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The camera wobbled as the operator flipped it around, the feed going from blurry to clear as it tried to focus on the dark face in a cold, poorly lit room of sorts. The walls were rough and had welding marks strewn across them A large piece of the wall was missing, making way for a giant piece of transparent material to take its place. A couple dozen control panels were placed equidistantly apart, with a myriad of controls on each. Through the dust-filled room, looking out the large gap in the walls, lay a huge ship, small flashes of blue light emanating from places on the hull where plasma lasers were in use. The grimy air was so thick that the front of the ship couldnt even be seen The greyish tinge of the hull slowly fading into the brown, murky atmosphere.

Now ere starts the log of one o the most feared an deadly ships in this ere fleet!

The camera zoomed in even further on his face, blocking out even more of the little light that was present.

The Sangraal!

Whilst humming the soundtrack to an old sci-fi film, he panned the camera around the room, stopping and zooming in on a dainty woman sitting cross legged in a leather chair.

As ye can see, she aint much to look at now, what with all this bare metal an what-not. Course theres always something ere to keep the boys goin

The woman quickly swivelled around on the chair, giving the camera a prickly stare before a small grin appeared.

Matthews, sweetheart, I know youre making a log of this ship and all, but do you have to include me in it?

Her eyes widened and she leaned back in the smooth leather chair as she awaited a response.

Yer part o our crew, maam. Cant ave our second-in-charge offve our logs!

The camera shook slightly as he laughed, somewhat diverting attention from the womans widening smile.

So you want my name, rank

Yeah, an if you loike long walks on the beach.

He tried his best to hold in a laugh Snickering was heard over the crackly mic. The slender body in front of the camera leaned forward, the silky dress fluttering in the slight breeze that had picked up.

I swear, if this gets on a dating website, Ill throw you out this large gap here and into

She looks down and quickly flickers through a book lying in her lap.

"deck thirteen. Engineering level. Hmmmits close to the mess hall, theres even an access tube leading there."

Her legs now uncrossed, she placed both hands on the armrests and gracefully got up and moved towards the opening in the room. The camera panned around, and slipped down slightly from her face towards her chest as she bent over to look down out the gaping hole.

Matthews?

The image jerked around as the camera jolted up to focus in on her face.

UhhI wasnt uhhhuh?

You know, I can see the access tube from here. You dont want to be the construction workers next meal, now do you?

She paused and then smiled as the man obviously shook his head, fearing the wrath of the feisty woman.

Good. Well, my rank is Lieutenant, the ship around us is the Core vessel Sangraal

Putting on a thick accent and a small smirk, she stated where they were,

Out there is Alabama shipyard, pride an joy o the Core.

She chuckled, looking down as she wriggled her toes in her small heeled shoes. A small cough came from behind the camera,

And, uhh, whats yer name, maam?

The flawless face came into center view of the camera, with the light brown hair being blown about in the strong breeze.

Oh right. My names Linda Jacobson.

After a few seconds, the feed went blurry and then cut out completely.

A couple of months later

Matthews had been quite busy filming the entire crew with the video log he was making, however his job title would soon change from annoying cameraman to chief engineer aboard the near-completed colossus of a ship. The woman he was hassling before would soon be his commanding officer, as Linda would become the XO of the ship. Commanding, would be the rough n tough Jack Malrone Hed met another Commander in the Liberty Navy by the same name. Thats a story for another time however.

Onboard the ship, the scenery had changed dramatically The cold, harsh steel had been painted over by a slightly less foreboding blue-grey tinge. The entire bridge had been transformed into a hub of activity, flashing lights and the hum of electrical circuits warmed the atmosphere up considerably. The large gap in the wall was replaced by a large HUD, blue lines streaming across it, the ships technical data appearing periodically. In front of the same seat Linda was videoed in earlier was a control board that lit up with various different readings on it, including ship sensors, communications and the powerful weapons array.

