My heart wouldn't stop racing. A cold sweat ran down my back as the ship wide intercom crackled to life playing a sound we had only come to know in drills. Red alert. In that instant, my heart sank. We knew it was coming, I knew it was coming and yet it still didn't seem real. We stood in the port side elevator, flashing lights of amber rotated within their housing, blinding my field of view before vanishing as soon as they had appeared. Swallowing hard, I gripped my rifle tightly as if it were my one lifeline.

The vast metallic sheet of metal we stood upon shifted abruptly beneath our feet. Slowly, the elevator moved us to our assigned zone.

“Check arms!”

A commanding tone filled the air around us. Its strength belied the weakness that swelled within our hearts. Though just as the gruff voice ordered, I inspected my weapon not once or twice, but three separate times. Every action became a muscle memory as my hands glided over the cold synthetic material that made up my rifle.

I'm sure the others saw it just as I did, so many of us were shaking. Nerves they so liked to call it. It was more than that. A fear that gripped your heart so tight that you thought you might collapse to the floor. That, that was what it felt like. It was nothing like those damn videos they showed during recruitment, the popular buzzwords used to sink their claws into us glory seeking fools. The reality was far more grim.

The crackling sound of comms coming to life buzzed in my ear. Various officers from across the ship were feeding us updated information of the ship to ship conflict. None of us had the luxury of serving on a capital ship and thus found ourselves on the front lines of the battle. The admiral was sitting nice and cozy in the rear line giving out orders as the conflict developed. Us? Well we had the 'honor' of being the first line of defense for the third fleet.

Just as we reached the apex of the lift, another thunderous impact shook the ship. This time, a good number of us spilled onto our asses. Even with the artificial gravity system smoothing out the trembling, it was enough to know us over like dominoes. Slowly, I got to my feet, clutching my rifle close as if it were my singular lifeline. What in the hell had done that?

Sprawling just before us was the corridor that lead to the airlock, our post. Illuminated by a series of flashing warning lights, we trudged on. While I kept my mouth shut, I could hear others whisper. When a commanding officer heard any trace of doubt, well they were very quick on silencing it. And yet here we stood, trembling like a bunch of scared children at the airlock. What awaited us on the other side, who knew. The comms had gone silent a few minutes ago on our way up. We were going in blind.

“Secure your helmets, unless you want to experience what decompression feels like!”

The helmets were fairly comfortable given their purpose. The quiet hiss of oxygen filling the small area around my head was somewhat comforting. Glancing to the bottom right of my visor it detailed how much oxygen I had remaining, not something I really had to worry about at the moment. And last but certainly not least, we had short range communication between one another. Even with the ship wide communications knocked out, we could still hear our superiors issuing orders.

We watched the airlock slowly open. The magnetic boots held us in place as the chamber was purged of air. Small bits of debris flew past us as the small lights on our suits flickered to life. As far as the eye could see was that all consuming void we traveled through. The other ships were so far away they were like miniatures some hobbyist might collect. That didn't change the fact on how deadly those laser cannons were that volleyed their crimson payload far across the void.

Once free of the suction of oxygen leaving the corridor, I disengaged the magnetic lock on my boots. The jet pack on the rear of the suit roared to life and allowed me to hover close to the hull. That was when I saw it. Just as we funneled out of the cramped confines of that hallway, something of purely impossible size rammed the craft. All I could do was watch wide eyed as those that had not engaged their boosters tumble head over heel helplessly from the impact toward the void. Jerking my head back to the boarding pod... Gods above it wasn't a pod!

While bipedal, what floated before us was most certainly not human. Dark scales covered her form from what I could see through her helmet, she was draconian in nature. Dwarfing my entire squadron, she pulled out a plasma blade from her side.

“Light that bitch up!”

“Oh shit, oh fuck! What the fuck is that?!”

Our comms surged to life at the sighting of this colossal invader. A series of barrages collided with our armored nemesis as she tore into the hull, ripping hard points from the craft without ceremony. I kept firing my weapon until it finally ran out of charge. Feeling numb, my finger kept wrapped around the trigger as I stared at the unaffected dragon. My brain didn't even try to reason loading another magazine into the chamber, only seeming to watch in horror as the draconic soldier carving our vessel like a turkey.

Swallowing hard, I watched in stunned silence as my comrades were torn apart by blade and the devastating furry of such massive fists. Finally, I loaded another magazine into my rifle and shout in a feverish daze and advanced. I couldn't even process the orders that crackled through my helmet, only the silent destruction that was taking place in front of me.

Friends I'd come to know throughout my service floated before me, dead. Anger boiled in my veins as my rifle once again exhausted its battery pack. Grabbing a drifting weapon, I snapped it to my shoulder to see the colossal enemy bringing down her knife right on me.