Surrounded by hills, the interstellar ship Minerva's Whisper was tucked away and out of view of the approaching armies of Orion's Blade. Luciana kept a close eye on the time in her Heads-Up Display as she stood on the gangway with her rifle at the ready. She could hear the gunfire getting closer, along with the smoke and flames of the already dying woodland in the distance growing more chaotic.

"C'mon, where the fuck are they?" Luci groaned to herself. Her impatience was warranted. If they didn't lift off soon, Orion's Blade was likely to find the ship and kill everyone aboard, or worse. She had heard rumors about how barbaric they could be, but she wasn't one to pay rumors any mind. She did, however, trust the Intergalactic Mercenary Guild's ranking and reporting system, and according to the IMG, Orion's Blade was notorious for completing contracts with little regard for collateral damage. The Stellar Dynamics corporation that employed them was also not concerned about local populations or ecosystems. Luci didn't need reports to know this as she had first hand experience with the corporation.

As she listened to the sound of gunfire getting ever closer, she was antsy, but was patient enough to wait until they were close enough to see with her own cybernetically augmented eyes, but then she saw an elongated orb hover silently over the hill and come to a stop over their ship.

"Shit!" Luci yelled. She turned into the ship and yelled down the internal corridors. "We've got a spotter overhead! We need to leave, now!" Luci turned back and reached for the control panel to close the gangway, but movement over the edge of the hill caught her attention. Several people began cresting dressed in once-comfortable clothing that has seen a lot of use recently. "Wait!" Luci yelled back into the ship. "There they are!"

Nearly a dozen refugees were on their final approach. Luci stepped out of Minerva's Whisper and to the ground where she waved at the group and frantically motioned for them to hurry. Near the head of the group was one of the resistance fighters, but Luci didn't see any other fighters following up the rear. Once the group made it to them, the fighter in front took a spot opposite of Luci and quickly started guiding the refugees up into the ship.

"This is the last group!" Luci shouted to the fighter, then pointed up toward the orb hanging in the sky. "We're being painted, we need to go, now!" The fighter acknowledged with a simple, stoic nod before continuing to corral the rest of the refugees into the ship.

One of the refugees was lagging behind the rest of the group. It was woman with blood down the front of her tattered dress. Just before helping her onto the ship, the resistance fighter grabbed her arm.

"Where's Manny? What happened to him?" The fighter asked.

"He didn't make it..." The woman said as she motioned to the blood soaking her front side. The fighter was stunned and the woman had to pull herself out of his grip to walk up the stairs. There were no other refugees left, but the fighter continued looking over the hill, hoping that at least one more figure would appear. Luci stepped over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"We're gonna be getting shelled any second now! Get in the ship, let's get out of here!" Luci shouted.

The man didn't move, gritting his teeth and gripping his gun with white knuckles. Luci tugged at his arm, but still he stood his ground, only moving when he finally saw a figure crest over the hill. For only a brief moment, hope started to fill his eyes, but then he saw the distinctive white armored pads, and saw several more figures come into view. They raised their firearms in the distance and began firing at the ship. Luci ducked, but the fighter only responded by raising his own weapon and firing back. Luci knocked the side of his head with her fist just hard enough to catch his attention.

"Get in the fucking ship! Don't make me knock you out and carry you!" She shouted.

The fighter nodded, and together with Luci, they moved backward up the gangway, providing bursts of covering fire against the oncoming forces. As soon as they were both fully inside, Luci hit the control panel to seal the ship and moved to the bridge. The fighter, however, began making his way to the cargo bay to join the rest of the refugees.

"Come on, the ship is sealed, let's go! What are we waiting for?" Said Luci as she entered the bridge.

"Lumina's doing some calculations," Jean-Patrick said.

"Fuck the calculations, jump us the hell out of here!"

"And right into the center of a red giant? No thank you."

"The chances of hitting a star in the milky way is less than a tenth of a percent, Jean," Salman said. "I think we're all willing to take that chance."

"Fine," Jean said. "Spin up the drive."

"Way ahead of you." Salman said. Looking through the expansive displays, Luci watched the sky. I faint, but growing point of light appeared in the atmosphere high above them. Her eyes widened, recognizing the view as an orbital strike that was seconds away from hitting them.

"Punch it!" Luci shouted and Salman sent the order to the ships OTech drive.

