Hi guys. Name's Mykael and this is my very first fanfic. Um...not sure how I'm gonna do at this so please be gentle on me.

It's cold.

Cold and dark. No sound except for my labored breathing.
Too dark. I open my eyes, only to find it makes little difference in my vision. I shift, attempt to sit up, crawl, anything. I can't. It feels like gravity had plastered itself around my core, it's soul existence seeming to do nothing but hold me in place.

I groan inwardly, giving up the fight to stand. I listen, for anything.
Nothing.

'Where am I?'

"Hey! Wait up Myke!"

The sun is shining. A slight breeze wafting over the expanse of the Horizon colony. The wind blows through my short brown hair as I run. I had to see this guy for myself. The Alliance soldier everyone was talking about. The reason things were so on edge.

"Will you hurry up! We need to see what this is all about!" I shout back to the blonde girl trailing behind me. Emily. Just short of my already miniscule stature. At 5'7" I was no intimidating male. She stood at 5'5". Long flowing blonde hair. Just passed her shoulder blades. She was a natural beauty. And I had admired my best friend as long as I could remember.

I was born here. Just a year before founding in 2168. My mother had been a geologist scoping out for resources and rare elements. My father, the hired hand to defend her team from natural dangers. I had been here before the first official structure had been placed and Horizon named a colony just 17 years ago.

Emily was from Earth. Her mother fled an abusive husband. Not having the funds to properly support her and her daughter however, she turned from Council Space and set her sights on a fresh human colony. Lucky for me it had been Horizon. Emily and her mother Anna had arrived just 4 years ago. Our families became fast friends. Spending almost every day together.

Our life wasn't easy. But it was fruitful and rewarding. As close to perfect as a life in the Terminus Systems could be. And then he arrived. The Alliance soldier.

Kaiden Alenko.

Soon after the construction of the Defense Towers began. The colony was split.
Some felt the weapons were a good safety precaution for space raids and slavers. Others felt it would make us a target from the very things they were supposed to protect us from. Mine and Emily's family stood on a more neutral ground. Seeing both sides of the coin.

While our parents continued their day to day activities however, Emily and I had been curious. We began spying on the man. Listening in on conversations. I doing light hacking with the Omnitool I had received for my birthday 2 years ago. As much as I wanted to simply open up the systems in which the soldier was running on, I was afraid of being caught. So I only delved into the most basic of files. Not so private messages, status updates on the towers, etc...

Emily was more... brutish in our work. Not in the violent aspect. But in the fact that when she had a question, she was going to ask it. And would continue to ask it until she got an answer. At first, Alenko had seem pleased with her questions. She was one of the few people who didn't verbally assault him as they walked by. But as she got nosier, he began shutting her down from conversation. At one point actually mentioning to her it'd be better if she minded her own business. Emily didn't handle that too kindly.

I was never so bold. I had yet to actually SEE this soldier. Being more reserved and self oriented, I kept my distance. Yes I was curious as to why exactly the Alliance had decided to 'help' a group of humans who went against Citadel Space. Hence for the hacks. But I myself was more concerned with the safety and freedom I and the others had over the answers to our questions. Staying out of jail just seemed more logical to me.

We both rounded another compartment, the Defense Towers Guns loomed over head. Casting a long dark shadow on the green grass. And I spotted him for the first time walking towards us with a women who I recognized but couldn't place the name off. And that's when the peace was shattered by the noise.

A loud BOOM.

Like the sky was exploding. Followed by an ominous cloud of what looked like small birds in the distance. The clouds parted and the largest ship I had ever seen fell to the surface. Taller than any of the mountains on our world.

The cloud began to fly towards our colony. I saw Kaiden make a motion with his hand and I heard yelling. Pulling out a gun he began firing at the cloud while the people around him ran. Emily smashed into the back of me as I made to turn around, colliding and rolling in the grass. She looked up at me, a panic in her eyes.

Jumping to my feet I grabbed her hand and yanked her up, and we ran the exact way we came from. It was chaos. Our fellow colonists ran and screamed in various directions. Looking over my shoulder I saw that the cloud was more like giant insects than birds. They were attacking people. Or so it seemed.

I watched one land on the woman that had been with Kaiden, and she just fell. Like her muscles had seized up and no longer functioned.

I pulled Emily around a corner and into an apartment. Sealing and locking the door with my omnitool. Emily dropped to her knees and began shaking while I set up a firewall to keep anything from following us in the building.

"What...what were those things?" Emily almost sobbed. Our little perfect world suddenly had turned upside down.

"I don't know. But I don't want to find out either." I replied panting.

At that moment I noticed the screaming had died down. What was originally an uproar, was now comparable to a whisper. I got down on my hands and knees and crawled towards a window on the left. Lifting up just enough to see outside, I saw what I can only describe as a nightmare.

The grass was covered in bodies. Unmoving bodies.

I heaved. And fell back down to my knees looking over at Emily who now had tears in her eyes.

"We're gonna die..."

Before I could respond, a window in another room shattered and the cloud came flying through. I jumped to cover Emily but I felt everything seize up before I had even taken a step. A sharp pain in my neck and then I was numb. My body wouldn't move. It took all the thought process I had just to remember to breathe. Emily was down too. Looking up at the ceiling with a blank stare. I went to yell. Scream. Cry. Nothing came out. Almost like gravity had caved in on not just my body, but my very being.

A claw landed next to my face. Brownish-grey in color, and tendons were clearly visible. No noise emitted. If I hadn't seen it, it would have seen like the room was once again empty other than me and Emily. A suddenly, all was black...