Distant stars passed like flecks of dust whisking past a window, like windblown snowflakes. The ship was silent, engines outside making no sound in the vacuum.
Captain Pierce sat in the reclining room of The Collectors private cruiser, the ships AI was currently engaging him in a game of 'Collide'. He felt more at home oh the ship, its outer layers were differently designed, but below the exterior its core components were the same. Alec had told him that it was currently top of the line, however even its main cannon paled in power compared to his pods Senaphor Ion cannons. Thus his pod was now connected to the cruiser as a main gun. Giving the ship a bulbus front half, it's penetrating trajectory through the black, severly hampered by the round ball holstered on its tip. It was around fifteen minutes into his match that the cruisers inbuilt and custom designed AI persona appeared onscreen. There was now a smartly dressed yound lady standing before him, she was adorned with chestnut hair and a tanned face. This was atleast one improvment in the last century. A voice with a slight echo trailing behind it eminated from the ships hull as the woman moved her lips, "Captain, we have reached the fringes of the Capsilanon system, the Daemon will be on the edge of the battlefield, with most of the other Broad Lance Division fleet. You will need to approach in your pod in order to avoid local defense systems.".
"Thankyou, but ahh, what exactly are you?" Replied Pierce, he was, admittidly, caught off guard by the vision. The room around him replied while the holographic woman opened her mouth in time to the words. "I am the Class one corsair's Ai interface, The owner of this ship has named me 'Angel'. I am here in part to help you get acccustomed to the ship, but also, Alec wishes you take me with you so I can collect the data he desires".
"Yes, very well", said Pierce, "After all, I should be thankful, Alec went to great care to see I get what I wanted, after he realized i wasnt an imposter anyway".
The Capsilanon system now took up the entirety of the ships front visor. Only three planets circled the local sun, they were only called planets in the loosest sense of the word. Perhaps they were more accurately described as molten bodies, still held together by their sheer mass. Still solid, in the same sense as tub of yoghurt. A long time ago they had been exposed to almost every type of energy possible in large quantities. As the cruiser, still being piloted by angel passed the first heaping mass, the graveyard came into view. The fantasy of battle had long worn away now, the wreakage was now littered with small asteroids, which themselves had left their mark in the once great behemoths. The UCAS Broad Lance flagship came into view. The Daemon. Pierces ship, well ex-ship. Now it was riddled with holes, and crushed in on itself, partly due to collisions, but mostly due to Mass gravity pocket accelerators. A mean weapon in Pierce's opinion, used not to fight, but to slow, or capture. The Daemon luckily retained its main shape. This shape was taken up mostly with a long neck, which was itself what appeared to be mostly 'side'. The whole design consisted of an axe shaped head ,ontop of which lay a command centre, the head was made of a ceramic plating and rubiduium mixture, meaning it could punch through atmospheres and if need be, blockades at a whim. Behind the head a long and rounded neck made up the ships body, while pertruding from four different sides were a set of FTL (faster than light) propulsion systems. This elongated body served the main purpose of every ship in the BL division, On it was housed hundreds upon hundreds of Zero point mass cannons, each of which a scaled up version of the escape pod's Senaphor's. These were set into rows, sisty in each, and it was this ability at a long range barriage that gave the BL division their name. They could engage an enemy fleet at almost any range, and once they had begun, Fine Lancers would dropout of subspace and focus targets of importance. However the Daemon was in ruins compared to when Pierce had seen it last, and was in no way fit to fly. Its main guns had been decimated by scorcher ships. It's Head was fractured and crumbling, and all four drives had been shot out. It was however lucky for Pierce that as he approached, now in his pod, that at least one of the corpse-like ship's shuttle docks appeared undamaged. The pod floated in, black hardened plastic closed in on all sides.
Angel flashed on the pods homescreen, "I'm not sensing any air left in the immediate vicinity, however there are pockets. Shall I engage the survival suit? I am fully integrated.".
"That would be fantastic Angel, however Integrate yourself with the suit before you do, and I'll need to jack you into the Daemon when we get inside". A black plated skeleton covered Pierce's body, creating a sleek mass over it. The glass door slid down and dissapeared into the bodies outer wall, Pierce pushed himself forward. He floated into the darkness ahead. The suits torches flickered to life. Pierce had envisioned blood, bodies and sparking wires. What he faced now was the final plug, reailty had finally set into his mind. Pitch black faced him, anything the light touched was clean. Covered in debris, and in some placed blood, but clean. Cleaned by over a century of sterile travel and radiation. Cleaned by the resonance of over a million energy blasts. Cleaned by bathing in the pure essence of ultimate desecration. Nevertheless he knew his place within seconds, Pierce had memorized every corridor, every room on his ship. Perhaps if he had know all of its two thousand crew, he could pay his respects with more dignity. He was currently above the main hangar. While this had had been passing through his mind, his body had started making its way to the cabin. He was propelling himself along the corridor handyrail. Both his mind and body were interrupted as Angels voice rippled through his suit.
"Captain Pierce! Theres a commucation coming through, its from the Collector's cruiser.".
Pierce's mind moved into the present, and it whirred into action. The cruiser contained only one long range subspace link, and that was to Alec. However Alec knew that by now Pierce was on the ship, and thus wouldn't slow down the mission by contacting him. Something was wrong.
"Bring it up on my HUD", He said. On the screen that reflected inside his black exo-skeleton, was an ugly being, humaniod, but with hair that twisted into inhuman spikes, horns of a sort. Dsortians, Pierce knew them well. they had been a minor although significant nuicance during his past life. A long time after earth colonised the stars, a few settlers had not reached their pre-determined planets, but instead burst forth into deep corners of the galaxy. When they returned, they were changed, not feral, or lesser, just different. The face began to speak. "Captain Pierce, we undestand that the Collector wished to help you, as such you can see he is now no longer able to do so.". There on the corner of screen became apparent, the body of Alec, it lay on an ancient carpet, blood staining the priceless fabrics. The Dsortian continued. "We understand you were part of the United colonies fleet. Unfortunately this does not bode well for you, in our new society.", Pierce wondered what the Tsortian meant, there appeared to be no society here. Nothing that compared to the glory of his old life anyway. There was even less now that the collector was dead. Pierce tried to keep his voice calm as he opened his line of communication. "Dsortian, name yourself, your employer, and your motive. Then perhaps we can talk". Silence fell over the line, after a few seconds it sparked up again. "Ohh Captain, why would I stay on and talk? Unfortunately I am the bad guy right now, but I dont intend to bore you with any well timed monologues, the Collector didnt trust you clearly, otherwise he wouldn't have enabled his cruisers remote piloting before you left, ohwell byebye."
Pierce heard the feedback through his suit die away asa light rose in the corridor behind him, he was still close to the airlock. He wished he wasn't. The light flashed before a mass of vibrations rocked through the ship. Debris shattered into the corridor behind him where the airlock had faced, parts of his escape pod had embedded themselves into the wall. Pierce moved to escape, pushing himself offf the walls around him and floating viagrously away. this marked the second time he had fled through his own ship, in an attempt to escape a violent death. He had to escape, the walls around him were too old, too damaged, and ofcourse there was no shielding. But there was one way, the Demon housed hundreds of ships in the hangar below his feet."Angel! is the main hangar still connected to where I am now?". His voice had lost all sense of calm as he engaged the suits emergency jumpjets, short range and low on fuel. He had no doubt that he would need them as a bolt of energy ripped through the corridor behind him and was lost within the bowels of the ship.
"Yes Captain, I'm plotting a course through the debris, we will be there soon."
Pierce couldn't help but wonder if it would be soon enough, and if there was anything left for him to fly when he got there.
