Warriors of Light

[Warriors of Light]

Several years ago, Omicron Eta system


It was an ordinary day. An ordinary skirmish. With ordinary cannibals. Which would have ended ordinary. If only ... Teodoro Alonso not saw a strange red contact on his scanner. He accelerated towards it to identify. The target accelerated away in return. Alonso put maximum acceleration his ship could handle. His opponent answered with equal acceleration, still maintaining distance. “Lets see how you will handle this” Alonso said aloud, overriding safety limitations of the ship control system, rerouting everything he could to the ship propulsion system. Red blip still remained at the same distance. “I must admit, you are persistent” he told to his elusive adversary.

Alonso checked trajectory and system maps. Obviously, the bogey was heading to Epsilon III, remote planet in the system. Noted for its strange radiation emission, Epsilon III had been long forgotten being too distant for any use. Except that the two ships were now heading to it on collision course. Alonso started to decelerate. The second ship did the same, still maintaining safe distance! Alonso smiled. “You will need to start maneuvering, little thingie, or you will crash into the planet”. But the unknown ship pilot clearly had guts to maintain course. At the last moment Alonso turned his ship to the side, only to see the other ship on the same place on his scanner as before. “Impossible” he thought. “No ship can do such maneuver. Unless ...” Alonso slammed his fist into control panel. It wasn’t a ship. It was just a scanner malfunction. All this time he was chasing a shadow.

And suddenly all went dark. In his side viewport he saw the big dark disc of Epsilon III, barely illuminated by the system sun at such distance. Clearly intensive emmission of Epsilon III during the passage fried the ship’s electronics, making it a flying wreck. He was falling down. But dying crashing to the surface was unlikely. His high excentricity trajectory would probably spiral down to the surface for far longer than it would take to freeze him to death without energy. There was no hope of help in this remote place of the system. He was alone.

Alonso closed his eyes and looked back. He had born in Malta in the family of a wealthy cardamine plantator. He got excellent education and started to manage his fields, having enormous incomes. But it was never enough for him. He wanted to make a difference. One day he left management of his business to his charge d'affaires and entered Military Academy. Graduated with distinction he used his incomes to fund construction of numerous warships which he successfully commanded in the Secondary Fleet.

Only to die alone in the dark. It would take time for heat to slowly radiate via the ship’s surface but it was already getting cold. Hours went by hours, each of it taking away that little hope he had left. Suddenly he shivered. Not from freezing coldness of air. He heard clear woman voice: “Angels are everywhere. You must see daylight”. Alonso stood up, opened hatch by hatch looking for anything of use. Finally he found a gas-jet and a small gas-cylinder. “Every moment of life is priceless, I will not give up” he said and lit the gas-jet up.

Minute by minute, hour by hour, oxygen tank by oxygen tank time continued to pass. Hope and despair were fighting for dominance over his soul. He was fighting them both. He was simply fighting. Until the last breath. For he was a warrior. In life and death.

The ship shuddered. Then Alonso sensed that distinct feeling of movement. Couple of minutes later he saw familiar outline of an Outcast gunship, to which his Sabre was being tractor beamed, and with some maneuvering, the gunship managed to establish connection with the Sabre’s hatch. Alonso opened hatch on his side and saw a young man grinning cheerfully: “Hola amigo! My name is Lucian. Welcome aboard”. All Alonso could say was: “What were you doing here?” Lucian smiled at him and said: “I like this place. Just look at Eta from here and you will understand”.

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