The Dreadnaught

I close my eyes and say.

"fuck it."

I press every button, blindly and I think to myself.

"if I figure out how to fly this thing, I can get out of here."

as I keep pressing more buttons, I suddenly feel the ship slowly ascend into the air, I pump my fist in the air.

"hell yeah!"

I look at the weird setup in front of me and notice that there is no throttle, or anything that looks remotely similar to one and I ask myself nervously.

"how am I supposed to fly this?"

I click my tongue as the ship starts flying itself up into the atmosphere.

"damn it, I must have activated the auto pilot or something."

a garbled voice then begins to transmit throughout the entire ship, I look around frantically, trying to find the source so I can silence it, but after a few minutes of exhausting my energy, I give up and sit down thinking to myself.

"this wasn't supposed to happen."

I clench my fists and I angrily punch the wall behind while cursing at Cooper.

"fucking Cooper this is all your fault!"

after a few more punches, I begin to sob as I start thinking about my sister, and my niece.

"I'm sorry."

I stare at the ceiling of the ship, until I slowly drift away to sleep, only to wake up a couple of minutes later with the sound, of hangar doors closing, I quickly get up and look out the window to see that my ship, has docked inside another ship, I then think to myself feeling hopeful that I somehow landed inside a friendly vessel, but that hope is quickly crushed by the sight of many synthetics patrolling the hangar and multiple synthetic ships docked, I then panic in my mind.

"I'm in a world of shit now."

I try to calm down myself down.

"stop it Rodriguez, you won't get out of here alive if you start losing your shit."

I begin by taking off the radiation suit that I no longer need and start patting myself to see what useful items I have on me, and put down my sidearm, two grenades, and a lighter, I then sigh.

"this is not going to be enough, if I want to get out of here alive."

I stare at all of the items I've got, contemplating what my next move should be.

"if this is small carrier class ship, I can at least do some sabotage from the inside, before dying."

I grab my sidearm, and put away the lighter and the grenades away as I begin to make my way to the exit of the ship, I then take a couple of deep breaths to calm my nerves.

"if I'm dying, I at least want to die fighting."

I slowly open the door, the is near the cockpit, and I look around the immediate for any nearby synthetics, and I quietly exit the ship while staying on high alert, I then take the chance to get a proper look at the size hangar to determine what kind of ship carrier I've docked in, and I quickly realize that I'm inside a Dreadnaught when I notice many ships stacked from the floor to the ceiling, I swallow hard and say to myself.

"calm down, nothing has changed, you can still do some sabotage."

I move around silently hiding behind various objects, to avoid getting detected by the many synthetics who seem to be doing some maintenance work on the docked ships, I then wonder.

"wouldn't they have some kind of way to detect organic life inside their Dreadnaught capital ships? because they don't seem to be aware of my presence."

but seeing the synthetics still being unaware of me made me speculate.

"maybe since humans don't infiltrate their Dreadnaught ships, they probably didn't bother putting any detectors inside."

I look around for doors, and I make a quick dash towards it, hoping that I don't run into any patrolling synthetics, I feel around the door trying to find a way to open it, but there doesn't seem to be any kind of mechanism or button to open it, I panic.

"fuck if I don't do something to open it, then I'm going to get found out before I even get a chance to do anything."

suddenly as the door slides open, I put my back against the wall at the side of door, trying to look as flat as possible, while a synthetic walks through the door and passes by me, not noticing me, I then take this chance to enter the door, while the synthetic goes off to another direction, I sigh in relief while having my head down and both my hands on each knee.

"that was close."

I lift my head and find myself looking down a narrow hallway, with more doors, on each side of the walls, I slowly lift my sidearm up to eye level, with me looking down the sight and walk down the long corridor, ready to fire if I bump into any synthetics, and as I keep walking, I hear some footsteps approaching from the corner ahead of me, I stand still, aiming down my weapon, patiently waiting for the synthetic, and I think to myself.

"hopefully when I shoot and destroy it, that the other synthetics don't get alerted."

the synthetic turn the corner, I hold my breath and without hesitating I pull the trigger, firing my weapon multiple times, with each projectile hitting it's vital parts, like I've done many times in training without fail, and as the synthetic falls down destroyed, I exhale letting out all the air I was holding in and think to myself.

"alright, I can't stick around for too long, I gotta keep moving."

I turn back and pick a random door to see if I have any luck trying to open one, but they all seem to have now way for me to open them, I groan frustrated.

"these doors don't operate like normal doors."

I pace back and forth in front of the door, trying to think of ways to open it, but whatever solution I think of the door doesn't budge, and after exhausting every option in my disposable, I aim my sidearm at door, and fire at various spots until the door quickly slides open, I sigh and relief.

