KIERAN
The world spun.
Not the normal movement of a ship in combat. This was chaos. The Valiant rotated like a coin flipping through space, end over end, completely out of control.
Kieran's command chair was the only thing keeping him from being thrown across the bridge. He gripped the armrests so hard his knuckles went white. Around him, crew members who weren't strapped in flew like ragdolls.
The viewscreen showed jungle. Then sky. Then jungle again. Spinning. Always spinning.
They were falling.
Get those engines back online, he shouted over the screaming alarms.
The engineering officer's voice came through the comm, crackling with static and terror.
Sir, the core is compromised. Reactor two is in meltdown. We can't stop it.
Kieran's stomach dropped. Reactor meltdown meant they had minutes before the whole ship became a fireball. Maybe less.
Marcus was still at his station, holding on with both hands. Blood ran down his face from a cut above his eye but he was conscious and that was something.
Captain, we're going down. That's not a maybe anymore. We're going down.
The words hit Kieran like a physical blow. He'd commanded this ship through three major battles. Survived encounters that should have killed them all. But this was different.
This was the end.
He pulled up the damage reports on his console. Every section showed critical failures. Hull breaches on twelve decks. Life support offline in half the ship. The engine core temperature climbing toward catastrophic levels.
Five thousand people depending on him and he couldn't save them.
The realization made him want to scream. Want to rage. Want to tear something apart with his bare hands.
But his crew needed orders. Needed their captain to be strong even when everything was falling apart.
He activated the shipwide comm. His voice had to carry across every deck, every compartment. Had to reach people who were about to die and give them something to hold onto.
All hands, brace for impact. I repeat, all hands brace for impact. Everyone to survival positions. We're going to ride this down.
His words echoed through the ship. In engineering, people would be scrambling for reinforced compartments. In medical, doctors would be strapping down patients. In the crew quarters, soldiers would be diving for escape pods.
Some would make it. Most wouldn't.
Kieran's throat closed up thinking about it. These were his people. He'd eaten meals with them. Played cards with them. Listened to them talk about families waiting back home.
Now he was commanding them through their last moments.
The planet filled the viewscreen again. That beautiful green jungle getting closer and closer. He could see individual trees now. Massive things with canopies that spread wider than city blocks.
They were going to hit at terminal velocity. The impact would be like slamming into solid metal.
Sir, Marcus said quietly. His second in command had tears running down his face. Been an honor serving with you.
Kieran wanted to say something meaningful. Something worthy of the friendship they'd built over years of combat. But his voice broke when he tried.
Don't. Don't say goodbye yet.
But they both knew the truth.
The Valiant's altitude alarm started screaming. They'd dropped below safe reentry levels. The atmospheric friction was tearing pieces off the hull. Kieran watched on his displays as entire sections ripped away and tumbled into the void.
Deck seventeen. Gone. Thirty people lived there.
Deck nine. Gone. Medical bay. Doctors and patients both.
Deck four. The rec room where people went to forget about the war. Where Ensign Williams played guitar during off hours.
All gone.
Kieran thought about his mother on the outer colonies. She'd lost his father to war ten years ago. Now she'd lose her son too. He'd written her a letter last week, told her everything was fine. Told her not to worry.
That letter was a lie and she'd find out soon enough.
The temperature inside the bridge climbed. The hull was heating from atmospheric friction. Kieran could smell metal burning. Could feel sweat running down his back.
Thirty seconds to impact, someone called out.
The crew went silent. Just the sound of alarms and the ship tearing itself apart.
Kieran looked at Marcus. At the surviving crew members still conscious at their stations. These people had trusted him. Followed his orders. Believed he'd keep them safe.
He'd failed them all.
Twenty seconds.
The jungle canopy rushed up to meet them. Kieran could see individual leaves now. Could see birds or something like birds scattering from the trees.
Then something impossible happened.
Another ship fell past them.
Not alongside. Past them. Like it had been falling from a different trajectory but ended up in the same place.
Kieran caught a glimpse of the hull markings and his blood went cold.
Nex fighter. Enemy ship.
Also crashing. Also falling toward the exact same spot.
Ten seconds.
His mind raced even as death approached. Two ships from opposite sides of a battle. Both falling. Both aimed at the same planet. Both hitting the same location.
That wasn't coincidence.
That was deliberate.
Admiral Reeves had done this. Set them up. Positioned them perfectly. And whoever commanded that Nex fighter had been set up too.
They were both executed by their own people.
Five seconds.
Kieran grabbed the comm one last time.
Whatever happens next, you were the best crew any captain could ask for. I'm honored to have served with you.
Three seconds.
He thought about all the things he'd never get to do. Never get to see Earth again. Never get to tell Admiral Reeves exactly what he thought of him. Never get to find out why his own government wanted him dead.
One second.
The Valiant hit the jungle canopy doing three hundred kilometers per hour.
The sound was like the universe ending. Metal screaming. Trees shattering. The hull compressing like a tin can under a boot.
Kieran's head snapped forward. His vision exploded into white. Pain erupted everywhere at once.
The ship didn't just crash. It tore itself into pieces. The bridge section separated from the main hull. Compartments ripped open. Decks collapsed into each other.
People died by the hundreds in seconds.
Kieran felt the command chair tear free from its moorings. Felt himself flying through the air. Felt his body hit something solid and everything inside him break.
The last thing he saw before darkness took him was the viewscreen shattering into a million pieces.
And through the broken screen, he saw someone.
A figure in the jungle. Standing in the wreckage of that enemy fighter. Watching the Valiant crash.
A woman with dark hair pulled back in a military braid. Gray eyes that caught the light.
She was beautiful and terrifying and definitely not human military.
Then the darkness swallowed him whole and Kieran knew nothing else.