Valor System

- - - - - - - -- -RUP POV- - - - - - - - -

In a world deep in the RUP space...

"Lieutenant Tara Sir, I have something to report."

Tara looked down at him from his chair, frowning. Nodding to him, the Intelligence Officer spoke. "The been a startling sighting in a system we seized two years ago, some engineers working at the station positively identified a ship we had thought we had destroyed." Tara was livid, he through his wine glass onto the ground.

"WHAT!?" The Officer seized up on the spot and had stepped back a few paces.

"Its been positively identified as Captain Yale of the United Human Frontier's ship, the one we thought was destroyed in the Nova blasts in the Gamma system they were trying to colonize."

When Captain Yale's name was mentioned, all of the five Elders including him gaped in shock. Feverish gossip started among gathered servants in the room. After a few seconds, the Elders regained their authoritative air on their faces. Tara was in shock, wasn't the entire expedition destroyed?

"Are sure this information is correct?" If this got out, those rebels would have a field day. There already causing the Republic enough problems with all the protests and attacks on our supplies.

The other Elders seem to have this thought too, as they nodded their heads at Tara.

"Yes, sir. Just before the ship jumped out of the system, it was positively identified in our network. After that, the leader of the station, John Maxwell, issued the order to have the ship fired upon. He and many others thought it was some ploy be the enemy rebel forces. All through the ships ID beacon can be copied, these suspicions were soon thrown out after the camera footage was reviewed. It matches, sir."

Lieutenant Tara looked at the man with a serious expression.

"How many people know about this?" Tara said sternly. The Officier shook, he suddenly had a very bad feeling in his gut, swallowing his fear he stepped forward.

"Sir, Myself, John, Two Tower Tech's, and a member of the Gunmen's, If you include everyone in this room that would make 17 people."

Tara nodded, he looked at the elders and gestured at the servants in the corner of the room and bluntly stated.

"The Information cannot leave this room."

They looked at their servants and made a hand gesture to their necks. All the servants knew what to do, they were raised from birth to serve the Republic. The servants walked up to the wall and faced the Elders, waiting for death. One woman wailed and tried to flee the room, as she reached the door she was shot down by a guardsman posted there. The rest simply looked on blankly, as they awaited their fate like trained dogs seeking praise.Three guards walked up until they stood about ten feet away from the servants, raised their guns and pulled the trigger.

[A/N: You may see some changes between first and third person throughout the story. I'm just trying them out, seeing which one I like better.]

----Sam POV Start----

I couldn't believe my eyes, the world around me looked so real, so beautiful. All around me were lush pines, and fields of yellow flowers stretching as far as the eye could see. Beams of light shined down and warmed my skin, it was almost like I was on Earth. However, looking towards the trees, the Earth didn't have giant monsters that wanted nothing more but to eat you. A giant simulated black dog-like monster charged at me, ready to take a bit out of me. I dodged to the left and shot at Devil Dog with my sidearm, managing to hit it four times. Once in the leg, twice in the chest, and the last on the head. The dog collapsed into the dirt before it even knew what hit it.

I had already been doing this for the past four days and had only logged off to eat, drink, and exercise. No need to lose muscle mass due to lack of activity, a man's muscles were his pride and joy after all. While reviewing the results screen, Amy chimed in.

"Captain, We have arrived. Doing scans now... Scanning Complete. One M-Class planet in the habitable zone. scanning atmospheric composition, Atmospheric Scanner Drone launched... Arrival time: Ten minutes..."

"Great, just wonderful," I said hopefully. I logged out of the Holo and pulled it off my head, laying it down, I walked into the Bridge. I sat in my chair and turned the ship towards the planet's indicator on the screen and eased up the throttle. Glancing at the ships E.T.A, I saw a torturous twenty minutes... [Grrrr...] My stomach growled. I rubbed it with my hand and soothed. "Shh, soon my good friend, soon..."

I looked around the room lazily, the past four days had not been nice to my body, all the food and water rationing were surely to blame. The one good thing about the Holo is that my body doesn't require as much food that I would have normally consumed, meaning I could have actually stretched my food and water another two days. I'd still be screwed if there was no food there though. Minutes passed, One... Five... Eight... Ten.

"Captain, the probe has reached the planet and is doing tests now..._..._..._... Tests complete, an oxygen atmosphere as well as wide varieties of plant life have also been detected on the planets sur-"

"Amy, what's wrong?" Was it the Republic again? I thought about my current food reserves, and I reassessed my decision. I have no choice, its either die here or starving in space. Quite honestly, I would prefer to die fighting, than to die a slow painful death in space.

"The Probe has been destroyed Sam, do you still want to proceed?" I lifted my hands to my head rubbing my temples, seriously thinking about my next move.

I through my hands in the air, "Well I'm dead either way. So please Amy, proceed, but with utmost caution."

Later...

"Captain Sam, I have multiple unknown vessels approaching the ship. Orders?"

"Are they Republic ships?"

"No Sam"

"Open a line with one of the crafts, preferable the biggest one you can see." This way I'm at least sixty percent sure I'll be talking to the man in charge. The console by my side came to life and a translucent window appeared on screen, slowly a woman came into view, probably in her late twenties, with blue hair and... SAPPHIRE EYES. Oh shit! She's a Vasian. I looked at the screen to see her staring at me with curious eyes.

"Hi." Is what I wanted to say but it came out as, "Hey there, I'm Sam,could you please do me the favor of not killing me, that would be most appreciated." The woman face got serious and her eyes stared into mine. At least it looked like it, it was really hard to tell when her eyes are literally made of sapphires. Inside them was a purple mist that seems to congregate wherever she was looking, it was an absolutely beautiful sight to see.

"That depends on your intentions, if you run, you will be shot down. If you lie you will be tortured, and if it turns out you came to hunt us and make our presence here known, then we will kill you in the slowest way possible and as well as any family you may have."