Suddenly, the entire bridge lighting switched to blue, with blaring alarms sounding. A large glass sliding door opened at the rear of the bridge, with Malrone, Jacobson and a few other crewmen darting to their separate stations. Jacobson picked up a small comms device that was lying on her console and slapped it on her right ear. Malrone looked over at Jacobson as he swung around to the HUD on his leathery chair. He leaned forward and focused on the screen.

Whats the situation, Lieutenant?
Two Corsair vessels bearing down on us, nine kays out sir.

She pauses for a moment and dials up the sensor array.

Looks to be two cruisers, sir, now eight kays out.
Roger that, battlestations everyone. Jacobson, take us out of cruise, target that first cruiser.

Jacobson brushed her hair away and nodded at the commander.

Yes sir. Target has been acquired, firing range in under fifty seconds.

With a small grin on his slightly grubby face and seething hatred in his eyes, the commander gave the order.

Power weapons, forward shields to maximum. Fire when in range.

A well-known voice came over the internal comms system and Malrone quickly lost his focus.

Sah! Weapons array is offline, shieldsre failin an backup systems aint kickin in.
God damnit! Try re-routing power through the damn tertiary system and isolate the computer network in engineering.
Aye aye, Commander.

Panic started to set in on the bridge, the cruisers were now in visual range and closing on them with frightening speed. Malrone knew that both shields and weapons going down at the same time and backups not kicking in whilst they were being targeted by two cruisers was no coincidence, even by the longest stretch of the word. Racking his brain, he had to think quickly about what could cause this Some sort of signal from the crusiers disrupting their power systems? Highly unlikely. A saboteur? Much more likely, especially considering the ship and crew were brand new. The Corsairs would likely want to send the Core a message; not to venture out into their space.

But where would the assailant be? The only way to disable the entirety of engineering was from the bridge. Jacobson? He hoped not. Scanning the room, he leaned forward and narrowed his gaze upon a certain technical Sergeant who didnt look quite as concerned as the rest of the bridge. He thought a simple test was in order for the sergeant

Looks like were going down, folks.

The look of fear struck everyones eyes All except the sergeants, who had a slight grin stretching across his wide face. As the sergeant turned back towards his panel, Malrone reached underneath his chair, pulling out a fairly old plasma pistol and before he could stand up fully, hed already fired three rounds into the sergeant. He ran over to the sergeants control panel, pushing the body slumped in the chair onto the floor and saw an emergency lockout key had been used to stop all systems from coming online. A few seconds of furious typing on the keypad followed, everyone on the bridge still being stunned by the actions of the commander. He had a matter of seconds before the cruisers were in firing range.

Lieutenant, try it now. Jacobson! Now!

She took a few moments before she snapped out of the trance This wasnt the first dead body Linda had seen, but seeing a crew member shot in front of her eyes was a first.

Uhh, right, ummyes sir. Shields coming back online, targeting sensors are online, weapons systems are powering up.

Malrone swiftly moved back to his chair and started yelling orders around.

Stop gawkin and get back to your stations, people!

The cruisers were now taking up most of the HUD and a stream of fire started emanating from both ships as they took up attack positions around the battleship.

Taking damage, shields are failing. Target cruiser is taking heavy damage.
Bring us around, Lieutenant. Keep that target under heavy fire, prepare to fire on target two.

The bridge rocked as the shields finally failed, allowing a mortar from the enemy craft to rip apart a large section of hull and sent it hurtling towards the bridge.

Everybody down!

Everyone on the bridge immediately hit the deck, before a booming voice came over the speakers.

Simulation end. Simulation end.

The HUD flashed and then the true image of Alabama shipyard shone through. Everyone on the bridge looked disappointed and the traitorous technical sergeant was helped up by two other crewman back onto his chair.

Heh. This paint comes off, right?

Malrone was furious with the outcome, completely ignoring the light-hearted comment by the sergeant as he stormed off the bridge.