50 Starting off with a bang

Graduation day was a special one for Ji-ho. She received the highest honours in her batch and was awarded with a medal of excellence. Thousands and thousands of hours, blood, sweat, and tears had been poured into getting to this moment.

Thunderous applause resounded through the auditorium as Ji-ho stood on stage and smiled. Ava, are you watching me? Not only did I avoid your fate of being sold to pirates and killed by a black hole, but I've also taken the first step towards fulfilling your dream. The next step was to accept the offer she had received from the military. Ji-ho was equally excited and scared about the prospect of being responsible for an entire ship's safety during star-gating, but she could handle it, right? Right. How lucky that the reaper had picked her to do this job. She was getting to experience so many amazing things because of it.

______

"Please head to terminal seven, gate sixteen."

Ji-ho thanked the woman and grabbed her bag. This was going to be her first trip out of Earth. She had been temporarily placed as navigator to an important supply ship that belonged to the military. Her route would take her across a swathe of space that had already been conquered by humanity. She had nothing to fear from xenomorphs and reptilians. But humans? She had more to worry about the dangers from space pirates though they mostly avoided attacking military ships.

"First time?" she was asked by the steward who processed her ticket.

"How did you know?"

He smiled cheekily at her. "Saw your confusion a mile away. You went to the wrong gate, didn't you?"

Ji-ho raised a blonde brow. "You were watching me."

The steward shrugged. He couldn't exactly tell her she was so damn cute anyone would be blind to not notice.

"Have a pleasant journey ma'am."

"Thank you," Ji-ho smiled.

______

Ji-ho stared out through the thick glass of her window and was amazed by the scene she was seeing.

Gaia, an enormous space station the size of a city floated in the vacuum of space. It was surrounded by hundreds of crafts that buzzed about it like bees around a hive. The megastructure was constructed by humanity 200 years ago and it still stood as majestic as it did so many years later. As Ji-ho marvelled at the structure which supported more than fifteen thousand people, something heavy and bubbly filled her chest. Reality really sank in that this was her immediate future. She was part of a space-faring civilisation and a fucking navigator to boot. Hell yeah!

"I'm gonna help fly a ship." There was no one to share the good news with save for Ava's parents. This was amazing, Ji-ho wanted to yell at the top of her lungs. Where the hell was the reaper anyway?

_____

Ji-ho exited at the docking circle with the rest of the passengers and went through another round of security checks.

She strode through the gate, humming a tune, a spring buoyant in her step. After buying a sandwich for seventy credits, she checked the map of Gaia on her datapad. The directions to her destination had been downloaded to her datapad but she was confused by how winding the path was.

Ji-ho followed the map and reached an area where she could see many soldiers milling about. What she didn't know was that Commander Ilya Petrov had arrived with Rear Admiral Garret Smith. These two heavyweights of the military were bound for the Rubic star system.

The young woman looked around like a confused tourist as she weaved her through the soldiers. Several of them looked her way but Ji-ho was too frazzled to notice.

"Are you lost?"

Ji-ho raised her head from the screen of the datapad.

"Yea-"

The next few seconds were the most harrowing ones in Ji-ho's life as Ava Robinson. An explosion ripped through the section of Gaia's hull that protected the area where Ji-ho was housed in. She watched in horror as a large hole in the hull suddenly opened up. Before it could cause any damage, the hole was quickly mended by a psychic who had contorted and twisted the metal together.

The psychic who was manipulating the metal was a mysterious man in his late twenties. Ji-ho stared at him thinking how he was a singular point of utter calm in a sea of spreading chaos. Standing there like a guardian, he was a vision to behold in his elegant navy blue military uniform. Tall and artfully proportioned, he had a stunning face that was usually hidden behind a silver visor.

"Die!" a voice suddenly screamed with hatred.

A woman in military uniform, the psychic's sentinel, fell to the ground from having been injured by a bullet. Several shots were fired at the psychic but they all stopped short of their goal by an invisible wall. His soldiers swarmed toward the enemies who had been dressed as civilians.

Ji-ho was now hidden behind a counter, her heart beating a thousand miles per second. Several countdowns began and ended in her mind, having her know that thirteen people were already dead. And there was nothing she could do about it. Terrified by what was going on, she crouched under the counter and listened to the sounds of battle.

"What-" Ji-ho said in shock as she felt a foreign feeling in her head. A heavy pressure squeezed and twisted her mind within its iron-like vice. She couldn't breathe, couldn't scream, nothing. Ji-ho was being battered and reduced to a mess of images and sounds that flitted by like a movie scene.

Out of impulse, she began thinking peaceful calm thoughts. Forest, trees, mushrooms, fog, the smell of pine, dirt- Ji-ho saw the mangled body of a man. Blood and fire.

"Nooooo-" she cried out in horror.

She fought back the horrible images with those of her own. The grim reaper's face appeared in her mind and it immediately brought with it a sense of safety that blanketed her. Everything was going to be fine.

Slowly, the pressure in her mind began to ease up. Ji-ho's heartbeat settled and calmness filled her lungs, her breath, and finally her consciousness. If her life was in any danger, the reaper would have appeared. What was there to be afraid of? Death incarnate himself was protecting her.

Beyond the counter that she was hiding behind, a very confused Ilya was scanning the crowd with sharp eyes. Where was the sentinel who had dampened his fire? Who was this person with spiritual strength so strong that he had synced with her? It was no easy feat to keep his powers stable but this unknown sentinel had managed it.

The battle was over and his enemies vanquished. Ilya Petrov stood abnormally still as a medic rushed over to check on him. Not a single hair on his body had been harmed and the medic knew it but she still had to make sure that the precious commander was at peak health.

"Round up the civilians," Ilya ordered his soldiers. "Don't let a single one leave."

And from the corner of his sight, he caught the disappearing figure of a woman; a willowy blonde thing who had darted out from behind a counter and had made her escape.

There you are, he thought, eyes lingering with deep interest at the door she had run through.