The Last Protector
Volume One: Humanity
Prologue
A plume of smoke and and an explosion. I was knocked back and before I could get my bearings the air was ungloriously knocked out of me. As I sat there, wheezing, coughing, and hacking has the dust invaded my lungs with the sole intent of sucking out what little oxygen I had left in me. I looked around frantically, dashing my head from side to side in search of the other occupants of the house. I hauled myself up to a stand, and dashed to my parent's room. "Mom, Dad, where are you- " a scream escaped without warning as I observed a metal beam falling down on top of me, I went to duck out of the way but realized my leg would get caught regardless - but then it didn't and I heard loud grunting. "Don't worry son, I've got you." A tall, slender Man held the beam up with brute strength, his blue eyes glistening a fierce glow as his long hair and greyed beard shone in the subtle light. Cuts and bruises abound on his body. "Jayden!" A middle aged, yet attractive woman with long brunette hair sprinted out of the shadow. "Doran, where's Jayden?" The man met the woman's concerned gaze, "I was on my way to her room." Feeling a surge of bravery after his display, I got up, "I'll get her." The woman nodded her approval and aided the man with setting down the beam.
Running frantically, I shoved open Jayden's door with my shoulder and immediately looked around. My heart sank as I saw my little sister's body limp underneath a beam. I screamed in defiance, "No! No! No! JAYDEN!!" I was screaming, tears flowed down my face - my heart overcome with sorrow. I launched myself to her and with a strength I had never known and threw the beam off of her. I picked up my thirteen years old sister, cradled her in my arms. "No... Please God no..." Tears still streaming, I felt her slender body. The areas from her stomach down to her thighs were softer and squishier than normal - bones crushed, internal organs ruptured. No doubt she died instantly. I caressed my hand through her short, blonde hair - looked deep into her bright blue eyes that lay motionless. Closing her eyelids, I carried her back to where my father had saved my life. His look was grim, and my mother shouted incomprehensible words. The only ones I could pick up were "baby", "poor", and "no" as the ramblings left much to be desired. It was swift from there, my mom and dad flipping beams, wood, various metals and other components out of the way of our escape route. We shot out of the door and looked around at what used to be the great paradise of Earth.
Great red tentacles streamed about, crushing towering skyscrapers and flipping shuttles out of the sky. The sacred cradle of humanity burned to ash within its violent wake. Humans, Hyotls, Apex, Avians, Glitch, Florans, and other less prominent races like the Felin, Kemonos, and Draconis screamed their great cry of despair rupturing into a violent chorus of pain and suffering. All of their hopes burning to nothingness like the planet itself as the great building that symbolized the Great Terran Protectorate split in half due to the sheer power of the massive tentacle that pulverized it to bits. I observed three shuttles take off from it, two of them were destroyed but one managed to escape - that gave me a modicum of hope and snapped me back into reality to meet my parents' gaze as they gestured me to follow them. Everything around me was so frantic I barely registered anything - all I was focused on was following wherever my parents went - I didn't know what else to do. I did not know how much time had passed, but when I started registering my surroundings I realized that one, my arms were killing me, and two, I was looking at a part-demolished shuttle. "It needs to be you, son." I turned to the great figure of my father, "What do you mean?" He nodded toward the shuttle, "The life support is damaged and there is only enough fuel for one FTL jump." I refused, "Sorry, but you raised me to be a good person and you can do it again, go instead." My father and mother smiled. "If that's how you feel, at least show us off at the door." "Of course!" I exclaimed. I sat there stoicly at the limp figure of my sister on the shuttle floor and watched my parents walk up to the door.
"One last hug, as a family together." I embraced them without question, and then my heart sank as my loving mother whispered into my ear, "Forgive us. We love you so, so much. Never forget that." Confused I turned to her, but as I did I felt my body lifted from either side and I was thrown full force into a wall and the shuttle door quickly shut as it rocketed off into space. I picked up my sister and put her on a table, plugging it into the S.A.I.L unit and and stabilizing her. I was training to be part of the intergalactic healthcare and rescue agency - a branch of the Protectorate specializing in rescue and hospital work. I was no surgeon, but I was top of my class and held a professional certification. Believing I could save her, I brainstormed. "Okay, okay, bone rematerializer." I frantically looked where I could, and barely managed to find it hiding away in a professional aid box. As I began to operate, the shuttle craft shook violently and I was tossed like a ragdoll against the S.A.I.L unit. Arcs of lighting shot from the unit and I was conscious just long enough to see it hit her body as well before I passed out.