The stars floated serenely in the velvet darkness of space outside the large, open, hangar bay doors of IA-TG Aurora big space base. The only thing keeping the cold and vacuum outside was a force field, while inside the room all those currently not on duty on the base along with several civilians had gathered to mourn. It had been several days since the tragic events that had caused this particular gathering, but the pain was still fresh.
A moment later a pressure door into the base proper opened, and twenty honor guards stepped through to form up before the one hundred caskets that lay in state before the mourners. Finally, after the guards’ laser rifles were holstered, there was a small group of officers that followed one man. He had the bearing of one used to hardship, though it had been bourn well on his rugged frame. The navy blue uniform had golden striped around the arm cuffs, and one down the inseam of each leg. Despite many years in space there was still a tan upon his skin, and as he moved to stand before the phoenix symbol of his own branch of the IA organization, Phantasm Nova’s face was composed though a slight bit of sadness filled the bright hazel eyes. The rest of the officers lined up silently behind their leader, and waited along with every other person in the room.
“Today we mourn the valiance and courage of the crews of the four kibitzers that were destroyed while scouting a safe route to sector 257-232 after a call for help by the Lord Loki due to an attack against an MdI member in that area. The scout ships Peakaboo, Scout, Snoop, and Scanner were lost with all hands bare moments after reappearing in realspace from a hyperjump into Sohei Vedee when that system’s dca net responded automatically to their presence…” Inside his mind’s eye the four slender ships appeared in the system, and then a heartbeat later over fifty dcas filled the space around the intruders with deadly laser fire. Before the ship sensors had even fully recovered from the Transit, there wasn’t anything left of the ships but bits of debris. More than likely the crews hadn’t even realized what was happening, which would have been a small mercy. One thing he could say for this USF- Adbal Hang, he built a very nasty defense system to protect that system. “They served the Space Navy well, and with distinction. Their names shall be remembered. Honor guard, salute!”
His right hand rose in a sharp salute to the caskets, and at the same instant the twenty honor guards shouldered their rifles, aimed them upwards, and fired of a single volley before grounding them again. A bugle blew out a funeral march as the anti-gravity units beneath each casket activated and they began floating one-by-one out of the hangar bay shield and into space towards the sun. A roll call of names was read – one for each casket, and the person that should have been in them. At the end, a major stepped forward and shouted, “Dis-missed!” Slowly the crowd dispersed, many of the civilians crying as their sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters were committed to space for their final trip.
Eventually the only one left standing there was Phantasm, who stepped over to stand just before the force field as the bay doors finished closing. He stood there for about a minute before moving out the door again…to return to ordering thousands of other people as the empire building must continue or someone would come along and destroy all that had been built. Then those lives that had been lost would have been all for nothing.
It should be noted that ship classes, system names, etc. are all part of the Mankind universe, and as such are copyrighted material under Vibes. I'm just using their colourfull universe and events that happen within it as story material. ;)
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