Broken World

Daniel Norway

July 24, 1969. That was the day mankind touched the stars. Ever since that day, we have continued to go beyond our home into the deeper unknown. Ever since then, our universe was becoming a peaceful and thriving place since the start of the twenty-first century. At least until disaster struck Humanity. Earth began to collapse right under our own feet, people ran and tried to hide, but only half of mankind survived what would be called, the Collapse of Earth. In order to survive, we began to create more colonies across different worlds all over the universe, but that only resulted in a conflict that was infamously known as the Grand War, a galactic-wide war that lasted between several empires and galactic nations for five-hundred years, and after it ended, life would have finally come together after those years of chaos. Everything would have gone back to normal after the war until another threat had to reveal itself to humanity. The Scattered, a powerful force that crippled the entire United Galactic Nations Alliance in mere days, forcing the entire universe not only into a newfound war of survival, but an entire civil war as new powers would rise up in an attempt to replace the old faction and fight against the Scattered, but barely anyone stood a chance for the next ten years. During this new conflict, I attempted to stay out of there affairs, but I eventually got dragged into it against my will. Starting the story of how humanity was saved from near extinction...

August 1, 2859. It all began aboard an NHR prison ship headed for Ghira Station, a human refugee station to help against the local Scattered invasions on nearby planets. I was being taken to the station's prison for attempting to steal military weapons from them on Alterra Prime, I was eventually woken up by a security officer.
"Hey! Wake up scumbag." The officer yelled.
I eventually listened and woke up. "Oh. We're here. Thought it was just a dream."
"Err. come on, let's go." The officer said.
I looked outside a nearby viewport as he left and saw the station was more than I thought it would be, it had everything a local colony would have, heavy defenses, markets for miles, even the occasional drone camera. Too bad I couldn't enjoy it. A few NHR troopers greeted us as we got off the prison ship.
"This the prisoner?" The trooper asked.
"Yep. check his records." The officer replied as a soldier grabbed his datapad to check my criminal records.
"Let's see. His name is Daniel Norway; caught stealing military property, smuggling weapons, and goods to neutral colonies, and killing military officials. Quite a list."
"Yeah. You impressed. Still can't believe you grunts actually caught me." I taunted.
"Sigh, you'll be here for a long time. Take him away." The officer ordered.
The troopers then carried me off to the station's prison where they confiscated my equipment and put in an empty cell the minute we arrived.
"I won't be here long. I've been in these situations before." I bragged as the soldiers left.
"Trust me. No one can escape this prison alive." A neighboring inmate told me.
"Please. I can escape." I bragged more.
"No, you can't." The inmate insisted. "The NHR is not like other military's. They know how to deal with anything. Mercs, Empires..."
"Even Scattered?" I asked.
"Even Scattered. You ain't getting out." He replied.
I waited for a while, then I overheard some NHR troopers talking nearby. I decided to listen in.
"Some of our radar teams picked up Scattered readings moving toward us coming from Nomad." The first trooper said.
"That planets months from here, even with warp speed. We'll be fine." The second trooper bragged.
"What about local threats from the 51st?" The first one asked concerned.
"We have more ships than them, nothing will destroy this station." The second one replied.
"At least let me warn the commander." The first one insisted.
"You go do that, but I'm telling you, the station is the safest spot in the universe to be right now." The second one insisted laughing.
"Will see." The first one said leaving.
That's when I decided to plan a mass prison break with the inmates. "Hey," I said to an inmate nearby.
"What newbie?" He asked angered.
"Tell the inmates to prepare to fight. I'm breaking us out." I replied before beginning to try and disable the cell doors.
I already knew this would take a few days.