In an instant, Minerva's whisper was no longer on the surface of Harmonix. It was now hovering in space above a distinctly different planet. The only thing they felt was a change of gravity. Their bodies became lighter, a sensation that compounded the feeling of relief that came from having fled Harmonix with their lives. In the cramped cargo bay, even though they couldn't see it, the passengers knew they had successfully escaped a grim fate, but it wasn't exactly a joyous occasion. As the tension was relieved, a sorrow grew amongst the survivors.

Harmonix was their home, and most had never known anything else. It was where they built their homes and raised their families. It was where they found love, and came together during strife. But now, they knew they would likely never see the planet again, and even if they did, the ecosystem was collapsing at a rate that would leave a majority of the planet inhospitable to human life outside of atmospheric domes. A choir of wailing voices grew as this realization set in among the crowd.

The last resistance fighter to board the ship met up with the others, but they didn't speak. He only leaned back against the bulkhead and already started trying to forget about the friends and comrades he had lost over the past several hours, days, weeks, months, and years. It didn't help that his squad leader's wife approached him.

"Oh... uhh... Rosa... Hi," He said.

"Hey, Jack," Rosa replied. She didn't need to say anything. Jack already knew what she was going to ask. "Have you seen Manuel?"

"Uh..." Jack faltered as his gut sank. "He uhh... I'm sorry..."

With the apology came a rush of tears from Rosa's eyes. She his her eyes in her hands, and Jack wrapped his arms gently around her. He held her as she quietly cried into his shoulder.

"What... what happened?" Rosa asked.

"I'm... not sure, Rosa," Jack said. He raised his head and looked around the cargo compartment to find the last refugee to board. It wasn't difficult, as she had a large streak of red soaking the front of her dress. Jack pulled away from Rosa and guided her as they approached the woman. "Excuse me... you said... You said that Manuel didn't make it... right?"

The woman hesitated to say anything, but could see Rosa staring at the blood on her front.

"That's... that's right," she said, doing a poor job of hiding the large red spot, but maintaining eye contact with Rosa.

"Did you see it?" Jack asked. It may have been an obvious question, but one that needed to be asked in the interest of absolute clarity. The woman nodded.

"Yes... He was shot right in front of me. If he hadn't been there, I'm sure it would have been me instead." The woman was clear and concise while maintaining a frowning expression. Rosa was crushed, again cradling her face in her hands, and being taken in under Jack's arm.

"Thank you, ma'am," Jack said. "What's your name?"

"I'm Valeria. Val."

"Valeria, thank you for the information, and I'm sorry you had to see that."

"No, thank you," Val said, "for getting us out of there. I don't know what would have happened if..." She never finished her sentence, and the conversation came to a close with the passengers simply standing together and being with each other as they waited for an update from the crew. While the refugees had a moment of rest, the tension on the bridge was lingering.

"What the fuck do you mean, 'I don't know?'" Luci said, her scowl as fierce as ever. "You're the God-damned navigator!"

"No, I'm the God-damned pilot, Luci?" Jean-Patrick snapped back in an uncharacteristically irritated demeanor. "Lumina is the navigator, and she's much better at it than any of us could ever hope to be."

"So, Lumina," Luci said, speaking toward the ceiling, "what the hell happened?"

"Apologies, Ms. Zabala." The voice of a woman came through hidden speakers, even though every crew member in the room had a Brainstem Interface, and could hear her through direct stimulation of their cochlear nerves. "I did plot a course that would have dropped us in interstellar space within constellation Carina. Our current location is not what was intended."

"Okay, well how far off are we?" Said Salman, the ships engineer.

"There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer."

"Jesus Christ," Luci said. "What the fu-... Please, elaborate."

"Based on the latest data from the Stellar Cartography Society, I am capable of accurate positioning up to a range of nearly 1 billion light-years from the Milky Way's local group. From current observations, it does not appear that we are within range for effective positioning."

"We're lost, is that right?" Luci asked.

"At the current time, yes," Lumina said, "but I still may be able to find the local cluster even if it is beyond accurate positioning range. If it is still within the bounds of our currently observable universe, I may be able to find it, though it may take some time for processing."

"And if not?" Jean-Patrick asked.

"If we are unable to find the local group, we can jump to another location and try again, and continue trying in a planned pattern until we do find it," Salman said.

"But... wait..." Luci was still confused about some of the details. "I mean, it's happened before, right? The Lunar Disaster, expeditions beyond the edge that haven't returned, missing colonists, shit does happen when using OTech drives, but if we really did a completely random jump, what are the chances that we arrive above... what looks like a hospitable planet to me?" Luci motioned toward the planet below them, with it's blue waters and atmosphere, and surfaces covered in colorful flora.

