Chapter 1 - The Triumph of Darron
Chapter 1 - The Triumph of Darron
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
—Oscar Wilde
Four years ago, the System announced its arrival. A solar flare knocked out the power grids on Earth, and while everyone was still figuring out how to turn the lights back on, portals started opening in forests and cities and parking lots. Monsters came through. Famine hit. Anarchy spread. People died until humanity got organized and started fighting back, and the ones who killed enough got stronger, leveled up, and earned classes.
Luca’s dad ran an orbital shipyard out in the Koronis asteroid family. The Genesis Platform. He started building shuttles and dropships, then mining ships, and before long the entire solar system had people in it. Not many, but outposts started cropping up on Venus and Mars and throughout the asteroid belt. Luca had spent the last four years watching his father launch ships from a construction dock in space and wondering what the hell his own role in all of this was supposed to be.
Two years after the first FTL drive showed up on Venus, Luca’s team pulled the second one out of a collapsing volcano with Ryan’s arm barely still attached. Now they were parked at Genesis, five hundred million credits deep in a starship that didn’t have all its walls yet, holding an exploration charter to Alpha Centauri. Luca was nineteen years old and not even a little bit sure he was the right person for this.
The bridge of the Triumph was cold as hell at 2:17 AM.
Luca pulled his red hoodie tighter around his shoulders as he paced between the half-assembled workstations, weaving around Genesis Platform techs in their gray coveralls who swarmed over the ship like ants. The bridge was still a construction site, with loose cables snaking across the deck and crates of equipment stacked against every bulkhead. Most of their supplies were already loaded, but final commissioning meant the reactor stayed cold and the crew slept in Genesis staging quarters across the platform, which left Luca as the only one dumb enough to be up here.
“Watch the conduits there,” he called to a tech wrestling with a bundle of fiber optics. The guy shot him an annoyed look. Luca was probably the fifth person to tell him that tonight.
He couldn’t sleep, same as the night before and the one before that.
Every time he closed his eyes, his brain wouldn’t shut up. It kept running contingencies and mapping failure points. He had five hundred million credits on his shoulders and a crew counting on him to get them to Alpha Centauri and back. His mom’s voice echoed in his head, “This day will come, Luca. When it does, you’ll know what to do.”
Four years of combat experience had taught him to assess and adapt. Space operations had different rules but the same principles. He just needed more time with these systems.
The tactical display flickered as he pulled up the ship’s schematics for the hundredth time tonight. He scrolled through reactor specs and power distribution, then pulled up the thruster configurations, trying to burn every system into his memory. If something went wrong out there, his crew would look to him for answers.
“Captain Rossi?” A tech looked up from the navigation console. “We need to run another calibration on the stellar cartography array. Should take about thirty minutes.”
“Go ahead,” Luca said, stepping around two more techs hauling equipment. Jesus, I’m getting in their way.
His wrist buzzed. Emily’s face lit up the screen of his personal access computer, her blonde hair messy. “Can’t sleep either?” she asked.
“Someone’s got to figure out how this thing works before we’re all breathing vacuum,” Luca replied, turning his wrist so she could see the chaos around him.
“You’re going to drive yourself crazy,” she said, smiling. “Try to get some rest.”
“I’ll try.” The screen went dark. He needed coffee, something to focus his mind instead of pacing and getting in the techs’ way.
The Genesis Platform’s cafeteria was nearly empty at this hour, with a few night-shift workers grabbing late meals and one exhausted ship captain. Luca nursed his third cup of coffee, pulled off the hoodie, and draped it over his chair. The hot liquid burned away some of the chill from the ship, and for a moment, Luca let himself relax.
Two more days before we launch. Officially. With ceremony and everything going according to plan.
His PAC lit up with Dad’s name on the screen.
“Luca!” Dad was shouting. “They’re coming. Get back to the ship. You have to launch. Now!”
Coffee splashed across the table as Luca shot to his feet. “What? Who’s—”
“UER soldiers. They’re moving to seize the Triumph. You have maybe five minutes before they reach the docking bay. Move!”
The line went dead.
Luca’s training kicked in. They’d planned for this, just not for it to happen before the reactor was even warm. The UER had been circling like vultures ever since they’d won the Alpha Centauri charter. Dad had warned him this might happen.
Luca was already running as he pulled up the crew channel on his PAC.
“Everyone up! Get to the ship, right now! They’re coming for the Triumph!”