August 6, 2859. A week passed and the door was still locked despite my best hacking efforts, as I continued my efforts, a prison warden then entered the prison with a datapad in hand.
"Which one of you is Daniel Norway?!" He yelled as the inmates pointed to me.
I decided this was my best chance to pull off an escape.
"Yeah?" I asked while trying to hide a mischievous smirk.
"You're up for execution today. Let's go." He explained coming towards me as he opened the cell door.
I quickly grabbed his taser while he was busy trying to grab a pair of cuffs.
"You want to know something," I told the warden revealing my smirk.
"What?" He asked annoyed.
"Your bad at this job," I replied before I shot him with the taser and stunned him as he collapsed to the ground.
Once I made sure he was down, I began to walk out of the room.
"Hey what about us?!" An inmate yelled.
"Shouldn't rat out the guy who nearly got you out of jail. Later." I taunted leaving the inmates.
I eventually found my way to the storage room and grabbed my equipment; an old energyblade, an ion pistol, and a white armored jacket, before going through a nearby open window to leave the prison.

Once I got out, I hid in a nearby alley and tried to find a nearby ship bay. Turns out all the ship bays were military only. I decided to take my chances, but before I could. I saw several destroyers enter the station's orbit. I tried to see if they were NHR or if they were someone else's before I eventually recognized the symbols on one of the ships, they were a part of the 51st Militia. The ships instantly began to open fire at the station as alarms began to blare and NHR naval forces returned fire back at their enemy. I knew I had to escape the station fast and immediately ran through crowds of frightened people escaping and trying to reach a ship bay, the crowds were hard to move in considering I was headed in the opposite direction of the crowds. I eventually activated my ship's beacon once I escaped the crowds hoping it would reach me in time. I eventually ran into a group of 51st troopers attacking the station.
"Open fire!" Their commander yelled.
I took cover to avoid their shots and attempted to run away in order to find a way around them. But a squad of NHR troopers join the fight and began shooting at me and the 51st troopers. I was instantly in the middle of a warzone.
"Not good." I said to myself before I saw an opening to run.
I took it and ran to the nearby alley avoiding as many gunshots as I could. I ran down the alley for a while but realized that most streets were filled with NHR and 51st troopers. I realized I needed to find a new way to the ship bay before noticing a nearby ladder leading to the air tunnels. I decided to use them to reach my ship and ascended up the ladder into the air tunnels of the station. When I entered the tunnels, the air was harder to breathe inside them. I instantly went for my oxygen mask and started traversing through the tunnels.

I traveled the tunnels for I don't know how long, before deciding to try and find my ship's homing beacon. I wasn't that far from it and followed the beacon until I found a hatch above the ship bay. I peeked outside to see the ship bay, only for it to be crawling with squads of 51st troopers and dropships. I took my chances and went outside the air tunnel near the ship bay. When I got closer, I noticed the 51st had a heavy trooper with them. I couldn't take it out with the weapons I had, so I had to find a way around the heavy. But before I could come up with a plan. The ship bay exploded sending the 51st forces into space. I tried to hold on, but my hands eventually slipped and I went drifting into space. I would have been dead if I didn't see my ship and grab onto it quickly entering it and flying away from the warzone until a Scattered dreadnought entered the warzone and began to tear both the NHR and 51st fleets to shreds. I was nearly hit by the ship's void cannons as I began to fly as fast as my ship could go away from the dreadnought towards the remaining NHR ship's. I figured it would not only damage the NHR but give the 51st something else to shoot while I escape. My plan sort-of worked, the dreadnought was distracted and decimated the NHR fleets, but it also decimated the 51st fleets. I was expecting the 51st to at least send it running or destroy it knowing them. I continued to fly away as the dreadnought destroyed Ghira Station and disappeared into warp space without a trace. I decided to take my mind off it and look at my UGNR silver star, a gift from my father before he died serving the United Galactic Nations Republic during the Scattered first attack, and the UGNR's final battle on Aurora.

I flew from Ghira Station for hours until I decided to head for Olympia, the largest standing colony left in the universe and homeworld of the New Brotherhood, it was the perfect place to hide out and repair my ship after the attack, maybe even catch a couple of mercenaries who want to pay for my services. I then activated warp speed and headed for Olympia, one of the few major city colonies left after the Scattereds initial invasions, and...a former world of the UGNR.