Tom looked over the dry plains, the cold dust whipped by the air pelting the walls. Small clips of rocks hitting the sheet metal were the only other sound besides the roar of the wind. No one else in the town dared venture outside today. Last night, something crashed on the outskirts of the town. Rory and Bill were sent to see what it was, but they've been gone for hours. Tom doubted that they would be seen again. Being in a backwater station, you learned to expect the worse of every situation. Time often proved him right. Tom had lived at this station for 15 years now. His grim demeanor showed the experience of his years, as well as the horrible things he has seen. The Confederacy has all but abandoned these once promising colonies. Tom spit on the ground and climbed down from the wall. He cracked his neck as he walked to the Magistrate's office. As he pushed open the door, the magistrate stood up from his chair. The marshal, Alex Tannin, was a man approaching his 40's but looked younger. He was tall and strong, with green eyes popping through his thick beard. His beard and hair were peppering, showing his age a bit more, but his young gun attitude gave him a youthful aura. He came to the colony years ago from some Confederate office to be the Marshall for the sector. He recruited Tom early on as a second in command to help him get acquainted with the town. They've had no problems since. He sat down his pen and picked up his glass of whiskey. It had been a long night.
"Anything?" he asked Tom. He shook his head. Alex let out a sigh and sat back down, Tom mirroring him across his desk.
"I knew better than to send those damn kids, their mothers are worried sick," Tom growled. Alex poured him a drink and slid it across the desk to him. Tom took a long drink before talking again. "What do you reckon we do, we can't just leave em out there," he said. Tom ran his fingers through his beard.
"The SVC's are still down from that fall a few weeks back. The Goliath is old enough as it is, it'd never make it through this wind storm without toppling over, especially with what you put it through" Alex said. "I tried contacting another station but the damn radio is down." Tom cursed to himself. "Our best bet is to sit tight until this storm dies down, then we can send more men," Alex said.
"In case you hadn't noticed friend, the Confederacy took most of our men, we don't have too many of em left, and the ones that are either are too young to fight or too old to be of any use," Tom snarled. He was getting angry. He usually did when he was anxious. He didn't mean to snap at the old man. They had been friends since Tom was young. Alex had gotten Tom out of more than one heaps of trouble. Tom had spent much of his prime years in the Confederate army, leaving the station to do his part in the army. After one too many close calls, Tom decided to head home. Alex gave him a job as a deputy. Since then it's been nothing but bad news.
"Alright son, I know, let's give it an hour and we'll go out ourselves," Alex said, draining the rest of his drink. He walked across his office to a locker. He waved his ID in front of the reader and opened the cage. He reached inside and pulled out two AGR-14's, standard issue for Confederate soldiers. One of them was from Tom's days as a soldier. Alex would never tell Tom where he got the other one, and the only clue was a blue cross painted on the barrel of the rifle. Alex and Tom spent the next hour cleaning the rifles and filling magazines. At nearly noon, they walked to the main gate. The wind had died down substantially. The town was still quiet, but eyes peered from every window, watching the two men cross the town. The only person they saw on their way out was Sam, the gatekeeper. He gave the men a nod as they passed through the old rusty gate. Tom wondered how many times he saw Alex and himself walk through that gate and thought they'd never be back. He wondered if this was one of those times.
Smoke still rose from where the object crashed. Tom couldn't tell what it was, as nothing was picked up on their local radar. It burned a bright blue light in the early morning haze. Tom had been awake for a few hours at that point and saw the object with his own eyes. It was surrounded by a blinding light. He could make no marks out of its design, but he didn't think it was a ship. He thought to himself that it was just another damn satellite. He was the one who sent out Rory and Bill out after it. They seemed all too thrilled to chase it. They were barely 18 but old enough to contribute to the town. With less than 75 people, they needed all the help they could get.
