The young miner

"The mitochondria are the power house of the cell" muttered the small malnourished young man, as he opens his eyes, confused and dazed, his back was met by a Sting of an insect, a big wasp-like creature. It hovered above him for a few seconds and when the creature saw him awake, it went away. He then proceeds to drag himself and a cart full of rocks from a dark tunnel lit by a faint orange glow emanating from the walls. As he pulled himself out, he was met by the people who will sort the ore. the cart was detached from his harness and he was dragged to a line of people like him.

As the he looked towards the end of the line there was a commotion.

"another idiot" said one of the guards, one of the miners was being pinned down. He was tied to a pole on an elevated platform for the others to see. He wasn't struggling, as if he knew its not going to do anything.

Moments later the insects from before started stinging him, the man didn't look like he was in pain though, rather, a look of relief was painted on his face.

the spots where he was stung started to change colour, a dark shade of purple began to crawl from the spots, and with his last gasp of air his body fell limp as his skin and muscles dripped like melted candle wax.

"is he dead?" the young miner asked "ye—" replied one guard as he snapped his head to the direction where the question came from.

"who was that?!"

the other guards also turned their attention

"we'll give you food"

another guard said, then one of the miners raised his hand, he was about to speak when the guards started to open fire at the man.

"anyone else?"

the guards started laughing while the miners fell silent as the line moved forward.

When the young miner approached the scanner, a pair of eyes was watching him.

"all good"

The young miner was then given his food for the night and sent to the sleeping area. then he quietly finished his food and went to sleep

"I guess death is a better option than a life like this huh? ... but it could have been worse" he wheezed before closing his eyes.

"oi! Wonder if we'll have food in the morning?!" shouted the man beside him, "I'm sure they'll find the time to cook something!" he yelled back, as the cold winter air was filled with the smell of gun powder, and the evening sky was lit by flashes of rifles and explosions.

The explosions gradually turned into clanging as he opens his eyes.

It was time to enter the mines again, he was in line for his injection when two guards dragged him to a room and strapped him to an apparatus "sorry about this, but its time" the man then inserted a memory crystal to the slot of the head peace and the young miner's mind was filled with information.

"upload complete" hearing this, the man pulled him out of the room and returned him to the entrance of the mines.

"wait for the signal. In your harness, is the pass code to the ship" whispered the man as they approached the line, though dazed, he nodded.

BOOM! BOOM!

The sound of the explosions sent the guards into a panic; leaving the miners unguarded.

some took the chance to run but most were too afraid, the he didn't move however because he knew the miners who'll run will be shot and, he wasn't wrong.

"miners to the sleeping area!" as the words echoed through the asteroid, he knew it was his time to run; following the route highlighted in the map sketched in his head, he made his way towards the shipyard but he noticed he's weakening, he didn't get the energy injection, his body is now feeling the effects of not having it while doing strenuous activity but then suddenly he thought of something stupid when he saw the insect buzzing towards him, he then stretched his left arm and it latched its self on his hand and it stung him, grabbing it by the wings preventing it from flying off, it went to a frenzy and stung him repeatedly.

"this will be enough, though the aide effects... lets worry about that later" as his muscles start to feel the effects of the sting he threw the insect away, he gradually gained strength and started to run faster and faster eventually reaching the ship, but before he can climb aboard he saw the purple spot was near his shoulder.

he looked for a cooling pipe and started hammering one of them, as he punched a hole the gas instantly froze the metal pick and it crumbled, he then leaned closer, a familiar pain struck him as his shoulder froze, seeing his arm drop to the metal floor "well... shit" he said gritting his teeth while motionless because of the pain.