"The probability is one in-" Lumina began to speak, but was cut off by Salman.

"'Astronomical' is literally the perfect word for those chances."

"Uhh, guys?" Jean-Patrick was staring at a display on his console. "I think we're still underestimating the absurdity of our current situation." He paused a moment to make sure he had everyone's undivided attention before continuing. "There's people down there."

It was like the air had been sucked out of the room as everyone fell deadly silent.

After first contact, when the Observers delivered the instructions for building interstellar technology, now lovingly called "OTech", the alien beings vanished and haven't been seen since. Once humanity had access to the stars, they searched, and found the universe teeming with life, but reports of intelligent life are rarely credible and few and far between, and officially, no further contact has been made with any other intelligent civilization for the greater part of a century. Luci approached Jean-Patrick, placing her face within his personal space.

"I need you to be extremely fucking clear. What do you mean by the term 'people?'"

"Well... Look!" Jean-Patrick waived a live image from his console to the wall at the front of the room and made all the information available to the bridge crews BSI's. The crew was again, breathless, and in awe at the image in front of them.

In the center of a bright purple jungle split by a large river draining into the sea, there was a massive metropolitan city shining like a jewel against the backdrop of the rest of the incredibly beautiful landscape. Spires of glass on colorful structures sprawled across a large area, like crystals growing out of a rock, but the edges of the city blended in seamlessly with the dense jungle around it.

Vehicles, both on the ground and in the air made efficient routes between and around the many tall buildings, and at the center of the city was a large geodesic dome, itself rivaling any of the megastructures that humanity had built across the Milky Way.

"Most of these structures contain Plasteel," said Salman. For a brief moment, the fact that Plasteel existed here inspired the idea that they had finally found the Observers, but only a moment later, a digital display across the face of a building began playing a video. It was an advertisement in perfect, untranslated English.

"Become a Beneficiary and taste life without need or want, or join the Benefactors, and make paradise last forever!"

The ad played again, this time in Mandarin, and again in Spanish, then German, French, Korean, Japanese, and continued to play, cycling through nearly 20 of the most popular languages in human space. Other ads and artwork clearly had images of humans.

"So, we jumped to a random location, possibly outside of our known visible universe, and arrive at a planet already populated with modern humans?" Salman asked.

"Lumina, what is the probability of that?" Luci spoke to the ceiling with crossed arms.

"There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer," was Lumina's response, receiving an annoyed chuckle and rolling eyes from Luci.

"I think what she means to say is that I don't think there was anything random about this," Salman said. "Even if it is a perfect human utopia or whatever other bullshit is going on down there, I think our first priority is to find and return home. We can come back when we've taken care of our cargo, but until then, I'm not sure it's a good idea to poke our nose where it doesn't belong. They probably don't know we're here, and I'd like to keep it that way."

"Are there any satellites or other sensory equipment around the planet?" Luci asked.

"There are many objects that are moving in sub-orbital trajectories," Lumina said, "but no unnatural objects have been spotted in orbit proper as of yet."

"Alright, well, let's move around the planet, get a look at the sky on the other side, maybe we'll get lucky," said Salman.

There was a short pause as Jean-Patrick sent instructions to the ships OTech drive, but nothing happened. He twitched and shook his head, then tried again, and again was met with no response.

"No dice," said Jean-Patrick. Luci, who was still standing next to him, simply stared him down with her eyes, consumed by murderous intent. "The OTech drive isn't responding to input by either of us."

"What the fuck?" Luci said. "What about doing a jump?" Luci was about to let Jean-Patrick to continue, but then snapped back, placing a finger in his face. "And not a random jump this time, alright, just a nice, short, uncomplicated jump a couple million kilometers that way." She pointed toward empty space in the opposite direction of the planet, it's moons, and it's dual stars.

Again, Jean-Patrick was quiet for a moment. He didn't give a verbal response, he simply looked into Luci's eyes and shook his head.

"Man, fuck!" Luci turned around and kicked the air. "God dammit! So, what, we're just stuck here, hovering above this planet until we eat each other and starve to death?"

"No... actually..." Salman said. "We're moving now. Toward the planet."

"What?" Jean-Patrick looked at his console. "Shit, you're right!"

"Toward the city?" Luci asked.

