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A few moments later, I heard radio static along with crackling, before I got a response, “Yeah, I hear you loud and clear Lieutenant. What’s the situation on the shuttle?” I paused for a moment, before shaking my head and saying, “Uhh… Sir, you’re probably not going to believe me but…”

I paused for several moments, unsure of what to really say—whether the words were not forming or how to describe it, I couldn’t say at all. “Lieutenant, you alright out there?” I heard over the communication range. Shaking my head, I said, “Y-yeah… Sir, open the shutters, the ship seems fine but… There’s… Something else.”

Seconds flew by until I heard the mechanical whirring of the ship’s front window guards fly open. Not wanting to head back in yet until I finished completely—as there was a few spots by the engine I hadn’t checked out yet, I moved towards the window to see the faces of the Major and my fellow crew. They seemed confused for a few moments as to what I was talking about, before I knocked on the window to get their attention, pointing off in the distance.

Two large, shimmering objects not too far off in the distance were exchanging beams of light at one another—ripples around the ships appearing. “I’m… Not sure what to make of this sir!” I said aloud, somewhat confused by what was going on. Turning my head back, they seemed to be scrambling around, pulling notepads out and one had a camera, trying to document this instance. “I’ve got one more section to look at sir, then I’ll head back inside.” I said, waving to them as I disappeared below the shuttle. “Hurry up Lieutenant, we’re trying to establish communications with Earth through the remnants of our blue-space entity. We may need to move soon if this is what I think it is.” I heard as I moved near the engine.

Keeping my head focused on the distant happenings, I made sure that I wasn’t going to slam into the shuttle as I headed back. It was strangely beautiful, the light display that went on. Vibrant colors of yellow, red, blue and purple beams of light slamming against one another—with a beautiful dissipation of light blue erupting against the surface of each ship. It reminded me of home—all the fantastic colors and arrays of fireworks filling the night sky on New Year’s. Turning myself back to the current situation at hand, I floated on down to the propulsion system, checking with my headlight for cracks or damages in the system. It was still rather warm, so I made sure not to touch the metallic part as to not damage the suit—which would kill me then.

Afterwards, I nodded to myself, affirming the ship was still in prime condition without cracks or holes before letting go for several moments, the cord still attaching me to the ship. I never really enjoyed my time doing a proper EVA—though most of the time it was in case of emergencies like this. Something about it—despite being in possible danger was relaxing. Floating in space, no worries, and no concerns—well, worries and concerns, but for some reason it all seemed to be inconsequential in these moments. Turning my head as I drifted slowly away from the shuttle—the knowledge of my pack and connection line still keeping me to it, almost strangely enough like an umbilical cord—as the process in my mind went off as—felt…. Comforting.

I watched the light show off in the distance and smiled. It looked nice. Sure it probably wasn’t very pretty for whatever was happening over there, but as an enigmatic observer, I enjoyed seeing it. Closing my eyes for a few moments, I stretched out and yawned as I got a radio signal over my helmet. “Lieutenant, you okay? Scanner picks you up drifting away from the shuttle—we should probably get the hell out of here soon.” I heard. Groaning softly, I replied, “Yeah, yeah. Just getting a better view of what was happening over there for home.” Reaching a hand up to my helmet, I pressed a button on it, facing the two ships—a snapshot being taken and transcieved back through the blue-space anomaly, which seemed to be slowly fading off.

Turning my propulsion pack on, I slowly started to make my way towards the shuttle—letting out a very short puff of air through the gyroscope as it propelled me back. As I started making my way, I saw several long beams of purple light skim past me in straight lines—moving in several directions towards the shuttle. Turning my head over I noticed that one of the ships seemed to have turned slightly, and one of its light beams started shooting at us…?

My heart started beating rapidly in fear as I opened the communications link and yelled, “Reinhardt! Get the ship moving now! We’re under fire!” I opened the vent on my propulsion pack wider as he responded, “Copy. Get back here now, I’m warming the engines up.” I closed my eyes and tried to move faster towards the docking port—space not really letting me accelerate much more than when I have to waste air moving towards it.

Then, it happened. A ray of straight purple light pierced through part of the ship, quickly burning away part of the main metallic/ceramic structure onboard. Air vented out and it pushed me away from the shuttle. I gulped, yelling, “Nooo! Anyone onboard, get a fucking suit on! Major! Comms Officer!” I tapped my helmet as the air continued to spill out and another ray of light pierced through the top of the shuttle, venting even more of the precious gas outwards. I felt a tear begin to swell up at the base of my eye as my ship, my fellow beings were in there, losing air with their suits at the other end of the shuttle. I rapidly begun to blink, shaking my head to get the bit of water out of it.

Opening the vent even wider, I managed to inch my way back towards the shuttle, trying to avoid the cuts in it as I approached, successfully latching on and closing the valve to conserve air. Climbing around using the metallic frame, I moved down to one of the holes in the craft—the pressure rapidly dropping and the air rapidly flowing out. The parts of the ship that were damaged still looked to be red-hot, so I took care not to touch them as I made my way inside through one of them, looking around for anyone.

