded into the pod and launched. Finamin provided cover fire for us as we made our way to the Jinus ship, allowing us to dock and forcibly board their ship. We burst on, and I came face-to-face with one of the Jinus. If I hadn't been fighting them, I would've stopped to admire and sketch their features. They had curved horn-like noses, with long floppy ears and teal skin.

Everything seemed to go in slow-mo, just like those cheesy action movies we would always watch after school without asking your parents. They were so mad when they found out! I dodged the Jinus' laser blast, pulling some fancy moves. Iman took it out, hitting it directly. We continued to the bridge, taking out any enemies along the way.

Finally we breached the bridge and in one shot, I took out the Captain, while Iman dispatched the rest and Rossvasi rushed to the console to download the ship schematics and any intelligence about the Jinus plans.

I contacted Captain Fotsteader via comms, and told him we'd commandeered the Jinus ship, and asked what his next orders were. He told us to sit tight, since a research team would be on our location in four minutes, and that they would board the ship and take it back to the Border Patrol HQ.

Finally, they came, and dropped Iman, Rossvasi, and I at our ship. Captain patted us on the back and congratulated us, saying, "Nice, you didn't get yourselves killed! Y'all couldn't even do me that favor. I guess I'm stuck with ya for a while longer."

He jokes around a lot.

Nevertheless, I was proud of myself and my teammates.

Even if they aren't ideal people to work with, they're still my team, and that's gotta count for something, right?

I also made breakfast with Rossvasi today, and she was kind. She's the only one besides Iman who can tolerate me. I like that about her. She's still a cliché, but she isn't as much of one now. What I'm trying to say is she's pretty cool, and I hope she proves to be more complex then your average computer nerd/mechanic.

Iman is still doing well, they say to tell you that they miss you too. They like my idea of writing my journal entries to you so you'll know what we did.

I still don't like Finamin. He's such a fucking idiot.

I hope you're doing well!

Stay safe!

Love, Leila ♥