His feet pounded against the metal decking as he sprinted through the platform’s corridors. Behind him came shouts and heavy footsteps. They were already here.
The crew channel erupted with voices as his team jolted awake across the platform.
“What the hell—” Ryan sounded half-awake.
“Luca, what’s happening?” Joey asked.
“Get to the ship, we can talk on the way!” Luca shouted. “Move before they cut us off!”
Danny burst out of his quarters, nearly colliding with Joey. “Is this really happening?” he yelled over the alarms.
“Looks like it,” Joey said grimly, already grabbing his medical kit.
From another door, Chris appeared at a sprint, grinning. “Now this is what I signed up for!”
Zoe laughed breathlessly as she caught up, her dreadlocks bouncing. “You’re insane!”
Ryan brought up the rear, his red Crocs squeaking on the metal decking. “So much for launching on schedule.”
Joey shot a look at Ryan’s ridiculous footwear. “Try not to break an ankle in those things. I’m not carrying you.”
They converged in the maintenance tunnels as Emily arrived.
She was wearing his red hoodie, the one he’d draped over his chair in the cafeteria not five minutes ago. It hung past her thighs, sleeves rolled up, as if she’d grabbed the first thing she could find.
“You left it behind,” she said breathlessly, catching his stare.
It looks better on her anyway, he thought.
Heavy footsteps echoed from the corridors behind them, getting louder.
“Move!” Luca shouted, taking point as they raced through the cramped corridors. Exposed pipes lined the walls and the dim lighting reduced visibility to almost nothing, but he knew these passages. Dad had made sure of that.
They burst onto the terminal and there she was, the Triumph of Darron, their pride and their five-hundred-million-credit gamble. She rested in her docking cradle, still connected to auxiliary power.
Where are all the techs? The ship should have been crawling with Genesis Platform workers. Instead, the gangway was empty except for a few scattered crates.
Soldiers poured into the far end of the terminal.
“Go, go, go!” Luca grabbed Emily’s hand and led the desperate final sprint down the jetway. Their feet rang against metal as shouts erupted behind them.
They made it through the airlock with seconds to spare. Luca slammed the inner door as the first soldiers reached the outer hatch.
His crew gathered around him in the half-dark corridor. Emily’s green eyes met his.
“Bridge! Get to the bridge, we’re launching this thing!”
His interface pinged.
[Asset Transferred Successfully]
Triumph of Darron:
Exploration Vessel, Helios Class Mk-I
Ownership Transfer:
Genesis Platform → Triumph Initiative
Status: Active
Note: All System privileges and responsibilities have transferred to the new owner.
A second notification followed.
[Charter Activated: Alpha Centauri Survey Expedition]
Pre-Requisites: FTL-Capable Vessel [Complete]
Mission Checkpoints:
Depart Sol System with a qualified crew - [Pending]
Arrive in Alpha Centauri - [Pending]
Map all planetary bodies and major asteroid fields - [0/? Mapped]
Conduct surface surveys on habitable zone planet - [0/? Mapped]
Return with verifiable data - [Pending]
Reward: See Mission Compensation Table.
The contract was active, which meant those soldiers had no legal right to take his ship.
Then who the hell are they working for?
Disconnected panels gaped open and orange warning lights blinked across the bridge. The main reactor was still cold on station power, and every dead screen on that console reminded Luca they weren’t ready for this.
“Stations!” Luca shouted over the chaos. “Ryan, I need main power. Zoe, get navigation online. Emily, coordinate the startup sequence. Joey, get the medical station online. Let me know if anyone’s vitals start to crash.”
Behind them, something heavy slammed against the airlock as the soldiers pressed their assault.
“The reactor’s cold,” Ryan called from the power station without looking up. “This is gonna be ugly.”
“Then make it not ugly, Ryan. We need power five minutes ago.”
“We’re supposed to have a twelve-hour warmup sequence.”
“We don’t have twelve minutes. Make it work.”
Ryan grinned, the crazy bastard. “You got it, Captain.”
He grabbed the main startup lever with both hands and yanked it down. The ship gave off a deafening screech as the fusion reactor woke from its cold state. Warning lights exploded across every panel.
“Coolant pumps are redlining!” Chris shouted from his engineering station.
“Hold together,” Luca muttered, watching the indicators climb into dangerous territory. “Just hold together.”
The lights brightened as the reactor’s hum steadied. Screens flickered to life across the bridge.
“Got it!” Ryan yelled.