"No... no," Jean-Patrick replied, "there's another smaller population center a few thousand kilometers northeast, but we aren't heading there either..."

"Well, shit, are we just going to smack into the fucking planet?"

"No, our path seems intentional, we're heading towards the western horizon, and gently too. It's a specific flight path to make us comfortable."

"I have to admit, I don't feel very comfortable right now." Luci's words were reflected on the faces of the rest of the crew.

"Well..." A smirk crawled across Jean-Patrick's face. "I bet you were wondering what the hell a pilot does on an OTech ship with an AI Navigator." He cracked his fingers and moved to an adjoining room where he began pulling the dusty sheets off a large, incredibly complex cockpit setup. "Go make sure the passengers are as secure as they can be. Things could get a little bumpy."

"What is this?" Luci asked.

"This is one of about 300 interstellar cargo ships that is capable of lifting off and landing in atmosphere without the use of an OTech drive." Salman filled Luci in with a sense of pride as the engineer that had made such a feat possible, and all with his own two hands. Luci wasn't quite sure what was going to happen, but she expected that once the OTech drive was turned off, Minerva's Whisper was going to become much less stable, which was going to be a big problem for anything that wasn't tied down. She quickly made her way to the cargo hold and began gathering the remaining resistance fighters to act as an extension of the ship's security. Once they were gathered, she tapped into the speakers in the cargo hold.

"Attention, passengers! We are currently approaching the atmosphere of a planet and will be disabling the OTech drive in favor of manual piloting," Luci said. This was met with confused murmuring that spread across the crowd. "This means that the stability of the ship will be compromised, and as you may have notices, this is a cargo ship, and not a passenger ship. While there are some seats available, please prioritize the young and feeble to be buckled into them. As for the rest, do what you can to tie yourselves to the secured cargo. Use whatever straps, ropes, or clothing you can find to do so. We will do everything we can to make the ride as smooth as possible."

The refugees immediately spread out and followed Luci's directions, and the fighters did so as well, quickly moving to help the children, elderly, and injured among the group get strapped into the jump seats attached to the bulkheads. Luci quickly walked around the hold and assisted in helping to secure the passengers as well as they could be before returning to the bridge where there was an empty seat waiting for her.

"Okay, we're as ready as were going to be," Lucy said as she buckled herself in.

"Alright," Jean-Patrick said, his voice echoing through the entire ship. "Extending control surfaces now."

Minerva's Whisper's smooth exterior was broken by ports opening on either side of the ship. Winglets extended from the openings and began to vibrate as they caught the air. Jean-Patrick could feel the resistance through the joystick, but otherwise, the ride was still as smooth as ever. Other ports opened on the exterior of the ship, revealing air intakes for jet engines and exhaust for chemical rockets and thrusters. Jean-Patrick activated the engines and set their thrust to match their current airspeed as closely as he could.

"Okay, prepare yourselves now," he said, "disabling the OTech drive in 3... 2... 1..."

The lights and displays throughout the ship flickered as power was switched from the OTech drive to the onboard generators. At the same moment, there was a sharp drop, with Luci forcefully pressed against the straps on her shoulders. Jean-Patrick quickly adjusted, self-calibrating to the forces of aerial flight.

"Ffffuck!" Luci shouted. The sentiment was shared among the crew, and Luci imagined that the passengers that weren't in seats were also not particularly fond of the sudden, violent change in inertia and perceived gravity, but Jean-Patrick and Lumina were effectively able to bring the ship to relatively stable flight in quick order.

"Sorry! Sorry," Jean-Patrick said. "We are going to lift back out of the atmosphere and place the ship in a shallow orbit for the time being, please remain secured as we gradually move to micro-gravity."

The crew watched as they broke away from their original path and started gaining altitude. It was a few minutes before they were able to achieve stable orbit over the planet. Once orbit was achieved, Jean-Patrick made a shipwide call to check for injuries while they moved to the other side of the planet where they could continue the search for the Milky Way's local group.

There were several injuries, but most were simple bruises or dislocated limbs that were relatively easy to treat in microgravity, but there was one boy who's arm had been fractured and was starting to bleed internally. There was little they could do while in orbit, and even if they were on the ground, surgery was going to be needed, but none of the crew or refugees were capable or had the resources for doing so. They stayed in orbit only long enough for Lumina to complete the initial scan of the full sky.

"Based on the data that has been gathered, I am afraid that we are indeed more than a billion light-years from the Milky Way's local group." Lumina announced to the dismay of the crew.

