Knights in Space III

“ATTACK,” The LED display shone into my room. I moaned and fell back into my bed. Since the crusade began this has been an almost daily occurrence, and frankly I’m sick of it. I tried to fall back asleep, the CRUNCH of a spear shooting into my room and the whistle of escaping oxygen shot me back awake. I hopped up, rushed down the hall, and joined the other non-knight workers in the bunker.

The bunker, the perfectly most central position of the craft. As soon as this is destroyed, the whole ship is destroyed. There’s directives in place for us to take over as commander after the rest of the knights and the real commander is destroyed. I’m 42^nd^ in line, cool.

Back home is a place of prosperity, we would pursue whatever persuits we wanted under the watchful eye of the king. The Knights keep him in line, and as such we are a peaceful people. Universities and knowledge are the prime ideals. Enough about that, it bores me. Yada yada we’re a utopian society. I got sick of it. I have no desires for boredom and I needed adventure. I can’t be a knight yet, but I can cozy up to them in the meantime. But—

“Pay attention!” the knight shouted at me, must have been an off day. “We are at about fifty-fifty battle position right now. If we are all killed, as is likely right now, you will have to take over as security member for the bunker. Do as is most honourable.”

I gave a mocking salute and marched into the bunker. We were rocked about for a little while. Spears were hauled all around the bunker and blasted into the cold vacuum of space. These spears had each been individually tested for resistance to the cold and in a fraction of time were spent. Blasted out and only about half the time were used successfully.

Then, the blasting stopped. There was no more rocking of the ship and everything had settled. As per protocol we waited for an hour for a knight to take us out, but there was no knight heard the entire time. What we did hear, was the scrambling of people onto the ship and them speaking in that language I had heard a million times, but never known what it was. I knew we had lost, and our ship was only being kept from being adrift by a few spears attached to the enemy ship. I walked over to the newly minted commander, “Anything?” I asked.

“Nope, either the engines are out or our line out to the engines has been severed. Either way, we’re not going anywhere until someone goes out there. I sighed and walked over to the emergency weaponry shed. I tried to remember the algorithm for unlocking it. Each of us peasants had been given, not codes, but algorithms to unlock each of the stations depending on what we were assigned. I never remembered the damn algorithm for the security case, just like last time.

I consulted with the person next to me, Jim, apparently, and finally heard the satisfying click of an opening armoury. I strapped two spears to my back and took out a broadsword. There was no armour so I would definitely be operating without any second chances. I opened the door to the airlock, and after a brief sequence of hissing and clicking, readied myself. I waited for the moment that the door opened and, without seeing what I was stabbing, thrust my sword in the gap of the door. Once it had fully opened I saw my sword embedded in someone who was definitely not a knight. They had armour, but it was completely different with regal swoops and broad shoulder plates. I let go, as the sword had been completely embedded in the armour. The other woman wearing the same armour, seeing her partner being impaled, naturally took a moment to react and lunged at me.

I ripped out one of my spears and in one arc brought it down into her.