Night Terror

Beneath the stars of Matar, Aracturus and Matariki Rain lay next to a wizened oak tree, gazing up at the stars... Matariki is seated comfortably in Aracturus' lap, her in unusual garb - not her usual black flight jumpsuit, but instead a sort of traditional Matari tribal outfit.

Aracturus places his hand on her stomach swollen with the child she carries. He seems pleased when the child within responds with a hearty kick.
"He's going to be an athlete I think when he grows up. Perhaps a dancer?" Matariki muses aloud.
"Why do you say that, hmm?" Aracturus asks in response as he rummages through his black uniform jacket's pockets for something.
"He kicks constantly!" comes her reply, along with a blissful smile on her freckled face.

Aracturus and Matariki both laugh together as they lounge beside the tree, their bodies warm against one another. Aracturus seems to find what he's looking for, and brings it out of his pocket, though it's not get visible. He's removed his usual black leather gloves to grip the item, and he toys with it in his large hands.
"If you'd have told me five years ago that we'd end up having a child together... I'm not sure what I would have said." Aracturus finally says thoughtfully.
"If someone had told me I was having another child, I would have thought them Mad. But I suppose this entire thing has been madness from the start, hasn't it?" She replies, her smile wistful and pleasant all at once.
"It has, hasn't it?" He begins, "And Wildly Inappropriate, you might say. Which leads me to something." He finishes with a grin. Matariki twists slightly in his lap to look at him questioningly.
"We've been together for five years now... five long, wonderful years..." He starts again, "And I know forever is a strange thing for us, but... I'd like to share it with you." He finishes as he shows her the thing in his hand. It's a ring, and she gasps.
"Aracturus I... I don't know what to say... You know we don't have those sort of views on..." Matariki sputters out, blushing furiously.
"I know... but things changed when you became a capsuleer... Even if it doesn't end up being forever... I still can think of no better person to spend eternity with... than you." Aracturus says to her, his breath caught in his throat, and his heart praying she accepts.
"I... yes. Yes. Spirits, Yes." She says, her lips turned up in a joyous smile.
Aracturus slips the ring onto her slender finger, and she nuzzles against his back as she strokes her stomach. She twists her neck around and kisses him gently upon the lips.

They sit together for what seems like an age, blissful...
Until...

The sky begins to grow light. The light his Aracturus's eyelids as he dozes with Matariki on his lap, and he thinks it is perhaps too early for dawn... But then  roar fills the sky, and his eyes bolt open as both he and Matariki look heavenward. His eyes widen in shock as he sees it, bright dancing light in the heavens, a towering inferno plunging downward from the heavens - A fiery bolt of Nano fiber hull plating and metal.
It's a ship!
Aracturus' mind immediately recognizes it - A tengu-class strategic cruiser. Or at least it was. Now it is a massive decrepit projectile heading straight for them. He realizes Matariki is no longer on his lap and he struggles to his feet. Matariki has her hand rested on the tree as she watches the approaching ship in horror.
"RUN!" Aracturus says to her as he takes her by the arm and pulls.
She comes in close and kisses him - once - before they both take off running as fast as Matariki's pregnant legs will take them.

It's too slow.
I should have carried her... Aracturus thinks to himself.

The ship crashes down not far from them, and dust and smoke and flame envelop the pair, hurling Aracturus away from the woman bearing his child. Aracturus lands hard upon the rock and stone and rubble of Matar, his lungs filled with ash and soot. He struggles to his feet, looking around, through the dirt, soot, and ash that sits upon the air as it rushes past him, propelled by the awesome force of the crash.
"MATA!" He shouts, and catches a mouthful of ash in the process. He coughs and sputters, and searches the dust... and then he sees her.

She's bleeding. Bruised, Scorched. Crying. And she's holding a child. The child's skin is scorched beyond recognition, and it is clearly dead, and Mata weeps in between ragged breaths. She doesn't seem to be pregnant anymore, and Aracturus seems to know the child is his. She points her finger at him accusingly, and speaks a single word:
"Why?" Her eyes gaze at him accusingly.
"Mata, I-" Aracturus begins, but he's cut off.
"Why did you kill him?" she says, her voice cracked and harsh, tears running down her bruised and bloody face.
"I didn't I-" Aracturus sputters
"Why did you kill him?" comes another voice from behind him.
Aracturus wheels around, and as he looks around, he is surrounded by a sea of the dead - burnt, broken bodies, staring at him accusingly.
"Why did you kill me?" One asks.
"Why did I have to die?" Asks another. And the voices begin chanting these questions.
He begins to see living amongst the dead - sobbing mothers that cling to their dead children - though their children are grown up.
"Why did you kill my baby?" The mothers ask.
They surround Aracturus, asking Why, why,why, why. He covers his ears with his hands, to find that his hands are burned and broken - and he sees his reflection in the mirrored surface of a hull plate. His hair is white, his skin burned, scarred, and bloody, and medals lie upon his chest, coated in blood.

He sinks to his knees as they surround him.
"No... I didn't! No! NO!" He screams as more faces come up from the ground - faces he recognizes as that of his dead crewmates from the Fairborough.
"Why did you leave me to die?" They ask, adding their Why's to the din.
Aracturus clutches his head in his hands as he huddles in the fetal position on the ground. The dead close in around him, and he hears Matariki speak.

"You could have saved us."

The dead grab hold of Aracturus and begin to rip him apart.

Aracturus awoke screaming.