"Can anyone hear me? This is Imperial Trader Maximus to any friendly vessel! I am under attack, repeat, under attack!"
I remain in the shadows, my ship cold to the pirates flickering sensor pulses. As lasers rip into the besieged trader, the systems main star rises over us, a perfect backdrop to the unfolding ambush.
"Any vessel! Hull failing, Remlok deploying! Have minutes of air, please assist!"
I look on, drinking in the details as adrenaline blazes through my body. A blood red moon orbits above, casting a crimson glow across my ship. Before me hot sparks blossom and fade as the helpless freighter is torn apart, cargo pods floating in all directions.
Soon the frenzied attack ceases, and the assailants eagerly take the cargo before rapidly departing in a flash of light.
I edge closer to the now abandoned wreck. The damage is exquisite, fragments of charred metal glitter in the pale light of the systems sun. As I look on, bodies float past my cockpit, faces etched with silent terror.
I can still hear the pilot murmur as her life support runs low.
".....please......anyone.......attacked....."
Her voice begins to falter as her lungs claw for oxygen, words replaced with glottal choking and rasping that diminishes into silence. As the communications channel fades into static, a tear flows down my cheek as the epic splendour of this moment consumes me. My ship hangs motionless before this magnificent vista, a flawless narration of a tragedy played out to its conclusion.
I live for these moments, to capture them. Before, I used to be content just watching as the galaxy told its visceral story, people going about their mundane lives ignorant to the dreadful beauty that surrounded them. Each day I would be compelled to seek out the actions that others wanted to hide, to stare into the depths of depravity that others so readily turned away from. But this was not enough, to merely know. I wanted to share, to show everyone the things they only dared dream of in their wildest fantasies, or darkest nightmares.
Soon I found that power to connect people in the one true unifying force in the galaxy.
The narrow minded label me a sick voyeur, but what do they know? These hypocrites never look away when the newscasts play my footage. Their shock and disgust melt into abject fascination as they experience the galaxy as it truly is, as I see it. Staring into a slaves eyes, a world on fire, starving children begging for food, and now this, the final desperate moments of a commanders life. Moments of horrific majesty caught for eternity.
Bathed in the neon light of my instruments, I open the communications panel and replay the events from several angles. I become fixated on an image of the dead pilot slumped in her command chair: such a beautiful image, so full of power. My heart swells with pride as I package the video, and I allow myself a smile.
<GALNET/ SEND>
I remain in the shadows, my ship cold to the pirates flickering sensor pulses. As lasers rip into the besieged trader, the systems main star rises over us, a perfect backdrop to the unfolding ambush.
"Any vessel! Hull failing, Remlok deploying! Have minutes of air, please assist!"
I look on, drinking in the details as adrenaline blazes through my body. A blood red moon orbits above, casting a crimson glow across my ship. Before me hot sparks blossom and fade as the helpless freighter is torn apart, cargo pods floating in all directions.
Soon the frenzied attack ceases, and the assailants eagerly take the cargo before rapidly departing in a flash of light.
I edge closer to the now abandoned wreck. The damage is exquisite, fragments of charred metal glitter in the pale light of the systems sun. As I look on, bodies float past my cockpit, faces etched with silent terror.
I can still hear the pilot murmur as her life support runs low.
".....please......anyone.......attacked....."
Her voice begins to falter as her lungs claw for oxygen, words replaced with glottal choking and rasping that diminishes into silence. As the communications channel fades into static, a tear flows down my cheek as the epic splendour of this moment consumes me. My ship hangs motionless before this magnificent vista, a flawless narration of a tragedy played out to its conclusion.
I live for these moments, to capture them. Before, I used to be content just watching as the galaxy told its visceral story, people going about their mundane lives ignorant to the dreadful beauty that surrounded them. Each day I would be compelled to seek out the actions that others wanted to hide, to stare into the depths of depravity that others so readily turned away from. But this was not enough, to merely know. I wanted to share, to show everyone the things they only dared dream of in their wildest fantasies, or darkest nightmares.
Soon I found that power to connect people in the one true unifying force in the galaxy.
The narrow minded label me a sick voyeur, but what do they know? These hypocrites never look away when the newscasts play my footage. Their shock and disgust melt into abject fascination as they experience the galaxy as it truly is, as I see it. Staring into a slaves eyes, a world on fire, starving children begging for food, and now this, the final desperate moments of a commanders life. Moments of horrific majesty caught for eternity.
Bathed in the neon light of my instruments, I open the communications panel and replay the events from several angles. I become fixated on an image of the dead pilot slumped in her command chair: such a beautiful image, so full of power. My heart swells with pride as I package the video, and I allow myself a smile.
<GALNET/ SEND>
