Search Results

KHARAKEven the sound of its name foretells the harsh environment. This desert world has been our home for over four thousand years. The hot sands of the great deserts are all our people know or have ever known for generations upon generations. The polar region...

MARK*Beep … beep … beep … beep…*He woke to the sound of his alarm clock. He stirred and saw it was well into the morning. One more day, he thought. He got up and into the shower to avoid falling back asleep. He had a long day ahead of him; the sendoff party. B...

ERICThe young Gaalsien was lying down, anxious and sweating having woken himself from a dream. He had been aboard Scaffold for two weeks now, having come up on the fifth transport. The station had been alive and busy around the clock in this time to prepare th...

MARKThe window overlooked the city with the walls taking up the horizon. The sun appeared trapped in a long setting that would continue for fifty days, only rising for half of regular daylight hours. The great walls kept the sandstorms out and the climate with...

ISABELLA“We made it,” Johan said. The station was a monstrous structure kilometres long and tall. The Manaani found it much to take in having lived most her life in small convoys with a salvaged Corvaal-class carrier as its main hideaway from the elements. Sil...

MARKThe jump would not take long, but long enough for them to get something to eat. They ran into Jasiid on the way, who was more than willing to join them. Most of the crew had places to be, leaving the halls on their deck at least almost entirely empty. Almo...

ERICHe hadn’t been able to think straight throughout the past hour; he assumed many felt the same. It was hard to believe in coincidence when his entire childhood he knew the tales. “Those who leave before the penance paid be punished by he whose hand shapes w...

MARKIt had been less than an hour since they left for Kharak. When returning to the floor’s lounge, his friends were talking among themselves. But before he could join the conversation, Mothership dropped from hyperspace. He approached the window looking at a ...

TRISTENShe sat alone in a dark steel-walled cell block. Bars covered the other three sides of her, cold metal to her back, steel floors. Outside this room, more steel. She’d grown tired of steel long ago, but it was all there was on the Gladiator. No others we...

MARKIt had been two days since the Kharak Genocide. Most of the fleet couldn’t sleep well. Medication was only now being distributed to help, and the effects still didn’t show themselves in the faces of everyone in the mess hall that morning.Jasiid thought it ...

ERICThe night revealed to him many things. The first being he was the last Gaalsien in the fleet, having seen no group of them at the ceremony and knowing none became Sleepers. He instead stood with the Naabal, the largest group. It was a somber thought despit...

ISABELLASix-thirty in the morning, not many were awake. She left his room in a hurry to get into her own before being noticed. She didn’t know if anyone would pay attention, and it wasn’t against any rule officially, but the thought made her uncomfortable anyw...

TRISTEN“I hope it’s enough. There’s not much to go around and getting even this was hard,” she said. She decided that morning in the mess hall to smuggle out some food for the old man. She also brought him a couple changes of clothes from the market. At least ...

ERICThe third day’s gathering had changed from the previous ones. There were significantly less people there, and there was no need to meet up in the hangar bay. Instead, a room was booked for the couple hours it would take. He took a seat in the second row; i...

ISABELLAHer alarm rang for the third time before she decided to join the land of the conscious. She decided the snooze button wasn’t much help to her morning routine. Showers helped more, and decided to go for an extra long one to set her thoughts in order. “O...

MARKEnding off the first week of their trip, it was the day they would exit hyperspace. He noticed how slow time passed for him now as opposed to before any of the chaos. A week on the outskirts of Tiir went by like a breeze. With all that’s been flashing thro...

ERICThe comms were dead for ten minutes other than Karan and the Bentusi; the ambassador hauled a resource container behind it back to the alien ship and returned. Eric didn’t know what they had obtained from them, but imagined whatever it was to have great po...

MARKHe made the call, sent his coordinates and powered down. He could see the others speeding away from the battle to the resource controller. From his standpoint the fight looked to be in their favour. More waves kept coming but were held off successfully for...

ISABELLAShe was surprised Mark’s idea worked. Even after their squad poked dozens of holes shattering the reflective coating on the panels, the ships kept firing. The drop in the enemy’s firepower bought enough time for the allied ion frigates to catch up. New...

TRISTENShe woke up in her bed like usual. She took a shower, got dressed, and headed to the mess hall. The other pilots gave her looks of uncertainty as she sat with them. “Morning,” she said. None answered her, instead they stayed silent, judging her. “Oh com...