"at least I can open the doors this way."

I then look at my sidearm and think to myself.

"but all I'm doing is wasting ammo that I'm really going to need if I run into anymore synthetics."

I enter the room with no enemies in sight, and I smile when I come into sight, with what looks like their bomb loading bay, I take my time to examine the bombs, and notice they are nuclear warheads, I look at my two grenades and think to myself.

"well it looks like I'm going out with a big bang."

I take out my two grenades, but before pulling the pins on both of them, I come up with an idea that will allow me to survive if I somehow don't die in the explosion.

"I should go back for the radiation suit."

as I slowly and carefully male my way back to the hangar, I begin to wonder.

"even though the radiation suit is not made for floating around in space, the oxygen tank attached to it should allow me to survive it."

my hopes begin to raise, as I imagine the scenario, of me surviving the explosion while destroying the Dreadnaught, and somehow figuring out a way to commandeer one of their ships and flying my way back home to my sister and niece, in one piece, I return my focus back to what I was doing and as I enter the hangar, I notice that all the ships that were docked here for maintenance, were suddenly gone including the many synthetics that were around, but thankfully the ship I stole was still docked where I left it at, I breathe a sigh of relief.

"great, I can still pull this off."

I run towards the ship, throwing caution to the wind and as I begin putting on the radiation suit, I think to myself.

"is the Dreadnaught engaged in a battle with a human battleship? and if that is the case, then my chances of getting out this alive had increased."

after suiting up, I leave the ship and run back to the bomb loading bay, I grab both grenades and take a couple of deep breaths as I toss them right next to the nuclear warheads.

I then stop telling the story to Emilia and Xuilana who are both enthralled about my experience I inside a Dreadnaught, Emilia then says.

"you have never told me this story before Lieutenant."

I respond.

"well it was classified information, but since we are the only ones left, I don't see any reason keeping stuff like this a secret from you."

she then asks.

"so why did you stop? what happened after you threw the grenades?"

I answer.

"because I don't remember much after the explosion, but all I know, is that one of our own, found me floating in space and I was brought back to our superiors to tell them what I did."

Xuilana just looks at me with admiration and says.

"you are very amazing Brian, any normal elf would have not been able to do what you did."

I reply.

"it was all dumb luck."

I pause and think about some of the missions I failed, and say.

"I wish I had that kind of luck when I really needed it."

Emilia stands up and puts her hand on my shoulder.

"Lieutenant you shouldn't dwell on whatever missions you've failed, the only thing you are doing is torturing yourself."

Xuilana agrees and says.

"come on let's go to the city and show her the amazing sights."

Emilia smiles.

"yes let's do that, if this planet is going to be our new home moving forward, then we should enjoy everything that it has to offer."

I nod.

"okay then, but I suggest we go visit, Lake Lujtian."

Emilia asks.

"why there?"

Xuilana replies.

"the water there is so clear, that you can see the fish swimming around."

as we exit my house together, we are met with Raylee, who is parked outside in her motorbike, I sigh and approach her.

"can I help you with something Miss Raylee?"

she points at Emilia.

"yes, I just wanted to ask her some questions."

I reply.

"sure, but you must do me a favor."

she asks.

"like what?

I respond.

"we are going to show her Lake Lujtian, and I would like to invite you to come with us, instead of following us around like a creep."

she pouts.

"that's mean."

Xuilana chimes in.

"you are stalking them quite a bit, so yeah that would make you a creep."

she asks completely oblivious that she was indeed stalking us.

"was I really being a creep, I was just trying to report stories about female human that was revived."

I reply.

"her name is Emilia, and you can ask her all the questions you want, if you come to the lake with us."

she just sits there, silently thinking to herself, but I interrupt her by asking.

"so what do you say? want to tag along?"

she replies, while trying to hide her smile.

"well It is not like I want to go, but if you keep on insisting then I guess I'll come with you."

I smile.

"great, you can just leave your motorbike parked here, we are going to ride in my vehicle together."

she looks at me with suspicion and says.

"this better not be trick to get a rid of me."

I smile.

"It's not come on."

we all get inside with Xuilana behind the wheel, while Raylee sits right next to Emilia in the back, I then say to Xuilana.

"okay we're good to go."

after a long and uneventful one hour drive to the city, we get stuck in massive traffic on the highway entering the city, I poke my head out the window and ask out loud as I notice looking up at the sky.

"what is going on?"

Xuilana looks up at the sky and points at a ship orbiting the planet and asks confused.

"why is there a Cochlea Galactic Authority battleship in our planet's orbit?"

Raylee also looks up, through the window and replies.

"I don't know, but whatever it is, it can't be good."