Orbital by bill zhao copyright 2017 Bill Zhao Table of Contents act one (earth)

she was able to make her final action the activation of Derek’s pod
which suddenly burst into life and detached itself from the ship. It fell.
With a set of pre-determined coordinates and custom Earth traffic scan
bypass module, the pod automatically thrusted itself towards its
destination, away from the ship. Derek’s hands slammed at the heavily
reinforced glass uselessly. Behind him, a screen lit up and displayed the
latest newspaper.
15
th 
August 2482 4:28 PM

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RAGSTON SHIP LOCATED, USOC
ORDERS RAID TODAY
Private Military Company USOC (United Space Order Control) has
recovered intel which has led to the uncovering of the decade long hidden
space vessel, The Icarus commanded by criminal mastermind Cameron
James Ragston. The man is known for infamous crimes such as the 2468
simultaneous bank robbery, the 2474 Portland Massacre and just a 12 hours
ago at 4AM where he fired an unidentified nuclear weapon at Earth.
Whether this was unintentional, intentional or provoked is unknown, but the
rumour going around is that the warhead was a threat to USOC to stay back.
This has obviously gone wrong. USOC is not responding to our questions
nor have given us any sort of communication whatsoever towards the
current situation. A boarding and raid of the ship is expected to take place
today at approximately 5PM.
3
Fall
Derek couldn’t understand a few of the words said by the article but he
saw enough. He stared at it in shock and disbelief. Was his dad really a
criminal? Did he deserve to die? The fact that he had spent his entire
life on the ship and knew his mother very little was supported by this
very piece of evidence. So what now? That very thought had just