[i]Part V finished. I hope you guys like it, feel free to hit that like button, comment, or vote. Thanks for all your support! Enjoy![/i] I never knew fear...It’s a senseless emotion that was driven from me as a child. In the face of adversity, fear and sorrow will only lead to your demise. As my ship hurdles somewhat uncontrollably through space, like a poisonous, black soup, boiling in a witch’s cauldron, my blood courses through my veins. The adrenaline surges, as I have that ghost feeling of my left arm, but realize the bitter reality that my arm is not there, as I have to fight the controls of my battered ship with one hand. Normal space travel would dictate that the ship be flown entirely by computer-control and I would just sit here like another passenger in an intergalactic space cab, but the Boomers had other plans. Their heavy artillery pounded my poor ship and nearly rendered it incapacitated before I had the chance to escape. With a serenity of quietness and solitude just outside the walls of my ship, out here among the stars, most creatures would feel at ease. A peacefulness that comes with the knowledge that their isn’t a single living soul within lightyears of them, gives them comfort in this vast, openness of deep space--I, however, do not feel this bliss. My eyes shift to the main dash, as the inevitability of the coming alarms about my situation draw near. “Warning: Minimal power not attained for safe operation for: Right thruster, Left thruster, Main afterburner, Three-dimensional stabilizers, Engine core, Engine coolant…”. I pressed a few buttons on my touchpad and silenced the warnings, knowing full well what dire straits my ship was in. I just had to travel a few more minutes and I would be there, just a few a more and I would live to see another day...maybe. My right hand clenched tightly onto the directional stick, the three bones that protruded from the top of my hand scraped gently against the smooth service of the control panel. Then, everything fell apart. The right thruster failed first, which threw my ship into an erratic, twirling frenzy. I was barely able to straighten it back out, before the left thruster failed. I heard the plume and smelled the burnt, black smoke that poured out of the rear of my ship, a bad situation only doomed to get so much worse. I manually diverted, what little power remained, to the main afterburner. The ship wailed and screamed in protest, I was strapped in tight but the violent shaking made it difficult to control the flight path. I let go of the control stick, only briefly, to activate the main afterburner. It charged for a few long seconds before finally exploding, launching me forward. A gentle beep, beep, beep, along with a flashing red light on my console, was the final blow. The sound the afterburner made as it bursted into bright oranges flames, sounded like a cannon being fired in an empty auditorium. I could no longer differentiate between the beeping from the dashboard to the buzzing in my ears and ringing in my head. The temperature inside the cockpit was well over the standard boiling point, my final breath of life, would come as I burned alive inside the very object I thought to be my salvation. The control panel sent thousands of tiny sparks dancing around me, burning into my protective flesh that was beginning to melt away to expose the ragged, dark bones beneath. All systems were lost. The lights, the alarms, the controls...everything was dead. I was a flaming fireball flying through space to a destination, to a fate, that I deserve, for all the sinister things that I have done...Then, I hit it. My ship was grabbed by a giant, black hand and pulled deep into the supermassive black hole that I had set my sights on. The flames still licked the back of my ship, melting away the metal, trying to climb their way inside. The temperature was rising even higher, my protective skin was tearing all along my body as all I could do was hold on and pray. It was pitch black, even for me. Everything was devoid of light, sound, time, everything stood still here. I was consumed into a darkness that was darker than me. Was I moving? Am I dead? Is this what Hell is? My ship toppled and tumbled endlessly, helplessly, end over end, I continued my death grip, I closed my eyes tight, or were they already shut? When I finally regained consciousness, I was out of the black hole and flying through space in a dead ship. A freakishly bright light shines in my eyes, waking me from my dark slumber. Most of my ship had broken apart and I just continued to move through space in my crushed tin can. The flames died down to a flicker, the temperature nearly unbearable, but I’m jolted back into reality as my ship entered into a planet’s orbit. A...planet? There are no more planets, I personally saw to that, but sure enough, there it is, and I descended on it like some firefly from Hell. The flames leapt back to life, as what remained of my ship rocketed into the atmosphere. I didn’t have time to do much of anything except continue to hold on for dear life. As I burned through, I saw a large oval of blue, fast approaching. Impossibly large, whatever it was, I was going to slam into it, traveling at the speed of sound and that’s exactly what I did. My broken body washed up on something wet and gritty. I was in water. The gentle waves broke along the coastline as I pulled myself further out of the ocean with all the strength that I had left. All of my protective armor, was gone, as was my Sword, again. I am able to remove my helmet and roll onto my back in the wet sand. I look more like driftwood than Xax, but I’m alive. The extremely bright object in the sky continues to beat down on me, trying to offer me warmth and comfort, but I’d have none of it. I can't even look at it, the light hurts my eyes, burning them out of my skull. I have one final thought before I let the white light overtake my conscious being. [i]I made it out...alive.[/i] [i]Thanks for reading! This will take you to the Ascension story archive where you can access ALL parts of my story.[/i] https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/99858091/0/0 [i]This link will take you to the second chapter of Part V [/i]https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/100439134/0/0