“When the troops of the G.S. landed on Earth, they were greeted by the warriors of a civilisation which knew no death. Mental Uploads made it possible. Earth’s soldiers would storm into battle, fearing no risk. When they fell, they would simply rise in their next body. With each generation, they would be faster, stronger, smarter, optimized to kill the enemy.”

***En Route to Acrux***

***Antioch***

I glare at the controls in front of the pilot’s chair, wishing I had more information to go on. I am highly suspicious of this whole quest. G.O.D. seems to have the ability to communicate instantaneously. Wherever I may be.

Unless it’s just a voice in my head and I am actually mad or dreaming all of this.

G.O.D.’s ability to communicate with me is proof that its capabilities shouldn’t be underestimated. It bugs me to admit it, but I have no idea how it’s done. Should I really trust an entity which is so far beyond me?

FTL-Communication relies on an application of the warp-drive. By modulating a warp-bubble, a ship is able to send a signal through subspace, which is a different dimension, for the lack of a better explanation. The problem is that even that method isn’t instantaneous and is limited by the applied power in range and communication speed.

The distress call was picked up at the maximum range of my sensors, which is five light years. That may sound like a lot, but this area of the galaxy is almost uninhabited. It’s because of the war. Nobody wants to be anywhere near a species which broke the A.I. restrictions. Here, at the fringe of the milky way, the stars are also fairly far apart from each other.

What I want to say is that it’s very unlikely to encounter someone that far away from an established shipping route. Hadn’t G.O.D. informed me, I would have flown straight past the ship. Apart from a specific purpose, nobody has a reason to be here.

But I have no time for this. The ship which is calling for help is just a few kilometres away and has a very similar configuration to my transporter. Their fusion drive took massive damage from something. It looks like impact damage from a heavy weapon. Their aft-section was simply ripped open and most of it was blown away.

I access the navigation system and check for nearby colonies or installations. There are still a few active military installations in this sector. Maybe the transporter was supposed to be on a support run for one of those facilities?

The possible military origin of this vessel is a good reason to skip this quest. On the other hand, the transport’s storage area seems to be intact. There could be a lot of useful stuff on that ship. Additionally, the possible reward for the quest could also be interesting. It’s possible that I may find myself in dire need of another boon in the future.

Another question is how I should present myself to possible survivors. Up until now, I wasn’t concerned about it, but I am butt naked. There are no clothes which fit me on this vessel. Not that I need them.

My silent musings are interrupted when, suddenly, all the proximity alerts go off.

The whole ship shudders under the impact of something. Luckily, I was strapped down in the pilot’s chair. I am still trying to find out what happened when the sensors alert me to a well-camouflaged vessel with a diamond-like configuration. It’s about half the size of my transport, but the hull is crowded with weapons. Most of them are unknown to me.

Unfortunately, the damned thing is attached to the side of my ship, a position where I can’t hit it with my single, measly plasma cannon. The weapon can only fire forwards in a cone.

G.O.D.: New Side-Quest: You are being attacked by Eresian pirates! Defend yourself!

“You are fucking kidding me! I hate you G.O.D.! It’s only because of you that I am here in the first place!”

Still ranting, I search the database for Eresian pirates. The result isn’t reassuring. According to this, they are the worst scum in existence. Large and bipedal with thick fur, they resemble large apes. They deal in everything. Piracy, slavery, weapon trade. Call it and they do it. I will never again stop for a distress call! They can all suffocate for all I care!

Quickly, I flip the panic button and get out of my chair and run towards the workshop.

Without warning, there is a horrible screeching and the ground tilts away under my feet. I am slammed into the wall of the corridor and am held there for several seconds. Then, I am weightless.

They stopped the rotation of the living section.

I grab one of the handholds which are placed along the corridor and pull myself forward. There is another explosion in the corridor behind me, but I don’t turn around to look. It isn’t hard to guess that they broke one of the hatches to enter the ship.

I reach the workshop and close the door locking it, then I cower down. What should I do? I have no weapons, except for a plasma gun! How many pirates are there on the ship? There is no way that I can fight so many experienced warriors!

Moments later, something pounds against the door and someone calls out in intergalactic speech. “Open the door and we won’t kill you.”

***En Route to Acrux***

***Random Pirate***

“Just break the hatch and get them out!” I command the grunt in front of me while keeping track on the rest of the boarding party. “The others haven’t found any of the crew, so they must all be in there. The guys who took control of the cockpit say that all control rights were rerouted to the workshop. They have no control.”

The motors of the grunt’s exo-suit whine as he pulls at the hatch, slowly bending it out of shape. Old transporters like this one don’t have very strong security arrangements, so we really lucked out with hitting two of these in a row.

I quickly take account of my party. There are five others with us. The rest of the boarding party is searching the ship.

At first, I thought it would be a really bad idea to prey on military supplies, and after this, we certainly have to leave the area. The G.S. will be pissed when they find out about the missing ships, so the area will be crawling with military vessels soon enough. Certainly not a very healthy environment for a pirate.

