Chapter 2 His ship, The Kestrel, isn't very big, only holding a maximum of 30 shipmates, it's one of the smallest independent ships in the Alliance navy. It didn't take long to reach the deck. The captain came unannounced, and was pleased with his crews work. You'd expect a crew to fool around when the captain isn't around but not his crew. Captain Benet earned the trust and respect soon after he was assigned to the ship during the Insurgency war 8 years ago. Thanks to his confidence, leadership, and expertise in piloting and combat, he was able to get them all out alive during a high risk mission to save Alliance POW's in an Insurgent prison station. Sadly, the mission went south, forcing the captain to leave the POW's in order to save his crew. 38 POW's died during an explosion set off by the stations fusion reactor, killing everyone on board and destroying the station itself. Captain Benet never forgave himself for the deaths of all those good men, but his crew was forever thankful. If he could have saved all of them, we would have. Cpl. Matto, his newest crew member, was the first person to great him. "Captain! What a pleasure it is to see you here! I was afraid you would stay cooped up in your room all day!" The captain smiled momentarily, enjoying the fact that Cpl. Matto actually enjoys seeing him. "What makes you say that? He responded "Well after seeing Sgt. Pulaski rather upset after coming from your room, I figured you were too. I'm glad you're down here." Cpl. Matto had such a wide smile, and his eyes had such a benevolence to them. The captain was delighted with his decision to transfer him from the Monroe Corporation. He couldn't imagine the ship without him. The Monroe Progressive is a human planet terraforming corporation. During the mid 21st century, humanity finally developed ways to travel through the stars. Their immediate decision was to form a group to colonize planets for future purposes, and thus, the terraforming corporation was created. During a terraforming project, the MP corp. discovered a planet inhabited by a humanoid species, the Malonians. The planet was slowly being thrown out of its orbit. In the process, the planet was slowly being torn apart and killing millions of its inhabitants daily. The Monroe Progressive immediately began to evacuate the planet. Through the kindness of the Monroe Progressive board of directors, they kindly allowed the remaining Malonians to inhabit their newly terraformed planet, Inanna. It became the first planet to be shared between the two species. Decades later, Matto and A younger Benet met each other there and instantly became friends. The captained smiled back. "What's our status, Cpl. Matto?"