The path of Prospector

[Doom]

Joshua Taylor was sitting in small cell somewhere on Ouray base. He didn't know how much time has passed since he was thrown here. Xenos took good care of him most of the time. He received nice meals and medical attention. Although his cell was small, it was rather comfortable considering other cells he saw. Every second day he was questioned about various things by same Xeno. He knew him under name Tex.
One day, who knows how long after he was captured, Tex stop coming. Nobody replaced him. One, maybe two weeks has passed and still nobody came. Xenos still kept him well fed and healthy, but interrogation stopped.

There was one thing Taylor didn't know. Tex was missing. York noticed that he wasn't on base 3 days after he disappeared. Search party was sent to find him. They looked trough out Liberty systems. No success. York was very worried. Nothing like this ever happened to such highly ranked Xeno.

Joshua Taylor was last thing on York's mind and that was the reason that interrogation stopped.

High Xeno activity trough out Liberty caused suspicion among high Liberty officials. They made decision about attacking on Ouray. Goal was to lure Xenos back to base.

For several days, Ouray was operating on skeleton crew only. Whole crew was on search for Tex. Liberty attack came suddenly. Only few light fighters were deployed to defend the station. They couldn't stop strong Liberty fleet. Base defense turrets went off line after heavy beating from turrets of Liberty cruiser. After one hour of heavy bombardment station lost power on several decks. Among others, on one of them was Taylor's. Life support failed and all doors opened automatically. Taylor had hard time to stay conscious. Oxygen level was very low and dropping every minute. With extreme effort Taylor managed to get to dock bay 4. There were no fighters left, or any equipment. Only thing that stood on far end of bay was some old escape pod. Taylor hoped that its life support is still operational so he gathered what strength he had and slowly walked to it. Barely conscious he entered and sealed the doors. With his last breath he pressed undock button on console and passed out.

Hours later, he waked up with terrible headache. Computer was screaming about engine failure and low power. Taylor looked out of small window and saw some planet near bye. He was helpless. Escape pod without engines couldn't turn towards planet. Slowly, as pod was was drifting further, planet became smaller and smaller. To Taylor this situation didn't look good. All that trouble and he only prolonged his life for several hours.