While the fleet patrols the Horizon's travel route on board the Federation Navy Vessel ISS Victoria, Kyle Crane, a member of a specialized Naval Unit finished running an anti-boarding exercise with his team to test out two new Marines who recently finished their training, he and the team returned to the armoury to store the gear in their lockers.

As they store their gear and check their weapons making sure they're unloaded, the chambers are empty and the safeties are on Kyle enters the armoury last, the six Marines close their lockers then stand at attention with their backs to the lockers facing each other.

"Great work, gentlemen. And lady." Kyle compliments while giving a cheeky smile to the only female member of his team, she returns the smile while quickly giving him the finger for singling her out before returning to attention.

The rest of the Marines and Kyle chuckle at her gesture because its well known that Kyle and Katherine, the female Marine, are long time friends so she knows he meant it as a joke. But the atmosphere quickly changes when Kyle addresses the two newest and youngest members of the team. He explains to them that they were slow to react, and call out targets.

"That lack of communication had this been a real combat scenario would have cost lives. You two are less than a month out of your training, I fully expected better from you two." His tone changes as he begins to scold them,

He asks them for a reason why they made such a mistake, at separate times they replied saying, there is no excuse, Sergeant.

The armory goes silent for a moment as Kyle steps forward and stands in front of the two Marines. They wait as he stands in front of them not saying anything, just standing there staring at them. After a moment of tense silence as the Marines look like they got the message, and Kyle hoping he got his point across to them decides a little motivation is in order.

"However, this is why we run exercises. There is still room for you two improve. Prove to me you belong in this unit. Prove you can learn, and adopt. And maybe, just maybe you'll cut it as Marines." He says reassuringly.

They raise their heads back up with renewed confidence, Jackson tells Kyle they won't let him down.

"Good. You two only have one week left on your Training Rotation, so you'd better not disappoint me." Kyle replies giving them a genuine smile as they both salute him followed with, Yes, Sergeant.

And just like that the tension fades and goes back to being relaxed and calm as low beeping sound rings through the armory followed by a female voice over the P.A. System announcing lunch is being served, Kyle dismisses them and they make their way to the Mess Deck.

The Mess Hall is where the soldiers and other crew members eat their meals and is set up in a similar fashion to that of a cafeteria, just obviously a bit tight quarters. Despite the semi-cramped eating conditions the food is good.

Kyle and the others make their way down the line while being served today's lunch: Burgers with a side of Fries. Trays in hand they walk over to a cafeteria-style table while Katherine and another Marine talk about what their plans are after they return to Earth. The conversation continues between Katherine and the Marine as they all take their seats on the bench.

The conversation continues for several minutes with the rest of the team now involved except for Kyle, he doesn't say much even when asked about his plans by one of the Marines from earlier.

As lunch finishes Kyle receives a message over the P.A. system calling him to the bridge.

Sergeant Krane, please report to the bridge. Sergeant Krane, to the bridge.

As he heads towards the lift the others go back to the quarters.

The lift doors open as Kyle arrives on the Command Deck and makes his way through the corridor towards the bridge, he passes other areas essential to the Command and Control structure of the ship and through open doors sees several Command staff and other Officers scrambling around in a manner almost like a controlled panic, immediately he gets the feeling something is wrong.

Two sliding steel doors open as he enters the bridge and the first thing he hears is the sound of overlapping chatter as he walks towards the Captain. The Captain was talking to another Officer as Kyle approached. As he got closer he vaguely overheard what the Captain and the Officer were saying,

"Get the Hornets on standby, and ready to launch." The Captain orders before dismissing the Officer, the Officer replies with a quick, Yes, sir.

The hornets? Why would we be launching fighters? Kyle asks himself as he stops in front of the Captain.

He turns his attention to Kyle as he salutes him and then stands at attention, the Captain tells him, at ease. Kyle puts his hands behind his back,

Kyle immediately asks, what's going on?

"We've lost contact with the Horizon. All attempts to hail them have failed. Sector Scan also showed two unidentified vessels breach the Restricted Zone. We tried to contact the vessels but there was no response. Minutes later they left." the Captain explains with a surprisingly calm tone given the present situation.

Kyle, trying to keep a calm and collected mind was obviously troubled by what he was told, given recent security threats he had his theory on what happened but he was holding hope that he was wrong and asked the Captain about potential Pirate activity. His answer was not what Kyle had hoped for.

"Reconnaissance reports show they've kept to the Eastern Sector recently given the increased presence of the Fleet."

Kyle's heart skipped a heart for just by looking at the expression of the Captain he knew they were both thinking the same people could very well be responsible for the Horizon going off the radar.

The Preservation, only they would be daring enough to carry out an act such as this.

Although they were both thinking the same people could be involved nothing was confirmed yet, and both Kyle and the Captain knew it but the Captain wasn't willing to make any specific accusations yet.

"It could just be Solar Interference causing the communications blackout, but all the same I need you to ready your team to board the ship," says the Captain.

Kyle knows the Captain is holding as much as hope as he is that Horizon and all aboard are safe but he knows what The Preservation are capable of, he thought back to the day they attacked and destroyed one of the storage depots used to store parts and such needed in the early days of construction.

"You know as well as I do what those terrorists are capable of, do you remember their bombing of the storage depot?" Kyle snaps, with a mixed emotional tone.

