CHAPTER 1

Jinn Doran slowly opened his eyes, completely disoriented and confused by what was going on around him. He felt as if he had been run over by a truck. His very essence felt like it was being torn apart by an invisible force. He was in so much pain in fact, that it took him several seconds to realise where he was.

He was standing in the middle of a great black void.

Confusion and fear quickly consumed him. He couldn’t understand what was going on. He didn’t even know what this place was. But before he could even think of getting his bearings-

-the ear-piercing sounds of explosions rained all around him! It was so loud that Jinn was amazed that he was not deafened on the spot. The sounds of explosions were soon joined by the crackling of gunfire erupting around him from all directions. He instinctively dived to the floor, even as he sensed that he wasn’t actually being shot at.

Jinn was holding his hands over his ears and had his head planted to the floor, so desperate for all of the noise to stop, that he had failed to notice that he was not alone in the space. Looking up, he had no time to scream before the swooshing sounds of a sword filled the air, as a sinister, dark armoured black figure swung his blade at Jinn—BANG! 

Jinn woke with a start as he felt the room around him shake violently. For a moment, he remained bewildered, as he attempted to understand what had just happened, when-

-BANG! 

-the room rumbled again, worse than it had the first time, causing Jinn to fall from his bunk. He landed with a thud onto the cold metal floor of the ship. Looking upwards, he could see his own mirror image in the reflective roof: He was of average height, with a very thin face and lean build that bordered on being skinny. His black hair had been cut short recently at the start of his most recent tour of duty; though it had started to slowly grow back. Overall, he appeared very plain.

Now wide awake thanks to the terrible pain he was in, he heard the unmistakable sound of the automatic door to the barracks swishing open urgently. As Jinn turned his eyes to the door, he saw that a fellow soldier had entered the room: A middle aged human woman with a battle worn face, dressed in navy blue battle armour, armed with a rifle, and a sidearm pistol. 

“Jinn!” 

The soldier came rushing over to see if Jinn was ok, but when Jinn recognised her, his heart sank. It was Lieutenant Victor: His squad leader, and Jinn really wasn’t interested in appearing like a fool in front of her. This was his first deployment after all, and he needed to make a good impression.  

“Jinn, are you alright?” Victor asked as she checked him for wounds. “Did you get hit?” 

Jinn shuddered with embarrassment. He had just been found laying on his back half-dressed by his commanding officer. A part of Jinn held too much pride within himself to admit the reality of the situation. But at the same time, he wasn’t the kind of person who would lie to succeed in life. 

“No, ma’am,” Jinn replied, gingerly. “I uh … fell out of bed.” 

Victor simply froze on the spot, unsure if she had heard him right. “You what?” she asked. 

“I fell out of bed, ma’am. The explosion knocked me out of bed…”

Victor continued to stare at Jinn in utter disbelief, but eventually she began to see that the only discernible expression present on Jinn’s face was that of pure unadulterated embarrassment. Jinn nervously awaited the grilling he expected to receive from her, but much to his surprise, Victor’s smile widened into an amused grin, as she held out a hand to help Jinn up.

“You’re never going to hear the end of this,” she chuckled. 

“No, ma’am, I’d say you’re right,” Jinn replied, lightening up a bit as Victor helped him to his feet. 

“Listen, we have no time,” Victor said urgently. “Get geared up, and ready to fight”. 

“What’s going on?” Jinn asked as he ran over to his footlocker and scrambled to get ready. “Is it slavers? Pirates?”

“Worse.” 

As Jinn was in the process of putting his body armour on, he suddenly noticed out of the corner of his eye what was going on outside of the barracks window. 

Hundreds of ships, snub fighters and frigates alike were engaged in fierce space combat above the planet. Some ships that were so far out in the distance appeared to Jinn as fast-moving stars as they danced around each other, attempting to get the better of their enemy. Others were so close to the window that Jinn almost felt that he could reach out and touch them, as if they were the same toy ships that he played with as a child. It was beautiful, enchanting in a way…

But reality sunk in quickly for Jinn, as he realised that this was not a game. This was life and death. The reality passed through him like a sharp sword. He took a deep breath as he did his best to get a grip. He knew what he was in for the second that he had joined the United Alliance.

As Jinn watched the battle unfold, it dawned on him who it was they were fighting. Jinn could feel a lump building in the back of his throat. There was no worse enemy…

“The Krate Imperium,” Jinn said solemnly.

“That’s right,” Victor replied. 

Jinn knew much of the enemy that was attacking his people. They were a great and powerful empire, made up of many of the strongest space faring species in the galaxy. They warred only to conquer, and bore a deep hatred of the democratic United Alliance for as long as they had been members of the galactic community. 

“What do they want with our ship, ma’am?”

“No idea-” Victor replied.

BANG!

The sound of another ear-shattering explosion filled the room. Jinn and Victor’s gazes fell upon the dormitory window, where they could see the outlines of Krate boarding ships breaching the Sojourn’s main module.

“-but that doesn’t matter,” she continued. “What does matter, is that when you see those faithless bastards, you hit them with two in the chest and one in the head. You understand?” 

Jinn could feel the seriousness in her voice, but even as he got the last of his equipment out of his locker, including his own assault rifle and sidearm, he couldn’t help but notice that his entire body was shaking. Before Jinn could even process this feeling, Victor had walked up to him, and placed a hand on his shoulder. 

“I know you’re scared. The first one is always the hardest. But you’re here for a reason, just like all of us. You earned your place here. And I know that you’ll do the right thing when the time comes.” 

“Yes, ma’am.”

Her words were encouraging, but even still, Jinn couldn’t help but feel afraid. Not of killing others, or being killed himself. He was simply afraid to mess things up. By now, Victor had loaded a fresh mag into her weapon, and moved towards the door. 

“We need to move out. Take point, I’ve got your back.” 

“Aye, aye.” 

Jinn stacked up on the door, his heart about ready to break out of his chest as Victor opened it up-

-and everything suddenly slowed down, as Jinn got into his element. All of the training had started to kick in. He took point through the hallways, his gun ready to fire. He cautiously, but quickly moved along the corridor as the ship continued to shake from the Imperium’s attacks. The fear that Jinn had felt initially from the bombardment had dissipated somewhat, as he was now fully focussed on what was right in front of him. Jinn could feel Victor close behind him as he made his way down the hallways, through twists and turns, when-

-a gunshot flew past Jinn’s head, only narrowly missing it. Without one ounce of hesitation, Jinn turned his rifle in the direction of the shot, and fired instinctively. Jinn saw a man clad in sinister dark armour fall to the ground right in front of him, several holes in his chest from where the bullets had penetrated his breastplate. Jinn wasn’t sure what he was feeling right now inside of him, but regardless of what he felt, one thing was certain: He had just killed someone for the first time. 

He had no more time to dwell on it, as he realised that the Imperium soldier was not alone. At least six soldiers, dressed like their fallen comrade, were standing over a group of dead United Alliance soldiers littering the ground. Noticing that their ally had fallen, they turned their weapons on Jinn and Victor, who were both forced to dive behind cover, only narrowly avoiding the gunfire. It was at this point that Jinn realised that Lieutenant Victor was wearing an expression of pure animal rage. 

“Those are my men!” she screamed. “MY MEN! You’ll die for that, you bastards!”

Pouncing like a wild lion,...