It took him a little while to manage the pain he felt and as soon he did he bound the stump and then entered the ship, relief flooded his senses when his head met the soft foam of the pilot's seat but his task wasn't done yet, as the ship came to life, he immediately steered it towards the others and he opened fire.

satisfied at the pile of scraps crumbling before his eyes the blast doors of the ship yard was now the object of his attention.

he fired at it making a hole big enough for the ship to pass without issue, then seeing the guards firing at him, he deployed a bomb before flying off, the explosion gave him a boost as he exited the ship yard, then the atmos barrier of the dock was suddenly disabled he knew the secondary blast door was about to close, feeling the rush of escaping air he slammed his first on the emergency thrusters and braced himself, as the ship gained speed he was pushed harder and harder to his seat, the ship flew out before the door fully closed, it was so fast the security drones patrolling the exit didn't have time to accelerate and give chase all they did was fire a few shots but it was a fruitless effort, the ship was too fast for the bullets.

The emergency thrusters stopped when the ship was out of the asteroid's range.

He breathed a sigh of relief because for the first time, he was free, he might not know where he's going but at least he was free. and though in pain due to the side effects of the insect's sting, he felt drowsiness's sweet embrace and he welcomed her with open arms.

As he was closing his eyes, the nav-AI opened and plotted a course for a planet, then two drones took him from the pilot's seat and placed his body in a capsule that suddenly filled with a liquid and he felt more relaxed, the pain faded and he finally fell asleep.

"no! ... I am your father ..." as he sees a man in black armour talking to someone who was on a ledge "oh! Now that is a plot twist!" a boy bedside him exclaimed shocked at whatever is happening on the television.

Alarms rang throughout the ship's system as seconds later the armor and hull was pelted with objects flying near the speed of light, the ship's kinetic barrier deployed just in time to save it from total destruction.

The crystals penetrated the outer armor and hull but only one manage pierce the interior; the kinetic barrier took out most of its potential energy so almost all of the damages were to the exterior. Lady luck was generous in that moment, when one of the crystals damaged the warp drive, activating the ship's emergency warp protocol and the ship managed to escaped with significant but not too severe damages.

Well considering the situation the damages were minimal.

The capsule opened and he woke up to a pointed red crystal a few inches above his face, he tried to push it out of the way with his left hand only to notice he didn't have one anymore.

"aw man phantom limb again" he chuckled a bit.

Hearing the crystal grinding against metal he immediately rolled to the side and dropped to the floor, he then turned his attention to the crystal thinking it dropped, but it didn't.

"did I just make that move?" he was befuddled by what happened, when the AI spoke.

" the ship suffered 76% damage over all; 23% nav-system, 31% warp drive, 22% shell and outer Armor disabling cloaking functions ... enter pilot's name to unlock full interface and AI functionality" he was deep in thought as a digital console appeared; 65-01-30 that was the name given to him is the mines. suddenly memories flooded his mind. a foreign language, names of people, and places. It took him a while to proses these new information, he slowly backed up to the pilot's seat.

Regaining his scenes he typed " spike " as it was the first word that popped in his head; the AI accepted the name and the console asked for his hand print, " pilot's codename accepted ... integrating pilot's data from anonymous to user-profile" the AI went silent for a moment, then the ship's nav-system projected a planet and a pop-up indicating his location, then the control panel to his left opened and a drone flew out.

"hello! I`m the ship's AI interface. I'm also the pilot's P-A drone, for me to accompany you outside the ship you may have to carry my data core ... would you like to take it?"

he was admiring the little blue drone as it spoke "call me José and yes ill take the core" a part of the console opened

"rest your forearm here" the drone instructed him

"this'll hurt won't it?" he asked as he braced himself and placed his arm on it; it clamped down and intense pain assaulted his scenes, as the indicator on the clamp reach one 100% it opened; freeing him. His arm is now covered with cybernetics, his look of pain was replaced by fascination as synthetic skin started to cover the exposed parts.

...

"Is it done?" asked the man on the other side of the call. The one sitting in the office of the mining facility suddenly tensed up,

"yes sir the he escaped but the ship suddenly disappeared from the tracking band … m-maybe the locator was damaged..." the room was silent for a moment.

"continue monitoring the tracking band even if it's a blip you report it to me immediately" the communication turned silent as the man breathed a sigh of relief.

...

