The creature ran through the halls of their collapsing exploration vessel, tripping as another shockwave hit the ship, causing the lights to flicker and die out. He picked up the pace, his memory guiding him, down several long narrow hallways with rubble covering the ground. He had never once been in any combat, or any sticky situation for that matter. Until now, their species had never had to combat anything.
But Drake's equation had led them to explore away from their tiny, pathetic, running-out-of-resources world, in search of help and resources. And they had found life among the stars, but not the life they were looking for. Upon contact, the other species, who had addressed themselves as the "Sacarfa", were extremely aggresive, and ordered the new empire to return to their star system and stay put. Soon, they had no choice but to leave again as all of their resources were slow deteriorating. And now they were here, being attacked by the Sacarfa ships who had been guarding the empire.
The empire who called themselves the Dekon were peaceful, and they had made a great deal in proving that upon contact with the Sacarfa by giving them many Sporebucks, along with rare minerals and treasures sacred to the Dekon people. But maybe, just maybe, this had caused the Sacarfa to want their planet for its profitable spice and minerals. The creature knew, as he continued running, almost arriving at his destination, whoever had made the decision would be greatly punished. While the Dekon empire was peaceful, their government did in no way tolerate stupidity or errors. The one who had decided to give the Sacarfa treasures would most likely be tortured and killed, to set an example. If they survived through this.
The creature was at his destination now, a faint glow surrounding the door that he was entering. When the Captain and scientists had contacted him, and told him where to go in their big ship, they hadn't been clear what they wanted, but it was urgent. In fact, anything that would make them contact him, a minor grunt, was urgent. He was baffled that they actually needed his help. His only job ever had been regulating the ship's air pressure levels, and there were usually countless others doing that job.
He pulled out his pass card, swiping it through the door. A familiar small beep and a clink followed but, suddenly, the right wall shuddered and groaned. The door began slowly opening, as a safety feature, as the ship seemed to be crying in pain... and then the whole wall shattered and broke into a million tiny shards, everything being sucked out into the vastness of space, his quick thinking allowing him to grab onto the door before the wall had completely shattered. Two of his four legs dangled out as he pulled himself in the door horizontally, as he used his strength, unique to his species, to pull himself in the room, papers from the room flying out as the door slammed shut. He breathed a relieving sigh as he looked up to see the captain of their vessel, Captain Reega, had overrided their door mainframe, ignoring the slow closing feature. The captain offered him his had and he took it, heaving himself up.
"Hey, kid." He said, turning around. "Right this way. We don't have much time at all, so let's get this over with." He knew this was urgent, but he was shocked at how close to death he had come. Shakily, he got up, trying to even out his breathing instead of the quick pants he had now. He slowly followed the captain, careful not to fall over.
He felt a small spike of pain in his back and used his long neck, again native to his species, to check on it. It had a small splinter of wall debris lodged, and a small stream of blood steadily flowed down from it. The captain noticed and said, "Don't fret over it. Where you're going, it won't matter." The creature's eyes widened. It sounded as if the captain was going to kill him. As the were running towards the next chamber, the captain suddenly laughed. "It's not how it sounds. You're not going to die. No, none of us will die today."
It spiked his curiosity how captain Reega could be so confident. A fleet of enemy space ships were attacking them, and all they had to defend themselves were antiquated weapons, as the previous wars of their civilization were long over. They had ended in peace, so there was no need for war any more. Their government handled all criminals by ejecting them into space. Sure, it was a little cruel, but why waste planet space for prisons? Or at least, that was the government's theory. And, as a result, hardly any crimes were ever done. It was, "A solution for every one."
He continued following the captain to another room, down another hallway. This was part of the ship only high ranking members were allowed on, like the scientists, and Captain. But here he was. It should have been an honor, but he was more scared than anything. It must be really serious to allow a grunt like him here. "Sit down on the table." Said the captain, motioning towards a long table that seemed to have a closable ceiling and tons of tons of wires connected to it. Many gauges were on it, and scientists swarmed over it. The uneasy feeling began to get much worse. Were they preforming some kind of surgery? Bio-enhancements, maybe? Neither one sounded good. Why him? That was the question.
He laid down on the table, the low ceiling closing over him. It had small windows, so at least he could see what they were doing. Most of the scientists were hooking up more wires, typing things in on computers and checking gauges. The room shook as surely another Shockwave Electrocution blast hit the ship. Suddenly screaming erupted in the room, followed by scientists grabbing their heads and slamming into walls. He was extremely confused. What had happened? Whatever it was, his small chamber had protected him from it. "Sonic p-pain wave!" He heard people screaming. "Plug your ears!"
The ship shook again as one particularly brave scientist got up, despite the pain, trudging towards his capsule. He flipped a few switches then screamed, "Captain, it's ready! Activate it!" The captain quickly sat up, as with every one else in the room. Their pain seemed to have faded. But, it was only a matter of time before another wave of pain came.
The captain, seizing the moment, ran to the side of his window and began speaking to the creature. "This won't mean anything to you now, but you have to listen. We knew getting into this, we wouldn't win. This mission was just to buy our world some time. To distract the coming invasion. But you can change that. Remember my words. One day, you will have the opportunity to change this terrible fate." He took a brief pause for a second, then continued. "This isn't the first time we've met the Sacarfa. When we were only tribe people, they attacked us. But our early records show we managed to defeat them... somehow. You're going to find out how. Never... give... up!"
He smashed down a lever and a steady screaming of high pitched noises commenced. The ground around his capsule gave way and another sonic pain wave hit, followed by the wall imploding in on them. The scientists and captain Reega screamed, helpless, as they were sucked out into the void of space, but suddenly...
The high pitched beeping stopped and the world around him twisted into all kind of horrible, misshapen things. The light was all sucked into one point, himself, and nothing became visible or audible.
And then his world erupted in beautiful, blue flames.
And he was no longer himself.
Well, that's chapter one. Next chapter takes place in the past, in Cell Stage. Hope you enjoyed, leave a review if you did.
