This is a war. My superiors call it many things, but it is a war. Pacification. Peacekeeping. Policing. Call it what they may, it is war.

I feel my chair shudder against the sudden G's. The bridge rumbles from a torpedo impact. I can almost feel the destruction being shaken off. My ship is the MSS Kraken, and she is fast and strong and resilient. Most of all though, she is vicious. Her AI does not miss. The helmsman sheds her forward momentum, and I can almost feel her searching for the source of the shot. Another smaller shudder lets me know she has found them. I know they are dead before the computer confirms my suspicion.

The air on the bridge is thick with tension. Me and my men have spent an entire month wading in slaughter.

I know they feel betrayed. I feel the same as they do.

We were led to believe that we would be weeding out pirates and smugglers. Evil men and women who would slit our throats just for sport. That, if we chose to accept our orders, we would be consistently fighting for our life on a daily basis. We believed them at first.

The first week was spent in dog-fights with bounty hunters. We were unfamiliar with the Kraken at the time. Hours spent on over exaggerated maneuvers, trying to keep our new, shiny ship in one piece. As things became familiar, our job became easier. We would swat our opposition from the sky as quickly as they challenged us. We grew bored, and with that came time to think.

I feel my body sink farther down into my chair as the helmsman brings us around. Three ships are waiting for us on the other side of a small moon. Lasers turn their hulls into ovens. The men inside are boiling in their skin before they have time to react. I tell Logistics to plot us a course for the only inhabited planet. No more moons and space stations. I intend to end this here and now.

I think back, and realize everything started in Engineering. Conflicting reports of damage where there was none. Equipment not responding until perfectly good parts were swapped out with new ones. The computer showing hull damages and atmo leaks where we hadn't even taken fire.

During a sleep shift, me and my First Officer wiped the ships memory, and put all of the "damaged" parts back. The Kraken didn't even seem to notice. She flew like a new ship. We did not mention this to anyone, but my Chief Engineers face tells me everything I need to know. He knows. He can feel it too.

Next came our helmsman. He is an old hand. He knows his job. My ship is five kilometers long, and he drives her like a cloud. I have seen him fly through a debris field on manual, and leave no scratch on the hull. So when he tells me that the proximity alarm screeching in my ear is wrong, I believe him. Even when I am ordered to still open fire. Even after I turn an approaching cargo ship into slag, I still believe him.

It spread from there. My men in Logistics going over our first few dog-fights. Arguing over the intent of an enemy ship. Whispers of conspiracy in the mess hall. The look of tired resignation on the face of my First Officer every time we fired on another vessel. The crying women and children my men brought back the first time we boarded a ship, instead of adding it to the ever growing debris trail we were leaving behind us.

The court martial we were given for refusing to murder those women and children. Even at the behest of our government. Nothing added up. Nothing felt right about our orders.

Until now.

Now we dance with our counterparts on the far side of Jupiter. Clippers and destroyers, even other dreadnaughts, fall before our might. She is one of a kind. The Kraken is fast and she is strong and she is resilient. She is even vicious. Most of all though, she is mine, and I am hers. We are one, and we will endeavor until we have fulfilled our duty.

She has found another victim. The bridge shudders, and the road to Earth becomes that much clearer. We will be there in just a few weeks. They sent me out to bring peace to our corner of the galaxy. To weed out the evil and corruption that plagues the Empire. To make the Milky Way safe for all its citizens. Come what may, I intend to do just that.

A picture of the Galactic Union building fills my screen, I look at the home of the same government that betrayed me, and the AI asks me if I am sure.

I confirm.

As the Kraken gets underway, I think back to my orders. The last words the Admiral said to me, before he sent me to do his dirty work. To kill innocent men and women, who were only guilty of wanting a life not under the Galactic Unions thumb. The words that brought us here, right to this moment.

"Cleanse the galaxy of its most troublesome and persistent evil."

I intend to do just that.