Chapter 1 – The pilot

“Come one; come all to the newest discovery of your lifetime! Be a part of history as a new era is upon us! Take on new adventures as a bold adventure on the newly discovered planet ‘Calypso’! “

That’s what the pamphlet said as I strode to the ship waiting on the runway. Of the two hundred thousand lucky participants, I was one of them. Sure, being a wealthy genius and having a job at one of the top corporations in the world helped me secure a spot, but most of it was luck. Only the best and brightest had a snowball’s chance in heck to get in. Twenty-four years old, two duffle bags of supplies, and a 1-way ticket to the planet. Colonize it, then just sit back and let the rewards reap themselves, so the instructor said. As I sat back in the leather plane seat, I closed my eyes and drifted off…

“Would you like some cashews, sir?”
I lifted his eyelids. There was a waitress in a blue uniform and wearing a light blue hat. I grabbed a small package then went back to trying to get my mind off my work to come. There was quite the whispering and talking around the cabin as the other participants buzzed around the new cities and structures that were already built by the robots sent a few years ahead of them. This is going to be a long flight, I thought to myself. Already getting bored…dozed off again…

WHAM!
Wake up hitting my head on the nearest bulkhead and to the sounds of screams. People running back and fourth between cabins, lights flashing, shaking and stirring of the ship and voices on the loudspeaker yelling to the unruly crowd below: “Everyone get to your designated escape pods immediately! We are under attack! I repeat, everyone get to your designated escape pods immediately!”
Jack told an attendant what was going on. “Were under attack!” she yelled
“No crap, from whom.” I yelled back. But by then all the cabin windows lit up to a fiery orange then exploded, taking the craft with it. Wow, what a pain to be dead.