21:45, 3rd August 2263 (standard military calendar)

LOCATION 30985, UEC COUTER AND RESTRIKE LOCATION

UEC HEAVY FRIGATE – 23 "Jakarta"

The ship of the Jakarta was silent, not a single breath. The remaining crew alive, was hiding behind cargo containers, waiting for them to clear. To survive, they decompressed the ship, hoping the ESU soldiers would leave, they all knew what they were looking for – them. The ESU needed ships, and In Amber was one of the most powerful ships in the fleet.

Edward Barnes was hiding behind one of the consoles. He was just a specialist, nothing more than the plot hyper-light jumps. And here he was, at his end, waiting for them to find him. He didn't make it in time to the cargo bay, and was relying off of a oxygen mask, it was no the quietest thing, but if he didn't breath much, it might make him less noticeable. He pressed himself against the console as several walked in.

"Jarvin, get the ships original FTL coordinates."

"Aye Sir." He heard footsteps and moved away from the console, and slid under the navigation console. He heard the footsteps stop as they got closer, and he was relieved, maybe he hadn't been seen. Then they started moving again when his mask slipped and he lost oxygen. A person knelt where he was and looked him in the face, it was a older man, around his 40's late 50's.

"Are you seeing ghosts?'

"No sir... Nothing." The man stood back up and let him live, but why? They were Esau, the demons of space, bent on killing every soldier alive. There was something in his eyes, remorse... he didn't want to kill him, he was probably conscripted, probably by force, or it was his families will, or he'd already be dead.

"They're at coordinates 298754."

"Got it, get all of our teams off this ship now."

"Sir?" Edward listened as the men lowered something onto the ground, and the room heated up a bit, and the radiological alarm began to sound, they had a nuke.

"Are all files copied from the computer core?"

"Yes Sir."

"Everything set?"

"Aye," Edward heard as they walked out of the CIC, to their ship. If that was a nuke, he had to get way far from the CIC, it would take out most of the ship, the only survivable place would be the cargo bay. He stood up and looked around, most the crew was dead, the CIC crew who was there before he arrived, were killed in a flash fire, he was lucky – but that could not be said yet. The nuke was flashing with a timer, set at 10 minutes, he had time to reach the back of the ship, the Cargo bay was reinforced with a radiation shield for hauling radioactive material, not getting away from it. He began to run towards it, and within 6 minutes arrived. Everyone was looking at him, as the alarms were still sounded.

"Specialist what's going on?"

"The CIC crew is dead, they planted a nuke on board. We don't have much time." Edward walked over to the computer terminal and turned on black-box mode, only sensor, and video will be recorded. "Hey John, umm... There isn't much time left, and I love you." He pressed the button in and saved it, it would survive. "Anyone else?" In the minutes left the crew said their farewells to their families, they might survive, but the radiation will probably kill them overall. It was the dangers of space travel.