Noone so far—maybe they’re all holed up and safe for the moment! I shook my head in disbelief that this was happening, a delusional fantasy coming over me as I moved towards the EVA storage location, opening the one airlock before where the suits were and…

Dead. Eight of them. Their reaction time of a few minutes wasn’t good enough. I stared in shock at the crew before me, grabbing at their throats, bodies bloated slightly from the excess expansion of gasses inside of them due to lack of air. I continued to hold my place, holding on a bar as another beam of light shot right through the shuttle, skimming a few feet past my right side as it exposed even more air. I wasn’t sure what to do. Shaking my head, I realized that /I/ was still in danger—perhaps my luck would allow me to return home with enough skill—though I had no fucking clue how to fly this thing. I was a bloody engineer, not a pilot.

After a few moments of looking at the crew, I heard a coughing over the communications link, my hope restored somewhat. “A-anyone make it?” I hear weakly, the voice of the Major ringing through my ears. “Just me sir…” I replied, quickly thinking as I grabbed a suit that was floating around, along with a helmet and a tank, heading for the cockpit as it was most likely not damaged much and where he most likely was. “The rest of them… They’re dead…” I added, my voice shocked. I heard a curse come from the other end as I opened one end of the airlock, closing it behind me before I headed into the cockpit—the emergency air storage equalizing pressure in the midway section.

I saw him strapped to a chair, holding his side with some blood floating around him, his other hand trying to flick switches and buttons slowly. “M-Major? Reinhardt?” I asked through my helmet, not removing it as I had no clue what the air concentration was. He weakly turned his head towards me and smiled. “Glad you made it... Lieutenant… Don’t…” he begun to say, coughing out more blood as it moved over to me and splattered against my waterproof suit, being flung away. “Don’t think… I can make it…” he said, grimly. I shook my head, brandishing the suit and helmet, opening the back for him so he could get in. “No, sir! We can get home, we can get you fixed! Let’s just get you out of this air!” I exclaimed. “If anything, we can try and get back, crash land around Mars and hope for the colonists there to get to us. There’s a way to get you home!” I said, nearly pleading as I unstrapped him and set one of his boots into the suit.

He set a hand on my shoulder and looked up into my helmet, smiling softly. “Lieutenant… Under… My chair…” he says, pointing up towards the front chair in the center of the room. “Box… Get please…” he added. Quickly, I floated my way over and found a plastic container, picking it up and bringing it back to him, handing it over to him as he slowly opened the container—throwing the lid to the side as it flew off slowly. Reaching down, he pulled out a small photo of himself, with a woman and a boy and a girl—enjoying themselves at a beach. I frowned, seeing this, which was most likely his family.

Handing the photo my way, he said, “If you… Make it back… Tell her… I love her… Tell my kids… Daddy… Is proud… Of them…” He gasped for air a few times before coughing and pounding his chest once more—the air most likely filling with CO2 by now. I quickly pulled the mask out of the suit and set it on his face, opening a small air canister. He could at least breathe more easily for the moment. He pulled out a wrapped towel before throwing the empty container off to the side—pulling out the pistol that we were given.

I stared as he held it in his hands, a finger of his tracing the lines that lay down against the metal frame. “S-sir you aren’t…” I began to say as he held his hand up. “I… Would rather leave happy with them in mind than gagging on my own blood…” he spoke as he weakly lifted it to his head, my body trying to refrain from reacting. He moved it to the side of his head and closed his eyes. He tried pulling the trigger—his remaining strength not enough as it was rather hard. Turning his head over to me, he looked pleadingly out, begging for me to make it easier on him.

I uneasily took it, my hands shaking through my suit. He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the barrel. “Thank… You… Valentine…” he said softly as I closed my own eyes and started to yell, both hands holding onto the gun as I pulled the trigger—the bullet quickly passing through his head and through the floor—making the air drain out along with all the bodily fluids and brain matter that splattered out from his head—flowing out into space. I stood in shock as my head paid attention to the shell that hovered around my side, my body not responding for several seconds.

I froze, the pistol in my hands feeling heavy even in the zero-gravity. I had never shot one before, let along shot someone—this was… Weighing heavily. My thoughts were interrupted as another beam of light shot through the cabin of the vessel, destroying half of the computers and severing a piece of the ship off—just narrowly missing me. The lights died, the vent sound faded, all was quiet, and dark. I grabbed the spare canister of oxygen that I had planned to set on the Major’s suit, and attached it to my own propulsion device—hopefully elongating my allowed time for a bit.

Staring out into the depths of space, towards the two ships—both of which appeared to be damaged, and the one that turned, appeared to be on fire. Gripping the pistol in my hands and catching the spare clips, setting it aside on my tool belt, my instincts kicked in. I stepped out through the carved open part of the ship and turned my propulsion system on, heading towards what I thought to be my only hope of survival—the people that killed my fellow crew mates.

Turning my communications system on, hoping to get one last signal back to earth, though the ship was no longer useful—it being dead in space and nothing seemingly functional, I held the pistol in my hands and read the line out.

“Reliquêmus in sidera… They’re… All gone… This is Lieutenant Nicholas Valentine. Last survivor of the Universalis nine rocket. Contact will be made with extraterrestrials… If I don’t make it back… Tell the world we’re not alone.”

Turning off my communications, I looked back one last time at the battered shuttle, unhooking the lifeline cable from my suit. I saluted it and then turned back towards the two ships in the distance with a range of emotions running through my head. One thing was certain though.

I’m using more than one bullet from this thing.