"Damn it!" Luci shouted.

"Shit... that would have been nice," Salman said. "Even if we aren't able to use the OTech drive anyway, at least we would know where we were."

"Alright... well, let's pick a place to land, then," Jean-Patrick said. "We need to find that kid a doctor. Should we just land in the city?"

"I don't know... I feel like we probably shouldn't make our presence so well known just yet..." Salman said.

"Can we land outside of the city and walk to it?" Luci asked.

"For a city that size, we would have to land pretty far away. It could take days to walk the path in that case.

"What about the smaller community we picked up earlier?" Jean-Patrick said.

"Yeah, we could try that," Salman responded, but then Lumina chimed in.

"The smaller settlement seems to have the same technology as the city, including Plasteel structures," she said, "but I have also spotted an even smaller agrarian community that is further removed and does not seem to contain Plasteel or other modern tech. It also appears to have a medical center. I recommend prioritizing communication with this smaller village if keeping a low profile is the goal."

"Realistically, how close can you get us to the village without being spotted?" Luci asked.

"It's pretty mountainous," Jean-Patrick said, "I think 10 kilometers is reasonably safe, probably about a... 3 to 4 hour hike?"

"You think the kid can walk that far?" Salman asked.

"I think so... and if not, I can always carry him." Luci felt pretty confident in the plan, but while she did tend to settle into a leadership role in tense situations, she firmly believed in planning and working as a team. "Alright, any objections, or alternative ideas?" She eyed each of the crew. None of them disagreed. "Okay, take us down."

"Alright, folks, let's get ourselves secured again," Jean-Patrick announced to the whole ship. "It'll still be bumpy, but shouldn't be nearly as bad as last time. It'll be a few minutes before we re-enter the atmosphere."

Luci returned to the cargo bay to check on the passengers, and particularly, on the injured boy. Miguel was his name. He was 11 Earth-years old and the son of Manuel, the resistance fighter that hired Minerva's Whisper. Luci had a few conversations with him. She respected him, even saw a lot of herself in him, having come from a strikingly similar background. Luci had pegged Manuel as a ladykiller, like most of the resistance fighters she had been with before, at least until he met Rosalinda, his wife and mother to their child, Miguel. From the first moment she had seen Manuel and Rosa look at each other, Luci could tell the two were perfect for each other. They were in the kind of love that Luci had only ever read in romance novels and children's stories. There was no way that he would be able to break her heart, unless, of course, he died on the battlefield and didn't come back to her.

Rosalinda was indeed heartbroken as seen on the deeply hurt expression her face, but at the current moment, her focus was entirely on her son. Luci and Rosalinda worked to make sure Miguel's arm was tourniqueted, in a sling, and the boy firmly strapped into one of the jump seats attached to the bulkheads.

As the ship re entered the atmosphere, gravity gradually returned, along with a degree of turbulence, but just as Jean-Patrick had said, it was much less violent than their initial switch to manual control. After only a few minutes, Minerva's Whisper touched down in a small clearing surrounded by steep hills and cliffs. Luci brought Miguel and Rosa into the bridge.

"Lumina," said Luci. "What can you tell me about the ecology on the planet with the data you've collected so far? Have you detected any dangerous fauna? Can you tell if the plant life is poisonous?"

"The O2 content in the atmosphere at this altitude is lower than Earth standard, but still within comfortable levels, but do try to pace yourself. As for animals, it seems the only ones on the entire planet are bipedal mammalian humanoids, which we can assume are indeed humans, though there do appear to be farms for common domesticated livestock. I have yet to find any evidence for any other kinds of life. Spores and other biomatter are currently being collected and analyzed, but preliminary tests show no immediate adverse affects to human biology."

"Do you recommend we use some EVA suits?"

"Actually..." Salman chimed in. "We don't have any EVA suits rated for atmospheres..."

"What? Why the hell not?"

"Well, this isn't an exploratory vessel. We usually don't stop any place where we'd need one." Jean-Patrick said.

"If I knew we'd be randomly jumped to an alien planet over a billion light-years from home, I might have bought some." Salman shrugged his shoulders as he spoke.

"Further processing has shown some carcinogenic agents within the biomatter on this planet. The levels will be negligible over the course of days or weeks, but it will become a concern if we have to stay any longer. For now, I do not believe this situation requires additional environmental protection."