"master José it'll take one and a half cycles for the repairs to finish" the AI suddenly exclaimed snapping him out of his deep thoughts as he was still fascinated by the tech implanted in his arm, "what? I can't do that, look at me ... my muscles are atrophied and I'm missing an entire arm plus I---" he stopped as two white drones floated passed him with a red crystal.

"there's nothing for you to do master, we'll repair the ship while you rest, and you should eat something; the Nano machines in your body are ready, all they'll need are nutrients to start the repairs of your organs and muscles. there are nutrition bars in the emergency rations, just add water and wait a few seconds... Now if you don't mind getting out? we have work to do..." the blue drone explained while pushing him out the ship.

He then sat on a rock near a cliff overlooking a vast forest with large trees a few hundred metres tall.

as the sun disappeared darkness covered the landscape giving rise to a faint greenish blue bioluminescent glow from the trees, "this is unbelievable … I never knew I'd see such a sight" he was so captivated by the scene unfolding that it took him a good while to notice the three moons looming overhead, one of them was brighter than the others clearly composed of a more reflective material.

"hay! Blue-drone, what planet are we on?" as the drone approached it was projecting the planet "class (A) garden planet, owned by the house of Valkir, we are technically trespassing but if we don't brake any other rules we'll be ok …" José's thoughts was about being arrested for trespassing when he saw the brighter moon opened.

"let's just avoid getting caught here. as soon as the ship can warp we're going" the drone nodes in agreement "oh and ill call you Blue from now on and you'll call me Mang-José or Manong, it's a title equal to master or lord" slightly snickered at the last thing he said "yes Mang-José" he then suddenly burst into laughter as he heard Blue say it. he thought of informing Blue that it was a joke, but he realised no body knows what that means so he didn't try to explain he just continued laughing.

Blue suddenly spoke after a blip notifying it of the progress "passive camo restored" José then turned his gaze away from the beautiful sight, "let's get in. activate passive camouflage"

...

"My lady please; your father will have my head if he knew you were sneaking off to the zegan fighting pits" as a young man was franticly hiding the clothes a young woman was throwing at him.

"AH! You worry too much … as long as you keep quiet and father doesn't find those, it'll be fine" she said walking out of her room.

TLANG! TLANG! TLANG! … the sound of the control room floor as her shoes greeted it with authority, the people in uniform immediately shot up from their seat and saluted.

"Ma-am there was a warp field detected near the planet, unfortunately a dense concentration of ensive disrupted our detectors, we cannot pin point it now, we only have its general location; sector 2-33-4, we have deployed two sweeper drones, so far they haven't found it" a young woman spoke from the captain's seat.

"prepare my stinger …" commanded the white haired young woman before exiting.

"oh no …" the young attendant sighed in defeat as he sees his master's hair change from silvery white to glowing ebony.

José was on the pilot seat looking at one of the moons when he saw movement, he zoomed in and saw a small ship coming out.

"stinger class fighter VALKIR.co Custom" Blue suddenly spoke, then José sensed a familiarly-ominous feeling that felt nostalgic in a way; he got up, took a bite of his food and waited by the door.

He was contemplating whether this person will listen to reason or not, his muscles aren't restored yet so a physical confrontation isn't a good option, he was planning to play that (I`m just passing by shtick) hoping they will listen

"is our weapon systems working?" he asked while still facing the door

"we only have our forward guns and rear bomb-drone bay" blue then showed him how many bomb-drones and bullets they have,

"can we fight in the air?" turning his face to the drone "this ship isn't designed for atmospheric combat, our flight capability is reduced by 40%; if you're planning an aerial fire fight the odds wont be in our favour" he was still deep in thought when he felt the presence drawing closer

"they found us … should I open fire?" Blue`s colour turned red indicating combat mode was activated "no … we shouldn't do anything to provoke them, but have two bomb-drones armed and ready … just in case shit hits the fan" the little drone fell silent and turned blue again, its face turned into a box rotating as if its thinking about the last thing he said.

...

"passive camo? But you're not concealing your ensive … or is it possible that you're not aware? … wonder if I just recruit her for my personal guard if she begs for her life."

