Hamburger Parade

Marston had been traveling for over a month towards a large asteroid field to mine since he no longer had a crew and wanted to avoid mercenary jobs and combat as much as possible, at least until he could hire some more men. Plus that Cloning Bay had emptied his funds, so asteroids were his best bet. Since asteroid mining was often used by shipowners to make some quick scrap, he had located an extremely remote field that was unlikely to have much competition.

It was risky for sure; If you ran out of fuel or broke down, it was unlikely anyone would ever come to help you, they'd probably just kill you and harvest your ship.

But Marston believed to get ahead you had to lay it on the line. There could be some scrap rich deposits in a dangerous place like this.

He finally arrived at the asteroid field and ran a scan with his ship, BINGO!

There was more Scrap than he would be able to transport in his ship. To be more precise, it was deposits of the rare ore used in making Scrap. He headed to the first asteroid that showed to have literal pounds of the stuff which would quickly refine to 75 or so units, Blasted it with his Omni Laser 3, which incinerated the surrounding rock and broke out the chunks of the good stuff.

He activated his Scrap Recovery Arm, which opened a pair of doors on the underside of the ship. The Arm slowly opened and extended before it emitted a blue glow and attracted the chunks of ore towards the end of the Arm. The Arm would then grab the metal by closing its claw on the end of the Arm and bring the Scrap to a separate compartment on his ship.

Marston continued to do this for over three days with almost no rest. His eyes were heavy; he just wanted to put the ship on autopilot, go lay down in his quarters, and fall asleep while he played old movies on his tv (He could never sleep without something playing in the background ).

He Probably had gotten around 5000-6000 Scrap Ore to refine already. At this rate, in a week or two, he'd have enough to buy a bigger ship and a full crew just as he stood up and began to turn around for his well-deserved rest.

CRACK! Space warped around an enemy Auto-piloted drone ship that had just arrived from what looked like an FTL jump this place was busier than he thought.

His ship's interior lights started flashing red, indicating there was a hostile ship.

Even as tired as he was, he knew enough to start powering up his weapons. His Omni Laser 3 had just begun glowing green when 1000 feet in front of his ship an explosion came out of nowhere, chunks of rock flew from an enormous ball of fire.

As tired as he was, he still realized an asteroid must have intercepted the Enemy'sEnemy's shot. What bittersweet luck this was. An asteroid blocking an enemy shot was nearly impossible. Marston had never even heard of it happening before; if he survived this, no one would ever believe it.

On the other hand, missiles meant there was a good chance Marston would never be telling anyone anything again.

"That was a missile." Marston's eyes grew wide. His Omni Laser 3 was at 7 %

Marston couldn't help but laugh in his desperation; this enemy drone ship must have had a Weapons Pre-igniter. There was no other way it could have launched that initial shot so quickly. At least it didn't hit; he sighed in relief.

....BOOM! His ship. His shields could only block asteroids and laser weaponry. Marston was in shock, just a moment ago he was daydreaming about the kind of ship he'd be getting. Now he was pitted in a life or death situation against a Drone ship equipped with Tiger Missiles.

The missiles had breached his Ships hull and destroyed his Sensors.

A part of Marston hoped this was just a bad dream. It wasn't.

Luckily his weapon systems had not been hit; he saw the indicator "Omni Laser 3... 22% charged" Marston was just staring at the control screen.

47%...

Another missile fired and missed. Marston hated everything right now, his laser, his robotic Enemy, and this situation.

62%...

The intermission had been a bit longer than the shots before, maybe it was out of missile's, please let it be out of ammunition.

88%....

Please be out of missiles.

Marston watched the weapons screen intently. His eyes glued to it. "Come on, come on!!" He was begging

"Please just let me survive this" Although he had a cloning bay, if his entire ship got destroyed, he'd never even get to try it out.

BOOM! BOOM! 2 more planet shaking explosions interrupted his hopes. He looked up in a panic and saw metal debris flying in front of his windshield. It wasn't out of missiles, obviously, but this damn ship had a way to build up and fire multiple shots at once.

He felt his heart sink and began to cold sweat. What systems were still working? Marston's eyes darted around, and he started to panic. First, he hit the Emergency Door Locks.

These were doors that would keep any intruders from infiltrating to his Scrap, or to the ship's Piloting area where he was. A drone ship posed no threat, usually for actual ship intrusions. This decision was the result of staying up for nearly four days and being caught off guard like this. And now his ship was damaged. He had no idea what systems still functioned.

"OH SHIT THE WEAPONS"

In an absolute panic, he looked down to see if the weapons had gotten destroyed. If they had, the gun would lose all of its charge-up until now and could not work again until Marston repaired it, and fixing a system would take too long mid-battle. If his weapon were damaged, he would simply die today.

The Omni Laser 2 or the Repair drone would have been so much smarter, why had he not bought them both instead of this ridiculous Cloning Bay.

He dreaded looking down at the screen.

97% YEEEESSSSSSSS It's working!!

99%.

Marston just sat there frozen.

His Burst Laser 3 now fully charged...100%! It started shining an even brighter green and began firing at the Autopiloted ship's weapon systems. The weapon was slow to load, but once it unleashed, it was a force to be reckoned with. It would fire off five consecutive blasts of plasma towards the crewless ship. The first of the 5 hit the shields and put them down temporarily, Marston cried out in joy!

"FUCK YES!!!!!!" Marston was overwhelmed with joy.

"Please let them hit, please, oh please, oh please." Marston's mind was racing. These five shots were about 2 seconds apart, but to Marston's time felt slower, his adrenaline was pumping him up. Two seconds felt like ten.

The next shot missed.

The ecstasy of the first shot hitting got instantly erased.

His emotions did yet another 180 when the next shot directly hit the hull of the Enemy's weapons system, and a ball of fire and shrapnel followed.

The next two shots continued through the hull and made another explosion coming from the Weapons systems of the Enemy ship. He just stared blankly for a moment. The enemy missiles had stopped firing.

For the next 3 minutes, he was on edge, but his ship had time to charge and fire the Omni Laser 3 again.

The enemy ship now destroyed! A Chain reaction of small explosions started, and then for a moment, the ship seemed to compress inwards before completely bursting apart in an even bigger bang, producing a fantastic ball of multi-colored fire.

Marston couldn't help but stare at the scenery. He had survived. He would have been happier, but he felt emotionally and physically drained more than he'd ever been before.

He wouldn't get to sleep for a while now. He needed to see what still worked on his ship. If his oxygen system were damaged, he would have to repair it immediately. At least he had his repair tools with him; he could fix any system on his ship, but if the hull had breached, he would have to be tethered and suited up. Since the sensors were down, every room would be dangerous.

He had so much to do but just wanted to watch the explosion a few seconds longer, he loved watching ships blow apart, especially one that had so nearly killed him.

Then a ragged titanium chunk of shrapnel from the enemy ship shot through the windshield piercing Marston's forehead and exploding out the back of his skull. Blood and fragments of his brain instantly painted the room from Black and white to a horrendous mix of splattered bright red and pink.

Marston's body slammed headfirst into the hole. He was temporarily a cork. His face pulled through the broken windshield, and as new cracks were beginning to appear, his skull tore into two pieces, the left side went through first while his right side's eyeball ripped from the socket.

His spine began to rip out of his body until his mangled head finally snapped off. After a brief delay, it continued and shot out into space, bringing most of his intestines, lungs, and ribs. Next, his shoulders caved and snapped, and gradually the rest of him was pulled out. It all looked like gruesome hamburger after passing through the jagged breach.