Chapter 1
We all pile into the boarding pod as we prepare to launch against the RUP Ship “Frederick Douglas”. It’s a simple supply ship carrying mostly food and fuel to help maintain a military presence on some far flung world. I don’t like the idea of killing and stealing, but when it became clear that the RUP don’t care if my people starve to death, what choice do me and my comrades have?
The rest of the squad comes into the pod and straps themselves into their crash couches. The timer attached to the front of the pod starts to count down. Once the counter reaches zero, the pod lurches forward. As soon as the pod clears the ship, the main rockets will fire throwing me into the crash couch and beginning the violent and brief trip that ends with a new hole in the side of the RUPS Frederick Douglas. I hope when we disembark from the pod it will be a relatively small engagement with the tiny staff on the vessel. The timer in the pod reads ten seconds to impact.
Others in the boarding pod start to yip and howl as the time to impact approaches. These sounds are a symptom of the RUP’s bullying. The Republic of United Planets President, in an attempt to insult the organization raiding supply ships, called us Jackals. The President said we were just a “small dog for the RUP to quickly put down”. Unfortunately for the President, we embraced the name. We became what they made us. They wouldn’t help my dying world, a world they stripped of resources and left for dead. So me and my comrades are forced to scavenge, to take what wouldn’t be given.
I’ve had to watch children starve in the streets because of the RUP’s cruelty. The thought enrages me. The counter reaches three seconds. I let my emotions run wild just before impact. A roar escapes me, it’s filled with all the anger, the pain, and the suffering I’ve had to endure. I let that roar ignite my muscles into action as the pod finally rips into the doomed RUP supply ship. God help whoever is stupid enough to get in our way.
