Back on the ship

"He's just been standing there." Krev said, narrating what we were all seeing. After watching the last human just stand and twitch for several minutes we were getting kinda bored. "Do we just take the shot?" I asked. "At this point I kinda just want to leave, let him enjoy his madness." Then he just, died. I would say he fell over, but his body contorted in ways I know it's not supposed to, and that was a lot of blood. Well, a lot of new blood. Suddenly, a sound so deep that it was more felt than heard made it all the way up to our ship. We looked through the satellite to see the planet had cracked in half! "I'm sorry, WHAT?!" I was struck with horror as what was undoubtedly a dimensional rift simply manifested drop the core of the planet.

I wish it was merely all hell that had broke loose.

I don't know why I was so lucky, or perhaps unlucky, but I was distracted by great tentacles that ripped the planet apart. My friends looked directly at it. "I, I-I I I IIIIII HA! WHAT FE-" was the last thing I understood out of Melliki'ttr's mouth, because the deck erupted with similar shouts that instantly became indiscernible. I looked around the room and quickly noticed everyone on surveillance had gone mad. One sane crew member leaned over to check a partners terminal and joined his laughing brotheren. Was just looking enough then? I tuned to look as well, but stopped myself just in time. The planet was becoming an asteroid field, something was coming out, and there were eyes. Eyes everywhere. I didn't see them, but they saw me and I knew they were there. I stood there, no longer an officer, no longer a commander, but prey of an unknown predator. I don't know how long I was there, deaf and deafened by the screams of those who surrounded me, but I stood. What could I do? Run? What good could that do? More good than standing. That little voice in my head was the only reason I was able to climb to this rank. With nothing but the goal of running in my mind, I slowly took action. "Everyone! I'm ordering a full retreat! Anyone who can, disable all surveillance software and do not look directly into the planet!" I shouted into my communicator and ran to the flight deck. Someone activated the emergency system alert, which gave me hope that I wasn't the only sane person left. Bursting into the flight deck I grabbed the controls before immediately being thrown to a wall as the entire ship bucked. Holding my head where it struck the wall, I limped back to the pilot seat and checked the damage. Engine 4 was struck by something, but hopefully still functional. Looking up through the window I focus on finding a way out of the asteroid field that now surrounds us and punch the drive. It had been years since I personally piloted a vessel, but, well, we needed to go. Pulling up, then down we wove through the field towards safety. The hull was getting dinged and scored, but damage was superficial and we pulled out with few ships at our side. I couldn't care about the rest of the fleet, I needed to save who I could, the rest would have to care for themselves. With a clear shot out I activated the FTL system and sat through agonizing seconds passed as the system started going online. As the engines came to life, another one of those midnight tentacles reached out for a neighboring ship, and then we were gone.

It wasn't until we reached our Homeworld that I relaxed. Even without needing to operate a ship with a fraction of a functional crew it was still a stressful journey. We needed to get away from whatever had happened, whatever I did not see. Whatever my mind rebelled against the very concept of. It wasn't until weeks later, after reports, conferences, psyche evaluations and dealing with the press that I was finally authorized to take some leave. Taking a step into the night of my first day off, I felt the crisp air blow softly around me and exhaled. Did that really happen? How could it? Would a vacation really be all I needed to recover from this? As I looked up into the night sky, I noticed something off,

There was a patch of stars out there, that were replaced with void.

(2/2)