Slowly, the hatch comes loose, revealing complete darkness beyond.

There is a metallic clicking and it sounds like someone is crying, then something scurries out of the darkness, emitting a vile shriek!

Some sort of insectoid shoots out of the hatch, attaching itself to my comrade’s head. He curses and reaches up to crush the thing with his exo-suit’s strength, but before he can do so, there is the hiss of a plasma torch.

The tool melts through the exo-suit’s faceplate like butter and into the man’s face.

I howl in surprise and aim my weapon at the thing, blasting off one of the legs.

Another one comes flying out of the darkness, rotating like a Sancruu throwing star. One of its drills embeds itself in my shoulder, throwing off my aim. Pain flares through my mind and the shot hits one of my comrades. I curse and hit the thing, pushing it away from me.

Three more scurry out of the darkness, ignoring me, and going directly for the rest of the boarding party. I curse when I realize that one of them is carrying a fusion cell. If that thing blows up, a large part of the living section will be gone!

My attention lingered for a little too long on the mobile bomb, because when I turn my attention back to the hole, I look straight into the barrel of a plasma gun.

A naked, sniffling humanoid is holding the weapon in its pale hands.

“I am so, so sorry!”

***En Route to Acrux***

***Antioch***

I press the trigger of the gun and watch the pirate’s head disintegrate in a shower of blood and gore. The recoil surprises me and despite my strength, the weapon is flung out my hands. Wailing, I duck to evade the oversized paw of another pirate.

The huge Eresian overextended himself. The mass of his arm sends him into a spinning motion, giving one of the Nano-Workers the chance to disembowel him with a spinning diamond-cutter.

“I am so, so sorry.”

I chant my mantra again and again. This is the first time that I intentionally killed another sentient being.

After I fled into the workshop, I had a meltdown and activated the Overclock skill. This worked better than I thought because I actually had a few perceived minutes to think and to calm down. I also came up with a stupid plan.

Stupid, because it includes detonating one of the transport’s fusion cells to cut the connection between the pirate ship and the transporter.

I have no other choice, I have to fight and kill in order to survive.

My attention returns to the here and now when one of the pirates draws a wicked blade. I watch the weapon with huge eyes and raise my hands. “I am sorry! I don’t want to fight! Just put it down and we can talk about this!”

He stabs at me, giving me no time to think. My body moves without my consent, grabbing his arm with one hand. With the other hand, I punch the soft part of his exo-suit at the throat. Exo-suits are designed to be tough, but the best of environmental suits have weaknesses if the wearer wants to keep a high grade of movability.

The transparent faceplate turns blue when the Eresian spits bodily fluids at the reinforced glass, taking away his vision. He claws at his throat, suffocating.

I squeal, shocked at what I did! My body moved on its own. Is that what G.O.D. meant when it gave me the skill Instincts?

While I am still in shock, my Nano-Workers deal with the rest of the pirates. Just moments after the last of the invaders goes down, there is a large explosion and I am sucked along the corridor, realizing that the rest of the battle is out of my hands. The worker with the fusion cell reached the breaching point, where the pirate ship attached itself to my transporter.

At the same moment, all of my transporter’s steering engines fire with their safety regulations disabled. I am slammed into the corridor's wall and held there despite my strength. It’s highly likely that I just killed all of the remaining invaders on my transporter. Their species is accustomed to one point four gravities, but now I am accelerating and turning the ship with ten. That's barely the manufactured limit of the engines.

The steering engines on the other side of the ship activate, while the ones in action abruptly cut off. What I perceived as the ceiling up until now, turns into the floor, and I am slammed face first into the other side of the corridor. My nose crunches and I scream in pain, realizing that it must be broken.

Retching, I spill the contents of my stomach.

It was necessary to turn the ship quickly. If I gave the pirates the chance to react, it would spell my end. They have enough weapons to turn the entire transport into space-junk. I wasn’t stupid enough to attempt to use the plasma cannon to shoot at the pirates. It would have probably just made them angry.

Their armour may be able to deal with a few plasma bolts, but I doubt that it was engineered to be within a hundred metres of the fusion flame of an old fusion engine. There probably won’t be much of a physical effect on the pirate ship, since the fusion torch isn’t focused highly enough.

Nonetheless, I doubt that any of the organic passengers will be so happy about the high amount of radiation which comes with being inside the cone of ionized exhaust fumes of a fusion torch.

I howl as the main fusion engine activates, and I start falling down the corridor, back into the workshop.

“Fuuuck!”

Side Quest: Defend yourself! – Success! Reward: G.O.D. helps you out, but just once. Help will be delivered in the form of knowledge. G.O.D.: New Achievement gained! Slaughterhouse! You have killed sixty-four pirates during a quest. You crushed them, torched them, you have proven your worthiness! G.O.D.: Congrats! But next time, try not to cry like a little child. It diminishes the epicness of your deeds.