Shep’s First Day on the Job.

Shep' crossed his arms and rolled his eyes for the fortieth time in the 2 days of hypertravel on the Zephyr. His grandfather had been cogitating on and on about how big this particular interstellar ship was. It was the 3rd largest ship the fleet had ever built, and was the largest active ship in the fleet. Poseiden's Fury, or Fury for short, was so large it generated a gravitational pull that actively stressed the outside of the ship with the centerward pull it generated.

Currently, Shep's grandfather was wildly gesturing towards a void in space where no stars could be seen. "The reason we can't see any stars in that area, is because that's where the ship is!" He waved his finger in a circular pattern against the computer tablet in his lap displaying a view of of space. "Just wait until light hits it!"

Shep' couldn't be bothered by that, though. He had just received his assignment, and he was one of the Fury's shield ships. Shep's mind somersaulted over the idea that he was the captain of his own ship at the impressive age of 18. The Fury was gargantuan on a scale that most humans can't understand. So large, in fact, that the Fizz's laws of inertia dampening demonstrated that a shield could not be generated large enough to cover the ship.

For a moment Shep' could hear Professer Fizzburn's German accent describing the laws and formulas that described why an inertia dampener could never be generated that was much larger than a house. "Joo zee, zat iz vhy vee cannot chenerate a chield vit greater diameter zan an averache houze." He circled several Greek letters following an equals sign at the bottom of a holoboard with red laser pen. "Zo instead, zee Fury eez protected by a sphere of shield ships"

Shep's daydream came to a screeching halt as angry red light flooded the bay. "All protective unit pilots report to transport bay B for immediate dispersal, this is not a drill. Repeat. All protective unit pilots report to transport bay B for immediate dispersal, this is not a drill". He glanced through the viewer as a great green laser lanced through several shield ships and into the Fury.

"Who would be attacking the Fury?!" His grandfather clutched at his chest.

"Dad are you OK?" Shep's father shifted seats sitting next to the old man. "Son you have to go. We'll be OK." Shep's father was lying, but Shep' had a duty to attend to. The blue med emergency light started blinking above their seating cubicle as Shep' stood frozen unable to decide between duty and family. "Go!" his father shouted.

The sprint down the transport ship to the transport bay was quite eventful. He tripped over another cadet sprinting to the bay, bloodying his nose. In the fall he jammed his thigh into the armrest of one of the seats, giving him a charlie horse that rivaled those of his youth playing speedball. He limped and hobbled to the bay and logged into the terminal. Master Chief Iolta stood at a hatch where a loaded transport pod was waiting. "Glad to see you could make it Captain." Master Chief Iolta spat on the floor "Smell the daisies on the way?" Shep' ignored him and hopped into the pod and buckled in "The pod will sync into your T3 Trident Shield Unit. You are to deploy and engage hostiles."

"God speed" Shep' saluted with 3 fingers to his temple.

"I hated you the most, Sheppard." Master Chief Iolta grinned "Kick some ass out there."

Iolta slammed the pod shut, and engaged the chemseals on the hatch. Shep put his head against the headrest and closed his eyes. "Who the fuck would be attacking us? It can't be the Golgons. " Shep said aloud as the Pod counted down to launch. The humanoid race of Golgon's had been nearly wiped out nearly a decade ago, but they had also been blown back into the stone age.

"The attackers appear to be human" Shep's computer chimed. "Their ships appear to be IndoRussian, and their flight and engagement tactics suggest the same." Shep thought about the idea for a few moments before dismissing the thought. Russia had signed a space nonaggression pact nearly a decade ago. This had to be a ruse of some sort. Shep took a moment to gather his thoughts in the chaos. Several laser lances flashed through space, cutting Trident shield ships in two, and separating pieces of the Fury from itself. Whoever had attacked knew that the Fury would be nearly invulnerable once the shieldships were manned. Attacking during the transition was really their best window.

Shep realized he hadn't felt being launched into space, and marveled at the feeling of flight in space for a moment. His Trident was maneuvering to intercept his pod, the ship pitched and rolled onto its back exposing an indent meant to house the pod. For a moment all was well, and the pod was simply going to slip into the housing mechanism, the maglocks would engage, and he would have control of his very own Trident.

A quick flash of light, and a laser lance changed all that, though. His pod slammed into the ship, but instead of the maglock catching, the ship snapped in half, shooting gouts of oil and battery lithium into space as it froze, clinking off the spherical pod. Panic washed over Shep' moments before his training kicked in.