"Okay," said Luci. "I think we should keep the group as small as possible. Rosa, I understand you have some hiking experience, yes?"

"Yes, I do... Miguel too, especially over the past few days."

"I think you should come with us, do you object?" Luci asked. Rosa shook her head and tightened her grip on Miguel's hand. Luci looked down at the boy. "We're going to be hiking through a dense jungle for a few hours. Do you think you can do that?" Luci asked. The boy nodded.

"Y-yes, ma'am," he said.

"Good boy." Luci said as she messed up the kid's hair. "Alright, I want everybody else to stay within 50 meters of the ship until we return. Have the fighters set up a perimeter."

The ship went to work following Luci's instructions as she moved to her office to gather some personal gear and make sure her Seafyre Fleet B88-24 BOOTH Rifle was fully loaded with two additional magazines of tungsten ammo in her belt. She also grabbed an emergency med kit and a canteen. She met back up with Rosa and Miguel at the corridor to the ship's gangway.

"Alright, let's get going," Luci said, then began heading down the stairs.

"Wait! Hold on..." Val approached the group. "I would like to go with you... please," she asked.

"Why?" Luci replied.

"I just..." Val looked toward Rosa and Miguel. "Your father... Manuel, right? He saved my life, and I just want to do what I can to help."

"Okay, well, what can you do to help?" Luci asked.

"I have first aid training, and I'm experienced in wilderness navigation."

"I think we're alright, we have those skills already. Please, stay on the ship, or near it." Luci turned to continue walking down the plank.

"Well, what if I just came with anyway?" Val asked, causing Luci to stop and turn back.

"You might slow us down, or get injured. You can likely find something around the ship to help out with."

"Are you going to stop me?" Val asked. Luci gave her an intense stare, then let out a sigh.

"No. I'm not. But I'm also not going to wait for you. Don't blame me if you get lost and break your leg a billion light-years from home." Luci turned one final time and made her way out of Minerva's Whisper with Rosa, Miguel, and Val close behind.

Luci had seen the forest through the walls of the ship, but seeing it surrounding them was a completely different experience. The intense purple and violet hues throughout most of the beautiful brush. None of them had seen anything like it in their lives. They were in awe, and took a bit more time at the beginning of the journey to take a closer look at the plants. They had only moved about 500 meters away from the ship when a pulsating, whirring sound filled the air from above.

"Everyone, get down!" Lucy shouted. The rest immediately followed her order.

The sound grew louder as three large drones flew overhead in the direction of the ship. From their now elevated position, Luci could just barely see Minerva's whisper through the trees. The moment that the drones arrived over the ship, the clearing erupted in gunfire, the drones first and followed closely by the fighters. However, the fighters didn't last long. Lucy could see that the gangway was beginning to lift, but one of the drones made its way inside. The following screams and gunfire was gradually muffled until the gangway closed completely.

The other drones searched around the clearing until the gangway opened again. The last drone came out of the ship, joined up with the other two and left in the same direction they had arrived from.

Luci, Val, Rosa, and Miguel were frozen to their spot for minutes after the drones had left and the jungle had returned to an eerie silence.

"What the fuck?!" Luci called out with exasperation. She rose from the ground with her weapon ready. She slowly moved to the others and grouped them at the base of a large tree. "Every one of you, stay right here. Do not make a sound. Do not move a fucking muscle."

Luci returned to the ship, slowly, moving from tree to tree and watching every angle. As she approached, she enabled her combat Heads-Up Display, allowing easy identification of the crew and passengers and check for their life signs. The first body she saw was of one of the resistance fighters a few meters away from the gangway. He no longer had a head or a large portion of his upper chest. Whatever wasn't turned to mist was scattered across the jungle floor, the man was no longer identifiable.

As Luci moved inside, she saw much of the same, concentrated in the cargo bay, where dozens of men, women, and children had been turned into a scattered mess of blood and gore. Luci couldn't believe her eyes. The destruction was so complete as to confuse her HUD, in some cases unable to identify one body from another.

"Hello?" Luci called out, but received no response. "Lumina?" Again she received no response. Luci moved into the bridged. She wasn't expecting anything different, but was further disheartened to find that Salman, Jean-Patrick, and the rest of the crew had their BSIs completely destroyed. Without them, or power anywhere on the ship, she would be unable to pull anything about them. Photos, videos, audio messages. All of these lives, over 500 years worth of human experience had been wiped out in seconds.

Luci, Rosa, Miguel, and Val were stranded.