“Good,” Luca said. “Chris, get us free of the station. Automated release sequence.”
Chris tapped a command into his console. A green light blinked, then immediately turned red. An error message flashed on the screen.
[Docking Clamp Release Failed: Corrupted Handshake Protocol]
“What the hell?” Chris tried again. Same result. “The release command isn’t being recognized by the station’s computer. It’s like our ship and the platform aren’t speaking the same language anymore.”
“Try the manual override,” Luca ordered. A high-pitched whine started from the direction of the airlock. The soldiers were cutting their way through.
“Already on it,” Chris said, hammering keys. “The manual override’s also rejected. That’s weird.”
“Try a direct system query,” Ryan suggested, leaning over.
Chris’s expression shifted. “The release protocols... they’re corrupted. It looks like someone rewrote the handshake codes.”
“We’re trapped,” Zoe said quietly.
The crew looked at each other, then at him. They were out of standard options. Luca’s mind raced, his eyes jumping from the “Access Denied” message to the soldiers on the security monitor. They can’t hack the clamps. They can’t override them. But what if we don’t have to? What if we just break them?
The itch to trigger his ability, [Damage Control], flashed hard enough to make his temples tighten. He could do it. The System would hand him a cleaner emergency chain, tell him what to sacrifice and what to save. But Chris was on clamps, Zoe was on helm, Ryan was already halfway inside the problem, and Luca couldn’t start burning command abilities every time the ship coughed. Not yet.
It was a desperate idea. But it was the only one he had.
“Zoe,” Luca said, cutting through the chaos. “Fire the starboard attitude thrusters. A short, low-power burn.”
“What?” Zoe spun around. “Luca, we’re still clamped down! The torque will tear the hull apart!”
“I know!” Luca cut her off, his gaze locked on Chris. “Chris, the second you feel that ship start to pull, blow the emergency explosive bolts. All of them. At once. We’re going to rip ourselves free.”
Everyone on the bridge stared at him. This wasn’t in any manual. The explosive bolts were a last-ditch system designed to sever the ship in case of a catastrophic dock explosion, not to launch it.
“You heard him!” Chris yelled, a manic grin spreading across his face as he dove for the override. “Get ready!”
“Hold on!” Luca grabbed his console as Zoe fired the thrusters.
The Triumph screamed as metal groaned under the strain. The starboard side tried to wrench free while the port side was held fast.
“Now, Chris!”
Chris yanked the lever.
The ship jerked with the force of a battering ram as the bolts exploded open. The release sent them lurching sideways. Danny went down hard, crashing into a pile of equipment.
“We’re clear!” Chris let out a wild, triumphant scream.
Before anyone else could move, Joey was already at Danny’s side, helping him up. “You okay? Any signs of concussion?”
“I’m good,” Danny grunted, shaking his head clear. “Just... dizzy.”
“Main thrusters!” Luca commanded. “Full power!”
The Triumph shuddered violently as Zoe threw the lever for the primary drive engines. The attitude jets were nothing compared to the roar of the main thrusters fighting to push them clear of the Genesis Platform. They were moving, finally.
Luca’s hands were still shaking on the console.
The alarms changed pitch.
“We’re losing power!” Danny called from his science station, blood running from a gash above his eye. “Reactor’s going unstable!”
The generator indicators were flashing red, the heat warnings climbing toward critical.
“Ryan! Chris!” Luca barked. “Get that generator stable!”
Ryan dove for the controls, his face going pale as he scanned the readouts. “What the hell? These coolant lines were fine yesterday! I tested them myself!”
Chris looked up from the engineering panel. “The primary heat exchangers—someone pulled the safety interlocks. These systems don’t fail like this.”
“Wait, what?” Danny’s voice cracked. “You’re saying someone—”
“Sabotage,” Luca said. Those techs, the ones he’d been tripping over all night, weren’t finishing the install. They were breaking it.
“Working on it!” Ryan slammed switches as Chris fought with the turbine controls.
“Stabilized!” Ryan shouted.
That lasted about three seconds. A new set of alarms began wailing.
“Main thrusters are offline!” Zoe reported, her jaw tight. “The power surge from the generator fried the ignition relay! We’re on momentum only!”
The Genesis Platform spun slowly past the viewport, and Luca had no thrusters and no plan.
Options. What are my options?
A muffled thump echoed from somewhere deep in the ship’s infrastructure, and a few seconds later the slightest whiff of something reached his nose, sharp and chemical, like burning plastic.