As her ship was a good distance from the ground she jumped out while the two sweeper drones stood guard

"come out! Or ill tear that ship open … one! … tw---" she was interrupted by the ship dropping its camouflage and the door opened, a figure stud at the entrance; it lifted its one hand above its head.

"I'm just passing by, my ship was damaged by a sudden asteroid cluster" as the figure slowly climbed down she was shocked to hear a young man`s voice then the drones opened their search light to revile a small frail young man probably the same age as her.

"hmm … you won't happen to be a fugitive by any chance?" José stopped at the edge of the ramp "what if I' am? What'll happen to me?"

the woman crossed her arms then tilted her head to the side, she was thinking that this boy was a rear fined letting him go would be the same as scraping a perfectly good luxury star cruiser.

"maybe if I offer him asylum he might not think of escaping" thinking she'll have her way she made the offer in exchange for his servitude.

Blip! "warp drive 80% functional" hearing this from Blue a faint smile crept on his face

"can we warp?" he whispered

"yes but ill need time and clearance from the ground" José then though of the offer "start the preparations"

he then replayed to the offer made by the woman "do I have a choice in that matter?" the woman started laughing

"your funny, what's your name?"

José was thinking if he should say his name and if the woman would as well, after all he is powerless in this situation and she has a knife pressed upon his throat "call me spike" the woman smiled at him "and I am Ashen Sambiele Valkir but you can call me Ash" then she motioned for the drones to stand by.

"ma-am there's energy building up in the ship, he might be preparing for warp" as the people in the bridge was monitoring the José's ship, "I doubt he'll be crazy enough to do that in atmosphere" she said with a smile adorning her beautiful face as she continues to discuss her plan with the voice in her communicator she walked closer to the ship "well then; ill pilot your ship to our station and my medical team will tend to your wounds" José's eyes widen as he didn't take this scenario into account.

"oh, why didn't I thought of that? … fuck!" swearing under gritted teeth he heard Blue "warp ready, we only need ground clearance" he then quickly formulated a plan.

"there's no need for you to come aboard, this ship has a sophisticated AI, ill just order it to follow you, or if your dissatisfied with that ill give you a control link" the woman stopped as lines of codes came into her view, "hmm vary well …" her ship then suddenly flew near her and she climbed in.

Ash instructed a few tug-drones to deploy "as soon as we're in the upper atmosphere restrain the ship" as she controlled José's ship testing the codes he sent.

the ramp where José was standing on started to lift so he had to get in, then the ship took off; Blue then started to count the altitude "minimum warp clearance reached …" José then detached a drone from the pilot's control panel and armed it before launching it to the sweeper drones behind his ship.

When the bomb-drone detonated they immediately entered warp leaving Ash stunned at what he just pulled "can you track him?!" she shouted as her ship sped up to the warship "yes ma-am the energy trails is still fresh" Ash smiled as she leaped out of her ship just as it entered the atmos barrier and quickly ran towards the bridge "close the blast doors! Prepare for warp!" she commanded walking towards the captain's seat.

The entire moon was moving, blast doors closing its surface shifting, then in an instant, it diapered.

Alarms were blearing as José`s ship dropped from warp. the shell was red hot and fire alarms were everywhere "well at least we`re a long way away" that's when proximity alert popped up in the monitor "oh what now?" suddenly he flew forward to the pilot's seat with a loud thud "what the fuck!?" as he turned to look at Blue; José then thought it might just be one of the damages, so he didn't think much of it at first but then he noticed that same intense feeling "it is an external force the inertial brake didn't activate" as blue explained José's thoughts wondered about how she managed to track him.

"you're not getting away that easy" she was holding out a fist glowing with purple energy as if holding on to the ship in front. it too was covered with a purple glow, then she slowly pulled back.

"the ship is in the dock ma-am" with a sweet smile she then slowly got up and calmly walked out "turn us around we're done here" she said before exiting.

