Warp Drive Active

System failure, System Failure – warning, engines systems have sustainable damage.

“Come on you bitch!” – with a fierce slap to the dashboard, her delicate hand smashed down on the plethora of keys and switches. A few lights above her head began to vibrantly flicker red as she grabbed her buckle and securely fastened herself to the pilot’s chair.

The vast and empty space was a dangerous place and she had bitten off more than she could chew. The elite pirates she had locked her railguns on had shot down her shield in a matter of seconds. Her shield boost wasn’t fit to handle this kind of power and had been shred down. The capacitor was running low and her nerves began to settle in.

"PHILIP! What’s going on?!" Her CreoDrone came over on the ships intercom in an overly cheerful voice.

Hello Alex. Lovely day to be flying in space. What can I do ya for?

"I need you to assess the damage on our hull and armour! Quick we don't have much time! And why is my capacitor so damn low! Philip what's going on!?" The panic in her voice was eminent.

Assessing damage now. Woah... Seems like someone’s been a little ambitious today!

"PHILIP!" Her breath was unsteady as she jammed her fingers down on her shield booster only to see a daunting message appear on the screen.

*low capacitor*

I've spotted the cause of our exhausted capacitor! Looks like someone left those pesky afterburners on! Remember our training in modules Alex! Some are passive and some are acti...

"Yea yea, active I know! I lied when I said I finished the training! I didn't finish - now help me or we're fucked!"

Okay sit tight and we are going to get out of here. Open your overview and look for the closest stargate to jump through. Remember, never fly what you can’t afford to lose.

Whispering out loud to herself, *see the square, go there*, she located the nearest gate and pressed jump with only a moment to spare.

Warp drive, *active*.

Flashing red lights overwhelmed her senses as she narrowly escaped. Her ship had sustained significant damage and was already on its last legs. The red lights began to slowly halt, and her engine systems came back online. She exhaled a deep sigh of relief.

"Well that was CLOSE!" She unstrapped from the chair and leaned forward to catch her breath as she stared out the glass portal. *This is a dangerous place* she thought to herself as her tiny rust bucket of a ship just hovered in the endless darkness, with its evident imperfections. She gathered herself. Her once trembling hands had finally found their sense of composure.

She set her ship to auto pilot back to the main station and began to walk back to grab a Quafe. All the excitement had made her thirsty. She clicked the top of the can and began to chug the carbonated beverage down in large, savage gulps. Finally taking a breath in between and half-jokingly, she muttered, "What else could go wrong today Philip?" as she took another sip. And as though she had set herself up for failure, her CreoDrone’s cheerful robotic voice echoed news she was not prepared for.

Well funny you should say that...you have a meeting in about 20 minutes with the other MODS. If my calculations are correct, you needed to start heading their about 5 minutes ago in order to be on time.

She sprayed out her latest sip of Quafe all over the floors of her ship in shock and horror. How could she forget?! The MODS had a meeting to determine the fate of a cloned soul.

"Philip! Get us back to home base ASAP! We can't miss this meeting! We have a life depending on it!" Just as soon as her moment of peace came, it went as she hastily rushed back to her seat and prepared to get chewed out by the others for her tardiness.

She stared out the window at the glory of the space before her. She wondered what it would be like once the other clones were awoken from their cryotubes. She couldn’t fathom what adventures would await. It was hard to feel like anything mattered in that moment because she could see how small she was, in something so much larger than herself.