I nervously stare at the light, gasping in hope and dread every time it flickers, i don't know if it i want it to change or not, if it doesn't then we’ll go back to the carrier safe and sound and i will be able to, at least, try to get a good night's sleep, but it not changing would mean there's no one left down there to save.

No one's talking, on one wants to, as if even the slightest noise will make the light change from its stark white to the omanes red none of us had experienced as of yet. Something had changed as we pushed back in our seats, this was it, we were either going back or there was something worth defending down there. There was a ficker… a long one and then we were bathed in red.

The sound drained away as it took away our precious atmosphere for our own safety, all i could hear was my rapid breath and my rampaging heart, the dropship started to be pushed around as it entered the atmosphere, it was almost peaceful… like the rocking of a mag-train on a windy day.

The sound started to come back with a hiss as the dropship settled down, it had settled down which means its taking little to no fire, maybe they hadn't gotten there yet, maybe we’ll evacuate the civilians and begone before they arrive or maybe the vanguard had cleared the landing zone. I feel the dropship jerk hard to the left, followed immediately by something slamming into the side and a different type of red fills the compartment.

The back right hand side was gone, i can see the smoke plumes rising from various fires littering the ground, the world was spinning rapidly and an alarm started up...DEN EMERGE... parts of the dropship starts being flung out...LL CREW TO EMERG... a soldiers harness had been damaged we lock eyes ...L SEED SHIP CREWS EXECUT... i can see the pure terror on his face just before he gets sucked out ...ALL NON PERSONNEL TO SECURE ROOMS.

I transitioned from one nightmare to another, I woke up and the first thing i notest was a pounding hangover, and the second thing was an alarm screaming out for my attention. I peel open my crusted over eyes and found myself staring at the side on view of the tolet in the next stall over, sadly not an income view for me.

I lie there trying to will the alarm to stop when part of it registers in my addled brian ...TIONS. ALL SEED SHIP CREWS EXECUTE PLAN X-RAY. “Seed ship? Plan x-ray” I say to myself “plan x-ray, whats plan x-ray, x-ray… X-RAY” And that got me sitting up farst, so farst in fact that I nearly bashed my head open on the toilet bowl. “Shit, shit, SHIT.”

For thought of you uninformed, seed ships are the backup backup plans for humanity, where a ship loaded up with human embroses and genetic materials from earth will be aimed at a far off solar system and then sent on its way with a volunteer crew as a last ditch attempt to save humanity. And plan X-ray is the emergence un-docking under combat conditions while staying hidden and unfollowed.

Alarms blear out as I run out of the mall's restrooms, all of the screens and speakers saying the same warning NEAR EARTH RIYDEN EMERGENCE. ALL CREW TO EMERGENCY STATIONS. ALL SEED SHIP CREWS EXECUTE PLAN X-RAY. ALL NON PERSONNEL TO SECURE ROOMS.

Adrenalin sobered me up at this point and I started sprinting around panicked civilians and towards my seed ship, I was running through a checklist to make sure the ship was ready to go.

Embreos, check.

Artificial wombs, check.

Essential personnel for colany in cryo, 50%.

Essential personnel that are on station, another 35%.

Equipment, 35% can make the rest

Supplies, one of commands better thoughts almost all seed ships are fully decked out, 100%

Drones, 100% they are the one thing not custom made so all seed ships are full equipped with them

Flight crew… all off station, bar one, me… Fuck.

It's doable but i'll have to work something out, by this time i had reached my docking arm was pushing my way through the crowds, the marines that were desperately trying to hold back the crowd let me through. I found a gaggle of scientists crowding around the hanger and hatch entrances to the ship.

“MAKE WAY, CAPTAIN COMING THROUGH” i had to shout over the racet, that had them make a way though, the reason they hadn't gone in yet was only the flight crew could open the doors. “Highest ranking person comes with me to the bridge,” I said, “ anyone with experience crewing a spaceship comes with me, and the rest of you grab anything you can get your hands on and be on the ship in 10 minutes of be left behind.” I told them.

The highest ranking scientist, Dr Rosenfield, and the people with crew experience came with me to the bridge while the rest started karting things into the hanger. “Well Drs we've got a bit of a problem, we don't have enough fight crew to pilot this so all of you will need to listen to me and keep calm.

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Most of us had never even had a fight let alone touched a gun before basic training, at least i worked as a drone controller beforehand, which made me slightly more important than the average grunt on the front lines.

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When we first encountered the Riyden we were overjoyed that there was intelligent life out there, for as we expanded slowly but ever outwards

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