Captain's Log, Supplemental
DDSN-XIOO USS Discovery
Captain James Nolan recording
Christening Date plus 7 days
Lunar Re-Fuel and Refit Station aftermath
Ten minutes.
Marduk gave us ten.
We used every second to make him bleed.
Henry used his last to save us.
The black keeps its debts— and collects with interest.
Henry Kingston's world was pain and spinning stars. The cockpit tumbled slow—Earth, Luna, the station, the sun—flashing across the cracked gold-tinted canopy in endless cycle. Alarms wailed in his ears, red strobes painting the interior blood-color. The Switchblade groaned around him, metal protesting as it bled atmosphere in glittering trails.
He tasted copper. Blood from a split lip, cracked rib grinding with every breath. "Status," he rasped to the empty cockpit. Voice hoarse, comms flickering. The HUD flickered—half the displays dark, the rest cycling error codes. Port wing gone. Starboard engine flickering, fusion containment unstable. Life support failing. Ejection handle stared at him—red grip, yellow stripe. He reached for it. Nothing.
Fused.
Shrapnel had warped the mechanism. Henry laughed once—short, bitter. "Of course." Outside, the battle raged on. He had line of sight—tumbling gave him that much. Discovery's rail guns thundering silent thunder. Raptors weaving through fire like angry hornets. Pirate haulers blooming into fire one by one.
His squadron.
His family.
Valkyrie's voice cut through the static on emergency band—strained, desperate. 'Razor, report! Do you copy?" Henry keyed the mic. "Here... Boss." Relief flooded her voice. "Henry—status?" "Bird's done. Ejection fused. I'm... along for the ride." Silence.
Then Kaze—voice cracking. "We're coming for you." "Negative," Henry said, calm returning like an old friend. "Finish the fight. That's an order." Dragon's growl. "Like hell." Valkyrie steel again. "Raptors, cover pattern on Razor's drift. We're not leaving him." Henry watched them reform—twelve birds tightening into protective sphere around his tumbling wreck.
Beautiful.
Marduk's flagship still held center—scarred ex-freighter, guns spitting defiance. The Raptors pressed. Coilguns hammered. Missiles rippled. The flagship's shields flared, buckled. Discovery maneuvered, presenting full batteries. Rail guns spoke—full broadside. The flagship's shields collapsed. Slugs punched through armor, reactor blooming white.
But the pirates weren't done. Two haulers—shields gone, hulls leaking—turned on suicide runs, engines overburning, ramming vectors straight for Discovery and the station. Valkyrie's voice sharp. "Suicide runs inbound! Kaze, Dragon—intercept the lead!" Kaze. "Copy. Breaking." Dragon. "With you."
They dove—Switchblades twisting through fire. The lead hauler closed on Discovery, guns blazing. Kaze lined up. "Tone." Missile away. Clean hit—hauler blossomed. The second hauler slipped past—heading for the station's refinery arm. Phantom. "I've got him!" Long shot—missile streaking.
Too late.
The hauler impacted the refinery—silent explosion, debris cloud expanding, secondary blasts rippling along piping. Victor's voice strained. "Refinery hit. Containment holding—but we're leaking helium."
James's voice from bridge. "Raptors, mop up. We're not losing the station." The remaining pirates pressed—desperate, no retreat. A third hauler turned on suicide vector—straight for Henry's drifting wreck. Valkyrie saw it. "Enemy hauler on Razor's drift! He's using him as shield!" Kaze's voice raw. "I'm on it!" She dove, coilgun hammering. The hauler's guns answered—raking fire.
Kaze rolled, evaded, returned fire. The hauler exploded—close, too close. Shrapnel cloud slammed into Henry's tumbling bird. The canopy cracked—gold polycarbonate spiderwebbing. Then a round punched through. Silent plume of gold shards and thin strands of red—blood freezing instantly in vacuum.
Henry's comms went dead.
Kaze screamed—raw, primal, tearing through the channel. "HENRY!" Valkyrie's voice shattered completely—a guttural, broken scream that wasn't words, just agony. "NO! HENRY!"
Dragon's voice cracked. "He's... he's gone..." The channel filled with static and sobs. Marduk's remaining forces—seeing the end—flared engines. Gravimetric coils flashed. They jumped—tearing holes in space, vanishing. The void cooled. Debris fields tumbled.
Henry's wreck drifted silent—no lights, no beacon. Valkyrie and Kaze flew slow formation beside it, wings motionless. Kaze's voice small, shattered. "Henry..." Valkyrie silent—tears behind the visor no one could see. Despair thick as vacuum and the black held its breath.
Captain's Log, closing entry — Chapter 7 complete
Station defended—for now.
Marduk escaped.
Henry gone.
The cost is too high.
James Nolan, Captain DDSN-XIOO USS Discovery