Before the Dawn (An Adventure Star Wars/System)

I moved only a few inches away, but something flashed next to the corpse's torso. A card protruded from the folds of his rusty belt. I didn't recognize anything like it from my memories, but it seemed too good to leave behind.

It was dirty, but it seemed to be made of a strong alloy, enough so that despite being thin, it wouldn't bend with my teeth.

I took it with trembling hands, almost as if I needed to ask the dead man's permission. Then I stood still for a few seconds. Not out of respect, but because I could swear the creature was still there, on the other side of the vapor.

After a while, I pushed myself into the next room. I was in a collapsed cargo bay, where the upper walkways had collapsed, forming a kind of labyrinth. Pieces of incomplete ships, forgotten mechanical parts, and warped panels littered the entire space. The lighting was failing, creating shadows that stretched out like tentacles with every flash of light.

I jumped a broken railing, slid between two smashed hulls, and felt the vibrations behind me. My Predator was still at my back.

The gangplank I was crossing collapsed just as I stepped onto it. The roar shook the ship. Dust filled the air, triggering another cough, and soon after, I stumbled, half-blinded by the smoke and drained of energy from everything that had happened.

With the last bit of strength I could muster, I climbed into an empty, rusty, engineless escape pod. I closed the hatch with a struggle and lay still. Breathing was all I could hear. My chest rose and fell like a bomb about to explode.

And then the hatch rattled.

A claw dug into the metal, and the stupid creature seemed to want to push its way in with eagerness.

.

I leaned back, curling up in the deepest corner of the capsule. I looked around for something, anything. A tool. A cable. A miracle.

I spotted a loose plate under the seat. I yanked it off, revealing a hidden compartment with a small battery and a handful of burned-out thermal fuses. Nothing useful… except a forgotten shock bar.

I didn't know if it was working. But when the creature managed to force open half the hatch and its snout passed through the opening, I knew: it didn't matter if it worked.

It was my last chance.

I leaped toward the hatch and brought the bar down on his face, squeezing the trigger hard until the handle heated up. The contact was brutal. Sparks. A deafening shriek. The air was filled with ozone and burning flesh.

The creature staggered back, clawing at the ground. It didn't lose any strength, but it seemed dazed, and that was buying me time.

Enough time to escape through the other side of the capsule, crawling through a secondary hatch that opened under the pressure. I fell down a slope, spinning over plates and pipes until everything became a whirlwind.

When the world stopped spinning, I found myself in a vast, sunken chamber, covered in decades of dust. I didn't know where I was. Not until I saw the light panel on the wall, blinking on a backup battery.

I quickly scanned the rough map of the ship I'd been given, while my mind struggled with excitement and fear. But it wasn't necessary. In the center, surrounded by warning signs... There was a sign: "Internal Weapons Depot," its words flashed.

I laughed, or tried to. All that came out was a hoarse gasp, a mixture of crying, relief, and exhaustion. Unintentionally, I had succeeded. But sadly, I wasn't done.

I had to move. There was no choice.

The muscles screamed, but they responded. I crawled to the panel, activated the screen, and studied what I could between blinks: several doors closed, ventilation systems offline… but an emergency evacuation route remained online. It led directly to the main warehouse.

I stood up, trembling. I had no more weapons. Just the discharge rod, now dead, and a stupid piece of metal I didn't know what it was for. I took a deep breath, pushing a side hatch that creaked open.

The hallway was cleaner. Not because of maintenance, but because of complete disuse. No one had been through there in years. The emergency lights painted everything flashing red; it seemed this section was a priority for the backup batteries and where all the power had been diverted. I went through three more gates, each one harder than the last. My hands ached. My shoulder throbbed. But my legs wouldn't stop.

The creature appeared again in the corner of my vision.

I ran straight toward a semicircular chamber. A vault reinforced by layers of durasteel. It was cracked, and one side collapsed. And right there, a partially activated safety locking system, waiting for a signal.

I slipped inside, dodged the remains of a fallen gate, and hid behind a broken freight elevator. I waited.

The creature entered seconds later, panting, salivating. One of its eyes was burned from the previous shock, but the other moved like a bright beacon. It found me immediately.

I dove to the side as the beast charged where I'd been. It hit the forklift, splitting it in half. I spun around on the floor and rolled toward the emergency exit.

A button that seemed to be used to close the hatches in case of a hull breach. I pressed it, only to find nothing happened, and I almost swore a thousand curses ran through my mind.

Then the system squealed, and a side hatch slammed shut, trapping the creature. It screamed so loudly my head ached for a few moments. Yet it was still alive, and it seemed its efforts to escape would be successful. I lunged at the remains of an Imperial equipment crate, grabbed a long, rusted piece of metal, and turned just in time to see the creature almost bursting free.

I screamed, not from fear. From rage, from helplessness. From everything.

The tube collided with its open jaw just as it was about to tear into me. The creature slammed a claw into my arm, and I stabbed its remaining eye with the piece of metal, but its attack had sent me back a few feet, and the momentum of its attack had also sent it stumbling against one of the pillars in the room.

Dust and smoke filled the room again, but I was soon able to see the creature again, which didn't scream. It just thrashed about. Its paws desperately tore at its head as it tried to get the thing out of its eye.

I tried to move away while appearing distracted, but my body had reached its limit, and I tripped over a piece of scrap metal, attracting the creature's attention. It seemed to remember my existence and prepared to launch itself at me again.

But just at that moment, the support column, which had cracked earlier, gave way under the impact. The roof partially collapsed. The creature was buried in a shower of durasteel, cables, and rusted plates. In that instant, everything collapsed.

A smile almost spread across my lips as I stared at the rubble with some fear, waiting to see if that stupid thing would rise again. But once it became clear that it didn't seem to be, I dragged myself out of the mess, panting.

I didn't dare check further than I'd expected. Once again, the cough attacked me, but this time I'd spat something out, and when I looked at my hand, I noticed it was blood. I ignored it for the moment.

I continued crawling until my hand touched something: a panel with Imperial seals and warning markings. I pried the mechanism with a loose lever, and the compartment opened. Inside, pieces of Imperial technology. Control panels, memory chips, and in the center… a military-grade navigation core. What we were looking for.

I laughed. I couldn't help it. A broken, dirty laugh, amidst coughs and blood. Of relief, of exhaustion, of having survived. It sounded ridiculous. But I couldn't stop it. This time, my efforts had paid off again. Happiness filled every fiber of my body, numbing all the pain I felt at that moment.

[You have gained a new skill!]

✦ Survival Instinct (Level 1) ✦

When your body is on the verge of collapse, your mind reacts with abnormal speed and precision.

Small improvement when detecting threats in hostile environments.

Slightly harder to get into a state of panic.

Minor bonus to improvised maneuvers in close combat.

I heard something moving behind me, but I didn't turn around. I couldn't. My body wasn't responding anymore. I only had enough instinct to grab the core in my arms and hide it, but I could feel myself losing what little consciousness I had.