Plains surrounded most of the town, with the exception of the rocky hills behind it. Stumps of old fallen trees lay as a reminder of the greener past of Mar Sara. The original purpose of this colony was to mine the hills for precious crystal minerals. They once were littered through out the hills, now deep craters and machine tracks were the only noticeable landmarks. The Terran's had a terrible habit of bleeding planets dry. Earth, Tom heard, was no different. Mar Sara would soon share that same fate, thanks to human carelessness.
"I'm not sure we should be out here by ourselves," Alex said, gripping his rifle tighter. Tom shifted his weight a bit as he walked, clearly uncomfortable.
"I'm not about to risk anyone else's head for the sake of my mistake," Tom retorted. Alex stopped and looked at him. Tom turned and gave Alex a piercing look.
"You can't blame yourself for sending those boys out here, they were as willing and capable as anyone else!" Alex argued.
"They were kids and I was careless, and now I feel we're looking for bodies instead of a rescue mission!" Tom yelled back. He gritted his teeth and sneered. Anger boiled inside him. Not at Alex, but at himself. He knew he made a wrong call and he had to deal with that. Alex was always too forgiving. A silence fell over the standoff, the wind only a whisper in the tension between the two men. Tom gestured to follow and turned back towards the crash site and began walking again. Alex scoffed to himself and followed. Tom was always hard on himself and there was often nothing he could do to change that. They walked in silence the rest of the way.
A large rocky hill sat next to what looked to be the crash site. As they approached the crater, the air finally calmed. It was like they had entered a protective bubble from the storm. Tom raised his gun and walked carefully forward, Alex watching their surroundings. Tom focused on the crater and was about to peak over when Alex called his name.
"Tom, tracks, two sets of em," he said. Tom looked back and saw Alex kneeling. Behind him, a shimmer of dust warped the air. Before Tom could yell, a blue light appeared, its shape like a long blade. Alex was picked up to his feet, the blade coming to his neck. Behind him, the shimmer transformed to a body. A large creature, humanoid in shape but with grey skin and blue eyes, held his friend with a knife to his throat. It wore gold armor with high shoulder plates. Tom had never seen such a creature. He raised his gun up and focused it at the creatures head. Silence overcame the standoff. The creature stared at Tom, Alex squirming in its grip.
"Let him go you ugly bastard!" Tom yelled, taking a small step forward. The creature cocked its head slightly.
"Fallen, Beaten, Blue, Farewell, Und lara khar" it finally spoke. Tom gave the creature a puzzled look. What nonsense was this?
"You've got about ten seconds to start makin' sense before I blow your goddamn head off!" Tom yelled again. The creature relaxed a bit and repeated the words, this time slightly faster. Tom didn't say anything. Alex held onto the arm of the creature and tried to pry its grip away, but to no avail. The creature looked down from Tom and pressed something on its chest. It looked back up at Tom.
"Can you hear me, you small brained creature?" a voice resonated in Tom's mind. The voice was light, almost feminine, but he could sense strength to it. He lowered his gun slightly and shot a puzzled look at Alex, who looked back at him with the same inquiry.
"What is this?" Tom said aloud. The creature perked up and looked at Tom again.
"Please put your weapon down, and I will do the same," the creature's voice again said in his mind. Tom looked at Alex, the veins of his neck bulging as the creature gripped his throat with monstrous strength. After a moment of thought, Tom lowered his weapon. As promised, the creature sheathed its blade, an electronic warping sound echoed. Alex turned and backed away from the creature, gasping for breath.
"My sincerest apologies, I have had a troubled journey and do not know what creatures are hostile," it spoke in their minds again. Tom looked at the creature with a puzzled look. Never had something spoken to him in his mind before. It made Tom shiver slightly.
"You are both ignorant as to what I am, aren't you?" it said. Alex nodded. The creature almost seemed to sigh. It raised its three-fingered hand at chest level. A hologram appeared above it. Twirling planets spun in a gyro sphere while strange glyphs hovered close by. A large planet came into the center of the hologram, with a single glyph.