It took her a while getting to the ship's dock, her slower pace was due to her feeling the effects of the amount of ensive she used. As she entered the dock the sound of fire extinguishers left and right was all she heard

"ma-am the pilot refused to open the do—" the soldier stopped when the sound of metal being torn apart rang out, as she entered she can hear José "well? ... Now what?" José was sitting on the floor behind the pilot's seat as he looked at his captor in the eyes.

"your reckless and cunning, I like that, so now you're mine" with a smile on her face she then exited as her medical team entered.

He spent a few cycles in the med bay, the doctors were fascinated and horrified to fined a lethal amount of mult in his system.

"he's lucky his ship was equipped with a Nano machine medical pod" said one of the doctors. when he was discharged from the medical ward Ash then ordered to fetch him.

"eat ... its all yours" motioning to the food in front "hmm ... very well ... can you elaborate on the "your mine" thing? I don't understand"

he then started to eat while the young woman was faintly giggling; like she was watching her new pet eat from the palm of her hands for the first time, "what part do you not understand? ... I just wanted to be friends..." she replied with a sweet smile.

"when I was a little boy we aren't well-off, I would always envy the children who got what they wanted, all I can do was watch their reactions to the things they received. A few would throw a fit if they didn't like the things they got or there's another things they wanted, but most would have the same expression you have ... especially if its a pet"

Ash was taken by surprise, she never thought he'd noticed her intention to make him her plaything, she realised this is a very rear fined indeed not just for his ensive but also for his mind.

"well not exactly a pet more like ... a weapon" as her expression changed her hair also shifted to a silvery white colour "well how would you feel if I hire you? ... if you accept no one will dear harm you ... plus you ca---" she was interrupted by the sight of José shoving food down his throat "ok ... as long as there's more food ... oh and don't touch my ship" she chuckled and motioned for more food.

...

"I've found him my lord he is in a Valkir.co warship, I'm afraid he was taken as a prisoner" the one on the other side didn't say a word it just cut off.

...

José and Ash was at the ship yard watching Blue and the other drones as they worked on the ship, while José was still chewing food and sitting on the boxes of parts when the question of whatever ensive is came to mind.

"well simply put its energy ... you know what runs these ships?"

"yes ..." he replied

"now imagine that our life is the fusion drive and the energy produced is ensive, now the using of ensive to do things is called magic" she smiled at him as a floating box gently landed in front of him

"so is magic limited to this? Floating thing around, catching ships and dragging them?" he faces her with a condescending smile

" only three here in the entire ship that can pull off what I just did, and no it's not the only things magic can do; depending on how long you've practiced and trained, the amount of ensive and output are factors that determines the feats you can perform. Some can ignite it and shoot fire from their hands that can melt bizan steel like the shell of your ship" she looked at him to se if his paying attention.

"no one is born knowing how to use their ensive we simply figure out how to use it as the concept was introduced to us. and in two thousand years we have only somewhat understood it. now there are aspects to this that we don't fully understand, like some can read minds, see the future although vaguely"

José was deep in thought "so is there's a school for it?"

"no ... you'll have to figure that on your own unfortunately. the only thing the school can give you is a back story for it; and basically just saying 'hay there's this thing you know'. though schools can provide a good training ground to exercise and unlock their abilities they cant tell you how to start using it, so if you're looking for a crash course? Entering school won't help you" she said getting up "restore your body first then ill help you practice, oh and report to the armoury I think we have a spare combat prosthetic arm"

"left arm?"

"it changes to fit the person"

José then approached Blue "data mining progress?" the little blue drone shows a progress bar "now all we need is to transfer that"

"data of this size will destroy your mind, I suggest we take our time beside this data aren't top secret, so there's no need to risk your life on it" Blue explained as sparks fly from the door that Ash ripped open.

