title

2554.16.3
...(BEGINNING PLAYBACK)...
..//ERROR (INSUFFICIENT RUNTIME)
...//FILE CORRUPTED
..///PURGING - - ->
.......(EXECUTE)...
//ENTER?
...//CLEANUP INITIATED

"It was thirteen days..thirteen days since the Maruvians burned our fleet! Morning's Dawn was the first to go..then our Prowler Panther. They boarded our ship and murdered the crew leaving twenty-three alive. I don't know what happened after that.." the crewman shuddered once then hid his face in his scarred hands.

Four others sat around the traumatized man and conversed quietly. Vice Admiral Tobias Bremner spoke first.

"Is that everything son?" The vice admiral asked in a texan accent. The crewman looked up, tears collecting at the edges of his eyes.

"That will be all for today Houghtling, you may go now," Doctor Genevieve Williams remarked while she still wrote notes on her thumbpad.

Ensign James Houghtling nodded once, and wiped his face on the sleeve of his patients jacket. The door behind him opened and two marine guards marched in, chained the ensign in handcuffs and led him out. Fleet Admiral Lance Cleveland turned to the other three and scowled.

"What the HELL was THAT?!" he rasped in a gruff voice.

Doctor Williams held up a hand to silence the admiral. Genevieve sighed, set her tablet down then leaned back into her chair and closed her eyes for a moment.

"Well Admiral," the Doctor began. "Your fleet is gone."
"Gone?! There were enough ships there to tear an elite homeworld a new one," Admiral Cleveland spat. "Tell me my fleet is gone."
"The data recovered says otherwise, Admiral," the doctor gently replied.