Although it may not seem this way, life in the Ricordi Galaxy isn’t that much different from life on your Earth. Although we may have flying cars and live among different alien species, the overall template of our lifestyles is still the same. I mean, politics are practically the same, and there are still popular sports like football and basketball. But, we can travel to different planets, and live in spaceships. Well, we have our differences, but I think it’s safe to say that my galaxy is just a more technologically advanced and expanded version of your Earth.

Have I not introduced myself yet? How rude of me! My name is Eddie Tarlac, but most people just call me Ed. I am part of the Galactic Security Services, or GSS for short. Think of it as the FBI of my galaxy. We are in charge of keeping peace and security around the galaxy, to ensure that everyone can live safely and free from the stress of criminals and other threatening events. 

The GSS headquarters are located on the planet Galvasion, which is the capital planet of the galaxy. A lot of important events take place on this planet. The signing of the controversial 1339th Amendment took place here, which basically allows the victim of a crime to choose the punishment of the criminal. This has caused a lot of backlash from the public. Some areas have had a decrease in crime rates, while others have had a major increase. The main issue with this law is that the punishments for certain crimes are not consistent. For example, someone could get life in prison for stealing from a candy store, while a mass shooter could get a month in prison if the victims are forgiving enough. 

I honestly haven’t been too crazy about this new law, myself. It makes my job much more stressful than it already is. Many people have been protesting for a law that gives a range of consequences for each type of crime. This would give the victim the right to choose the criminal’s fate while still giving an appropriate punishment. The ironic thing about people protesting for this is that many of them are getting arrested themselves for interfering with public activity. 2 protesters have actually been sentenced to death, somehow. It just goes to show how crazy the laws are right now. 

The average agent spends about 7 hours a week training. I spend an average of 7 hours a day doing drills and simulations. I try to push myself as much as I can, so I can be prepared for any situation that happens to cross me. All of this isn’t even including my workout schedule. I spend at least another 3 hours at the end of the day doing weight training, and a 2 mile run before the sun comes up. When I was a rookie, I’d spend over 15 hours training so I could reach my colleagues’ level faster. I very quickly earned an extremely positive reputation. Everyone knew that they could rely on me, and I knew that they could count on me. 

This mentality has taken a little bit of a toll on my mental health. I’ve never let any fellow agents get wounded if they’re with me. I’ve also saved every single victim that I was assigned to help. Obviously, due to this impressive feat, I have a ton of pressure on me. I feel like if someone dies in my hands, I’m going to be seen as a massive let down. I understand my reputation isn’t everything, but I’d like to keep it the way that it is, so people can trust me and feel safe around me. To me, that is very important. 

All of this nearly changed on July 13, 3417. It was around 6:45 when we got a report of space pirates hijacking a cargo shuttle right above the icy planet Canarelli. Pirate hijackings are quite common here, and are usually not much of a clean up. I expected this to be another quick mission: sneak onto the shuttle, take down the pirates with my team, and return the stolen goods to their rightful owners. Simple, right? Well, apparently not.

These pirates happened to be armed with PlexiCorp DigiBlasters. These blasters consume excess energy from the air into high power laser beams. Due to their near unlimited power, they can shoot extremely powerful beams at extremely high speeds. The government should have banned them a long time ago, but PlexiCorp offered them a military deal which gives them a fair amount of money. What government would say no to that? 

I take off into the depths of space with my partner, Valerie. We are both level 21A, which is the highest ranking agent in the GSS. I’ve been working with her for about a year and a half now, and we are one of the most reputable teams in the GSS. We’d like to keep it that way, too. Once again, I don’t want to sound greedy. This is not just for the money and reputation, but so the people can have a strong bond and trust with us. We can never let our clients down. 

After a speedy 5 minute trip, we arrived at the hijacked ship. We activate “The Sealer”, which suctions our ship’s doors to theirs. This makes changing ships in space possible. Valerie is able to hack through the code, and get us into the ship without making a scene. We both swiftly run into the action. 

As I’ve already mentioned, the pirates have stolen DigiBlasters, which makes things much harder for us. Well, we’ve got UltraBlasters, the successor of the DigiBlaster. They have very similar overall designs, with the main difference being a better cooling system with a larger reactor and a more stable frame. This means even more power, with even faster shots, with even more precision. I’d say that we have the advantage. Once again, I was quite wrong.

There were 13 pirates, which doesn’t seem like a lot at first sight. We immediately fire at 4 of them with our blasters. They fall to the floor, almost like they didn’t even know that they were shot. You could hear the sizzle of their bodies from the heat of the beam. Valerie aims at one more, but he notices, and starts to fire back. The rest of the pirates are notified, and come our way to get rid of us. According to my scanner, only one pirate was guarding the hostages. I made the foolish decision to go out on my own to retrieve the hostages, assuming Valerie could hold the rest back on her own. 

I ran to the direction of the cockpit, taking down 3 more pirates. 7 down, and only 6 more to go. I blast the last pirate at first sight, and untie the hostages. The hostages are an old man and woman, probably in their late 60’s. They run a farm on the outerims, and were transporting wheat to Canarelli. What matters is that they are safe now. I tell them to stay where they are while me and Valerie ward off the rest of the pirates.

I return to find Valerie nearly outnumbered by 3 other pirates. She already managed to take down 2, but the rest were two muscular and swift. I immediately hit one down with my fist, and blasted him on the ground to make sure he was down. Just as I was about to hit the next pirate, the other pirate slams me in the head with his blaster. I fall to the floor, feeling the blood in my head pumping. Just before I was about to get pummeled by the large pirate, Valerie kicked him square in the chest, knocking him out cold. She then jumped on the shoulders of the remaining pirate, grabbed his neck, and did a fancy acrobatic move to slam him to the ground. They were all down, and the owners of the ship were safe. 

I am still dizzy from getting hit, so I quickly limp back to our ship to lightly aid some of my injuries. Valerie calms the ship owners, and calls lower ranked GSS agents to clean the mess up. Once Valerie boarded the ship, we were on our way back home to Galvasion, where I was properly aided for my injuries back at HQ. I had a mild concussion and a broken wrist, while Valerie only had bruising on her left forearm. Although she had very minor injuries, she almost didn’t make it out alive. I almost didn’t make it out alive. Despite all my training, it was a mission that I very much underestimated, and I will never forget until the day I die. The moral of the story, you ask? Don’t be overconfident.