"ma-am we've received a distress signal from a nearby colony, their under attack"

"battle mode prepare for warp ... Spike get your arm and come to the bridge the captain called for you" José was startled when he heard the captain called for him

He then walked to the armoury, he was greeted by two personnel "you must be spike? I'm Laros" the young man greeted him excitement "and I'm Yann, we are technically your crew now" José was confused

"crew? For what?" he asked the two

"we are new graduates from military academy, we are assigned to you" Yann said handing him the documents and Laros handed him a right arm he then looked at him "your jokes are untimely"

"oh you misunderstood his will change depending on, its wearer unfortunately its power is depleted"

"this one is a prototype, made by our family. people with a good amount of ensive are the only one's able to use it however so it was discontinued" Yann looked disappointed

"I thought its just a standard one?" José was confused "well this is the one cousin wanted us to give you" José finally understood, when Blue spoke apparently it was listening.

"I can modify it but only in the ship" Laros was surprised to hear a voice coming from José's forearm "let's go we'll be out of warp soon"

As they got to the ship Blue and two drones took the arm and started working on it, Laros and Yann was fascinated by the capabilities of the ship "organic Nano machine medical pod? Advanced Ai assistant and a few weapons, military grade Armor. It's like this ship is designed for a specific set of scenarios"

Their jaws dropped to see a three inch red crystal being installed on the arm, then it started shifting, the two drones took it near his stump and then tendrils sprouted from it that dug into his shoulder; José was in pain but it was barrable

"organic Nano machine connection established, artificial nerves construction in progress" José started to pee due to the pain of having new nerves created, his knees were also weakening, he never felt this much pain before much more than having his arm getting blasted off.

"metal Nano machine arm installation complete" the drones then lifted him to a cleaning chamber, moments later he got out all cleaned but without clothes; Yann saw him stumble out but wasn't bothered buy the sight of a naked person

"Blue create the clothes I designed earlier"

"processing ..." and seconds later a 6 by 10 inch panel opened and five items of clothing was in it; a black T-shirt, a grey hoodie, underwear and dark blue pants and a pair of red shoes.

"lets go ..." he said as the two were wondering about what he was wearing.

As they were walking to the bridge; staff that saw him had that look of curiosity

"took you long enough" as Ash motioned him to her side "what are you wearing?"

"battle suit" he replied with a straight face but laughing on the inside

as they dropped from warp destruction greeted them, they're a good distance from the planet but they can tell a massacre just happened. The planet's surface looked ok but the people were gone, then the warships of the colony contacted them

"we're doing a planet wide scan my lady, but it appears most sentient life are either gone or dead"

"how did this happen?" Ash asked calmly

"we've detected an energy surge on the surface and before we knew it--it happened in an instant we didn't have time to respond" the captain of the ship was clearly shaking with anger and grief

"have you reported this to the council?"

"no ma-am haven't even completed the sca—"

"captain! Sector 66-4 Vellen city there are a few survivors" hearing this the captain ordered for a response team to help the survivors, then suddenly another distress signal came in and he immediately contacted Ash

"my lady the same thing is happening in colony 5 their requesting assistance" as she heard the captain say this Ash ordered to warp.

"Hive class warship just dropped from warp!"

"contact them!"

"ca— my lady we are under at—they just app—requesting assista--" as the signal turned silent Ash immediately ordered to deploy

"let's go were going down too, we'll escort the med ships" motioning for José and the other two as she walked out

As they descended to the small colony the sight of the battle triggered another memory in José mind, then another warship dropped from warp

"Imperial vanguard class ... what?" as Yann saw it's fighters entered orbit

"why would the empire risk entering our territory?" Laros was looking at the warship as his eyebrows met

"I say let them, if their here to help then good" José was looking at the imperials fighting off the attackers alongside their allied forces as the enemies swiftly retreated through a portal.

They landed to see the fledgling colony in such a devastated state, Ash was coordinating search and rescue, when José saw movement under a pile of rubble; it was a boy crawling to a gun

"fighting is over now" he said lifting a slab of concrete freeing the boy's legs, "your legs are broken ... you should just ..." he saw the look in the boy's eyes as he grabbed the gun and smiled at him

"when they return I'll be ready" the boy said hugging the rifle

"Blue! Get this idiot to the capsule" as the drones lifted him the boy went un continues

He then walked back to Ash when an Imperial officer came to him and knelt before him

"Lord Ragnus!"

"Wait What? ..."