Before even saying anything Kyle knew he had struck a nerve with the Captain, his expression instantly turned furious.

"Yes, Sergeant Krane! I do remember that day! seventeen soldiers killed, thirty-nine injured. With over a hundred non-military casualties!" The Captain yells, grabbing the attention of everyone on the bridge.

The Captain steps closer to Kyle and stands just inches from him.

"I still remember the bodies. Some of which had to be identified through the staff logs and D.N.A because there was hardly anything left of them! And when D.N.A wasn't enough we had to use dental records! So yes, Sergeant, I do remember that day. You don't have to remind me of what they're capable of!" He continues, no longer yelling but still speaking with an angry voice.

His and Kyle's eyes lock as the rest of the bridge falls silent with all eyes on them not a single word is spoken for some time before the Captain breaks the silence and orders Kyle to ready his team, Kyle salutes the Captain before leaving without a word.

"All hands, level 1 Alert! Launch the Hornets." The Captain orders, as Kyle exits the bridge.

As the lift takes Kyle back down to the Mess Deck where the Quarters are located he leans against the wall and thinks back to what happened that day.

In my time serving as a soldier in the United Forces back on Earth during the Interventions I'd seen my fair share of bombings, but that one was the biggest ever to happen on Federation soil. The only reason I wasn't amongst the casualties is because I had to get gas. Can you believe that? Something as stupid as that saved my life, I couldn't believe it. I had just got past the checkpoint when the depot exploded and went up in flames, I still remember the screams.

He takes in a deep breath and holds it for a moment before exhaling while he runs his hand through his somewhat short hair, as he feels a swell of emotions thinking about that day since he was either friends or close with some of the Soldiers. He manages to collect himself as the lift doors quickly slide open, he makes his way to the Quarters.

The door slides open and he hears them murmuring, they stop when they hear the door open and see Kyle and the expression on his face. Katherine immediately asks,

"what's going on?"

"There's been an incident, two unidentified ships breached the Restricted Zone and we've lost contact with the Horizon." He explains

Katherine asks him the same question he asked the Captain: about the possibility of Pirates.

"At this moment nothing has been confirmed but all possibilities are on the table, we have been ordered to prepare to board the ship. Get to the armory and kit up." He continues.

Immediately his team leaves the Quarters and heads towards the lift followed behind by Kyle who can feel the increasing tension coming from his team, he knows out of everyone aside from himself Katherine is the most tense and anxious since she has also witnessed what The Preservation can do.

They enter the armoury and begin getting their gear out of their lockers, putting on their protective gear, and grabbing their weapons: The standard issues United Forces G89 Carbine, an advanced variant of an older Carbine, a standard 9mm pistol and knife.

With their protective gear on they begin checking their weapons and ammo, but as they do a message is announced over the P.A. that was sent only to the armoury.

Attention, Hornets are closing in on the Horizon's last know location. Patching into live feed, standby.

The screen located above the armoury door turns on allowing them to see what the pilot is seeing so far all they can see is the beauty of space and stars, the livefeed not only allows them to see what the pilot sees but they can hear the conversation between the pilot and the bridge.

"Raven Actual to bridge, thirty seconds to last known location." Says the female pilot, a male Officer on the bridge acknowledges what the pilot saying, Roger, Raven Actual.

Kyle and the others watch as the Hornets officially reach the location the Horizon was last reported being, but what they see shocks everyone

"Raven Actual to bridge, are you seeing this?" Asks the pilot, with a somber tone. The Officer acknowledged the pilot confirming they saw what she was seeing.

Everyone in the armoury stares at the screen in shock and disbelief at what they're seeing: the wreckage of the Horizon. Everyone came to their feet struggling to come to process what they were seeing, the sight of the floating wreckage and debris.

Oh my god, they did it. Those bastards actually did! Kyle says to himself, feeling his anger rising.

As the Hornets continue through the wreckage, flying through, and between different chunks of debris and destroyed sections of the ship's hull surveying the wreckage for any signs of survivors, what they find is enough to make the blood of everyone on the bridge and armoury run cold: countless bodies floating lifelessly amongst the debris.

The sight is enough to make one Marine weak in the knees causing him fall back onto the bench behind him, another retches at the sight, the others just stare not saying anything.

Kyle stares at the screen feeling a mixture of different emotions as his eyes are fixated on the screen, but his attention immediately is drawn away at the sound of something hitting the floor beside him.

He looks where the sound came from too see Katherine dropped her Carbine and had fallen onto her hands and knees, he kneeled down to hold her but as soon as his hands touch her shoulders she wraps her arms around him and begins sobbing in his chest.

He wraps his arms around her and starts stroking up and down her back trying to comfort her. He knew that she is upset about what happened but he knows the whole reason she's crying...

Her mother and younger brother were on board the Horizon.

The Hornets continued to circle the wreckage searching for any sign of survivors but are limited to using their scanners on the outer edge of the debris field. Half-an-hour later the Victoria arrived with its support ships to join the search and launched Probes to search deeper into the debris field.

a bit of a dark chapter, I tried not to over describe certain areas, I hope you understand why I did. All the same let me know what you think of it and how I did. I hope you liked it despite the dark nature of this chapter. Thanks for reading. If you liked it, maybe consider giving it a vote, and don't be afraid to comment below :)