The Novus Constellation

You and the other prisoners on this ship weren’t necessarily imprisoned for legitimate reasons (though some of you may indeed be criminals). The Rythiix are known for collecting “offenders” and then making up the laws they’re guilty of after the fact. All of you know what happens to people “picked up” (kidnapped) by the Rythiix: they serve out the remaining years of their lives performing hard labor on one of the Rythiix’s ever-expanding mining colonies. Now that you’re aboard one of their ships and secured in shackles and a cell, slipping through the cold vastness of The Void the chances or escape are virtually nil. 

You can’t see much out of the viewing portal on your cell door, but you can tell that the usual guards who monitor this area are no longer at their posts. You exchange glances with some of the other prisoners across the narrow hall as you all strain to see what’s happening outside your limited view. Muffled thumps accompany the groan of metal somewhere above you.

The captain’s voice cuts through the blaring of automated warnings with pinched adrenaline: “We’re going through! Brace yoursel—” before cutting off abruptly along with the alarms and the lights. You hear the screech and groan of rending metal and the screams of the Rythiix crew as your feet leave the floor in a sickening, weightless spin. You grapple at the smooth walls of your cell but find no purchase, and for a few disorienting moments it seems gravity has abandoned you. That is, until you slam painfully into your metal prison and everything goes as dark as The Void.