"This Is Auir, Homeworld of the Protoss. You may call me Stro," It said. It bowed slightly. A small drop of blue liquid fell from its head.
"What the hell is a Protoss?" Alex said, gripping the gun that he had picked up off the ground. Stro's shoulders fell slightly.
"We are the first born of the universe! The Conclave of Minds!" Stro said proudly. Stro looked at both of the men. The looked of shock and bewilderment had yet to leave their faces. It was truly a struggle to deal with lesser creatures, Stro thought to himself.
"Where are the other two men that were here?" Tom said suddenly. He held his gun and looked back at the crater. "I assume that was you," he said, gesturing to the crater.
"Yes, my ship crashed here in the dark, as for other men, I haven't a wandering thought of what you are speaking of," Stro said.
"Tom, look at this," Alex said. Tom looked over and saw him kneeling beside more tracks. Tom walked over to him. The tracks were beset by a number of other tracks, with looks of a struggle.
"I ain't never seen tracks like these Tom," Alex said. He put his hand on his chin and squinted his eyes. "Somethin with four legs I can tell, and fairly sizeable, not your average Wolfhound I'd imagine." Tom noticed Alex's draw was starting to come out again. He did his best to hide the country hick past when he was in the office. The regality of being a Magistrate demanded professionalism and respect, to which Alex believed there was no room for a poor upbringing and a twang in the voice. Stro walked over the two kneeling humans.
If I may be of some assistance, I may be able to track your missing persons," Stro said, holding what looked to be a gun of some sort. Tom and Alex back away as Stro pointed it at the tracks. A hologram popped up displaying a creature of terrifying proportions. It had four legs and two great incisors on its back and bits of undeveloped wings jutting out of its sides. Stro's hand turned to a tight fist.
"What the hell is that thing?" Tom said.
"Vala dune," Stro said, growling in their minds. "Non-Tool Makers." An arrow pointed from the hologram toward the distance. Stro flipped off the hologram and began to walk at a brisk pace toward where the arrow pointed. Tom and Alex took off after him. As they passed the crater, Tom finally took a look inside. At the bottom was a small craft made of some golden metal. It had two rounded cannons on either side of the cockpit. It smoked slightly and let loose sparks every so often. A small area that looked to be the cockpit was broken open and revealed a seat and controls.
"Stro, what is a…..Vala Dune?" Alex asked. Stro said nothing but quickened his pace. The group walked around the hill and followed the tracks. Stro stayed silent until he stopped suddenly and ignited his blue blade again. He surged forward at an inhuman speed. Tom and Alex peered through the dust to see what Stro had run after. To their horror, the same creature that they saw on the hologram was dragging a body, a mangled corpse missing its legs. Blood oozed from the stumps being dragged, coating the ground a deep crimson. Another creature dragged a squirming Rory, who was now screaming as he saw where he was heading. The ground around them seemed almost alive, a pulsing goo covered every inch of dirt. At the center, a structure stood, almost vibrating. It spat out bits of the goo that covered the ground. Stro lunged onto the creature dragging Rory and sliced it in two before it could even react. The other creature dropped Bill's body and jumped toward Stro. A gunshot rang out and the creature dropped to the ground. Stro turned and saw Tom with his rifle pointed at the now motionless monster. Stro nodded at him and turned towards the structure. It was a flesh color with thick veins pulsing throughout. Stro walked forward and placed something at the base of it. He turned and grabbed a now erratic Rory and ran back to the group.
"Get down!" he yelled in their minds. Behind him, the structure exploded in a flash of blue. Bits of flesh fell from the sky and landed around them, some on fire with a blue flame. Alex helped Rory to his feet. Rory, with tears streaming down his cheeks, fell into Alex.
They killed him!" he screamed between the sobs. Tom patted him on the back and turned towards Stro.
"I need some answers," He said.