Hundreds of lance ships began to focus on the central bridge of the Fury, working together to sever the Fury's engines from the rest of the ship.

Shep flipped a few switches and took over the pod's flight control module. "Scan for all available ships that will accept a TMU 38 pod, prioritize Trident model ships first" The collision with what would have been his first ship had sent him into a head over heels tumble that he fought to regain control over. Thousands of hours in a simulator took over, and he was able to stabilize his point of view into his current vector.

"No available Trident model ships." the computer chirped. Shep' held his breath "Six available Vulture longrange gunships."

"Vector on the nearest one." Shep' commanded. The ship did a few moments of silent calculation before bringing up a green target reticule on the bottom of Shep's head's up display

"Please enter command code to engage autopilot" Shep gave his authorization code. "Authorization code is not valid for Vulture longrange gunship, please enter command code to engage autopilot."

"Shit" Shep cursed under his breath. He and his buddies had figured out as first year students at the academy if you were able to direct your pod into the ship's pod bay, and engage your maglocks, you would have control over any ship that could accept your module. The issue with this maneuver was that it was like throwing a sewing needle through the eye of another sewing needle, in space.

Shep engaged the thrusters on full, he needed to get the pod close enough to visually see the vulture and determine where he needed to aim for. He glanced at the Maglock screen. Both Maglock levers showed green on the HUD. He could focus on landing instead of dealing with a damaged Mag. Things would be a thousand times worse if his initial collision with the trident had destroyed the Maglock mechanisms.

The next 30 seconds passed by slowly. Giant flaming chunks of the Fury were drifting away from the hulking ship. Several men and women in space suits had mounted a defense from a point on the hull, firing explosive lightrounds from behind bulkheads. A few whizzed bye, glowing golden and leaving behind a trail of golden dust. Deadly, yet beautiful. The pod's collision detector began to whoop, one of the enemy ships had detected him, and was bearing in on a direct course!

Shep's heart sank as he realized he was flying towards the belly of the Gunship. The Pod receptacle was on the other side. He reacted quickly, and set the pod into a lateral spin. Engaging one of the maglocks, he sent himself into a sort of sideways slide rolling towards the Vulture. Two short bursts of laser lance snapped past the pod. He held his breath and waited. The Pod collided with the ship, but instead of the ship bouncing away from the pod, the magnet from the Maglock kept the vulture close. The pod's momentum carried it again forward, rolling the Magnet over the apex of the pod, and then back against the ship. The pod was rolling against the skin of the Vulture, The pod violently shuddered and the glass against the bottom of his pod cracked, hemorrhaging atmosphere into space threatening to blast him out into the void of space again. A laser lance whipped by as the enemy ship careened past narrowly avoiding a collision and killing both Shep and itself. The Pod rolled again and with a loud snap settled into the indentation for the pod. The 2nd maglock engaged with the Vulture's magloc, and the Vulture came to life.

"Pod synchronization successful" the pod's computer chirped. A second canopy envolped the pod as the lightboard and HUD booted up. Shep's seat integrated with the vulture, and the pod opened like a blossoming flower in front of him, ejecting the unused parts of the pod behind him into space. The enemy pilot was coming in hot, straight ahead, Shep' grabbed the stick and pulled the trigger, the lance missed by a wide margin, as the enemy pilot evaded. Shep' nudged the ship to swing in the direction of the enemy ship and fired again, this time the lance swung with the ship creating a wave of death slicing the enemy in half.

Shep's nerves couldn't hold, he shouted and cheered in his seat. "Computer, status of the Zephyr"

The ship hesitated for moment "Destroyed."

Shep sat silent for a moment "Survivors?"

"Several pods ejected before comm's went offline" The computer said coldly.

"So my parents could be alive?"

Before the computer could answer, the Fury exploded into a ball of white hot plasma. The fireball collapsed in on itself, a beautiful blue and green hue, growing smaller and smaller, until it was nothing more than a prick of light the size of any one of the other of thousands of stars in the background. Then the light expanded, and exploded outward. Shep flicked his wrist and began flying away from the center of where the Fury used to be. He had never taken the time to appreciate how big the Fury really was, but he swung his head around and watched the expanding fireball engulf everything in its bloated path.

"I've never seen one that big before"