Blake had never been in a space shuttle before. He had never been anywhere except his home, Sector 12. And knowing that thousands of miles separated him and the only place he'd ever been, made Blake quite nervous.

Blake grinned uneasily at the other soldiers around him. They all looked quite bored as if they'd done this a thousand times before. They probably had. Blake knew they had high expectations for him. He was, after all, the youngest soldier to ever go on a mission, let alone to Earth itself, the most heavily protected enemy fortress.

"Fellas, I'm gonna go check the fuels, yeah?" The lieutenant colonel seemed strangely nervous for second in command. He scurried to the engine room like a frightened mouse, his rifle clutched tightly to his chest.

Blake tightened his grip on his own weapon. Something felt wrong to him. Not just the fact that the lieutenant colonel was in such a nervous hurry, but because he had no reason to bring his gun with him.

Slowly, Blake rose from his seat, his hands gripping his gun so tightly, his knuckles had turned white. No one spared him a glance as he made his way towards the engine room. After taking only a couple steps, he heard a shout in a language he didn't understand and immediately broke into a run. Blake flung open the engine room door and was greeted with the sight of the lieutenant colonel holding his gun barrel against the engine fuel tank, finger poised on the trigger.

The lieutenant colonel turned to look at the newcomer, and Blake could see sweat and tears streaking down his face. Blake's eyes widened as he realised what was about to happen. He opened his mouth to protest, to shout a warning to the other soldiers, to scream for his life not to end, but before a sound could pass through his mouth, the lieutenant colonel pressed his rifle's trigger.

A gunshot echoed throughout the room for a millisecond before the entire ship was set ablaze and the explosion shuddered through the ship.