The year is 2199. Earth is fighting a desperate war against the Gamilas Empire. Pushed back to their planet as weaponized asteroids dubbed "planet bombs" rain down around them, the humans press on angrily against their attackers, hungry for vengeance.

This is not their story.

This is the story of a young man many light-years away…

Prologue

It was a bright day.

Men, women, and children were out in the streets. That wasn't unusual. No, what was different was the atmosphere. Where there would be a dreary monotony there was a sense of jubilation, triumph, celebration. Men and women hugging, kissing, throwing their hands and whatever was in them in the air; children gleefully joining in, some not knowing the why but the how.

One such child broke off the crowd, barely nimble enough to reach his family's house. As soon as he entered he practically threw off his boots, scarcely managing to avoid hitting his carik, who clicked and ran off.

"Eka! Aka! Ejvka! Didja hear didja hear?! We won we won we won!"

A bass voice answered him. "As if we couldn't tell from all the damn screaming outside. Close the door, Mihka, and get in here!"

Quickly complying, the boy rushed into the dining room where his parents and aunt were watching the tele. He was momentarily sad that the rest of his family wasn't here, but that was easily forgotten. He jumped into the waiting arms of his eka, who had the biggest smile that the boy had ever seen. His aka made a grunt and ruffled the boy's hair. That meant he was happy too! Ejvka was singing a beautiful song, but even though today was supposed to be happy she had tears in her eyes. He was about to ask her why when the tele suddenly switched to a shaky view of a stadium packed to the brim with even more people than Mihka ever saw in his life.

Ejvka ended her song and gazed at the tele with rapt attention. Eka held him tighter with one of her arms, the other hand clenching aka's own just as firmly. Onscreen, a man with long hair and elaborate dressings held the stage, his companions clustered around him holding banners and flags with symbols and sigils. He even was able to recognize some of them from school! Onscreen the man cleared his throat and began to speak into the microphone in his hand.

"My fellow countrymen! Today is a day of great rejoicing! A day that will forever be marked in history as the greatest day for Alteria!

We have finally achieved our just victory! The Alterian people will no longer chafe and suffer under the rule of outsiders! Of ignorant oppressors who would never understand our way of life! Of our pain and joy! We have returned to our true state - as a sovereign people free from the influence of the blue-skinned devils!"

The crowd on the tele erupted into cheering loud enough that the camera's microphone couldn't handle it. The channel had to cut out for "technical difficulties". Ejvka and eka wiped their eyes while aka looked like he had the barest hint of a smile on his face. As for Mihka, he was so giddy that he was practically bouncing in his eka's lap. Even if he didn't understand most of what the man was saying, everyone else was happy, so he should be too!

Ejvka spoke up then. "Oh it is a shame Genakji and Nienja and their daughter could not have been here. They would have been beyond overjoyed."

Aka grumbled in response. "If they were in prison here, Leinhka and his people could have broken them out. Can't deny them blue-skins were smart when they took the rebels they caught off-planet. As for their daughter, damn gojokvs pressganged her into their band of thugs."

It was eka's turn to speak as she held Mihka tighter, a smile displayed proudly upon her lips. "We'll find a way to help them, but we should focus on the happy times now, today. I know with Leinhka leading our people, Alteria will always have a bright future."

High above the planet, a blue hand elegantly placed a cup on its plate. With a flourish, its owner declared the damning words.

"Now, play the melody of destruction."

Like wolves, they descended on unwitting prey.

In a way, Mihka's family was one of the lucky ones. Vaporized instantly by a bright blue beam of light, they never had to watch the massive city-sized missiles slowly descend upon them before scouring planet clean. Never had to feel the growing horror and despair as their fellow people were massacred, wondering when they would be next.

Their size belying their true speed, humongous bombs seemed to fall both agonizingly slow and frightfully fast. Oceans boiled, the atmosphere blazed, the very ground melted into molten lava as the weapons of destruction opened enormous bleeding ulcers into the planet's crust.

Where the bombs missed, beams of bright, blue-white death carved through the land, creating burning and blackened lines as an angry artist seeks to defile a rival's magnum opus. Towering spires were split in twain, monumental feats of engineering sliced and diced as easily as a heated knife through butter.

It was the ones who were in the remote lands, fleeing from the artificial armageddon in a futile exodus who suffered the most. Like metal wasps, aircraft flew above, swarming the hapless as they unleashed stingers of lead. Along the roads that made up ancient trade routes that once gave life, the bodies of countless lay dying, blood mixing with tears of the ones unlucky enough to remain unscathed before they too were cut down.

All too soon and all too slowly, the carnage ended. The deed was done. No need to stay on a worthless planet.

As the sun set on the once pristine world, all was quiet.