Chapter 1: Da Capo

Everything was quiet. It was almost always quiet in the cages now; I hated it. The only noises I could hear from my cell came from the others that were imprisoned here. Sometimes I could hear the footsteps of the guards as they did their rounds or delivered meals to the prisoners. They didn't talk much though, mostly they'd mumble to each other in a language I couldn't understand, and sometimes they would be shouting commands towards the other inmates. However, the guards didn't bother much with me anymore, I stayed quiet and ate what they gave me, I was the model prisoner now, although I hadn't been this way when it all began. I now know it's safer to stay silent. Even if they berate me, being quiet left me with fewer bruises and in less pain.

In addition to the quiet, was the darkness that consumed all my waking moments. Whether I opened my eyes or not it didn't matter now, I couldn't tell the difference. Day looked the same as night, just blackness. I only knew the passage of time loosely by how many times I'd slept and how many meals I had received. By my accounts, guessing that they gave us approximately two meals a day, I had spent about four days in this cell this time around. Typically, I'd be left in here for a week at a time or until they felt like letting me out. In total, I'd been imprisoned for just under two years, almost three if I account for the time I spent in the mines work encampment on Earth, that seemed so long ago now. Counting the meals was just a way to pass the time and keep my mind from thinking unwanted thoughts. I was never very good at math, so my calculations were probably off, but it was better to focus on that than remembering the truth.

I suppose now you might be wondering who they might be, and boy would I like to know. They were strange beings that had come to Earth and attacked our world relentlessly. I didn't know who or what they were, and I didn't care. They were pure evil. Their furry purple skin, glowing yellow eyes, and large pointy ears made them more comparable to humanoid bats, but their demeanor is what made them real monsters in my eyes. I had seen them do unspeakable acts of cruelty to my family and friends. I watched as they turned my homeworld to rubble and ash then as if that wasn't enough, they imprisoned hundreds of humans and forced us to work for days on end with little rest and barely any food.

After being captured by them, I had been treated like a prisoner, beaten and abused, now, locked up and restrained. Like I had said earlier I wasn't always in my dark silence. When I had first arrived here, I had been put to work alongside the other captured humans, cleaning and other such manual labor. To top it off, when I had first arrived, I was one of a few humans they decided to use for some sort of genetic experiment. I've since tried my best to block those horrid memories; by now I've almost erased them from my mind. I'm wasn't one to just roll over in defeat and let others walk on me like a rug. I tried to find manners of escape and got caught wandering the halls of this massive base more than once. I fought back and defied their wishes, which resulted in several beatings, restraints, and now locked away in a dark empty cell. They've widdled me down now to almost nothing but a vague semblance of who I used to be.

I'm not in chains exactly, but instead, a barbaric device similar to a shock collar for dogs. Any time I spoke it would send a sharp jolt of electricity pulsating through my body rendering me incapable of doing just about anything until it stopped. It wasn't just resting on my neck either it had four, small, claw-like hooks on each side that dug into my throat, making it impossible to remove by myself without enduring immense pain. In addition to that this demonic invention even had a remote that the guard in charge of the prisoners had. To my knowledge, I was the only human with this control collar on them; I suppose the others saw how bad I had it and never even tried to fight back out of fear of the same treatment. So long as I never spoke, the dark and quiet were bearable on their own. I haven't spoken much since they attached this device to me; that was over three months ago.

The darkness and silence surrounded me entirely as I stayed tucked away in the corner of my cell. I often found my eyes searching for shapes in the darkness or my ears straining for any sound they could pick up. The room itself wasn't very big; if I laid down, I could touch the adjacent wall with the palms of my hands while my feet were flat against the other wall. The back wall was about a foot further from the door than I could reach, so the room was a bit longer than it was wide. I couldn't touch the ceiling even if I jumped as high as I could. There were no windows or furniture in the room, which meant I was forced to sleep on the floor and no light entered my small space except for the small glimmer of purplish light that came in when food was delivered. Well, if you could even call the strange gooey mush food that is.

Today was no different than any other day; I was currently laying on the floor, positioned on my side with my legs stretched out in front of me. I couldn't sing so I was tapping my fingers on the floor to the tune of Shut up and Dance as I mouthed the lyrics; the song had been playing on repeat in my head for a while now. I was about to reach the chorus again when suddenly an alarm sounded from somewhere far off in the ship. It was muted through the walls of my cell, but it had to have been pretty loud, wherever it was coming from, to make it all the way to me. I sat up and listened harder. I could pick up the shuffling of many footsteps in the distance, but I couldn't pinpoint where from or where to they were heading exactly.

'Something must be happening. Maybe an attack from an enemy?' I sat in silence wondering what the cause of panic could be, until now, there hadn't been anything like this before. Unexpectedly, the walls and floor vibrated and shook with great intensity. 'The base is under attack!' I thought as I propped myself up against the wall. Everything shook again, this time it was even stronger of a tremor radiating into my bones. 'Perhaps that was a closer hit?' More soldiers ran through the halls as the shaking intensified. I could hear someone shouting orders over the loudspeakers, almost inaudible through the cell walls.

The shaking and shouting continued for a bit then there came a louder bang much closer to me now and more distinct voices shouting from just down the halls. Then came the sound of laser-rifles firing several shots. The scuffling got louder and louder until it stopped. I could vaguely make out the voice of people speaking, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. After a short while, I heard the loud banging and metallic creaking of the cell doors being opened one by one. Followed shortly by the sounds of, what I assumed were the inmates, rushing through the halls. 'Could this possibly be a breakout?'

The silence returned for a short bit until suddenly there was the hollow pounding of someone's fist against my door. *Bang-bang-bang* "Is anyone in here?" called a young male voice through the thick metal door.

I'm just getting back into the swing of writing again. Not sure where I'm headed with this story, but I'm excited to start. This chapter is just for the setup of my story. BTW I started writing this before the last season aired so I know it's inaccurate, but I'm kinda just gonna pretend that season 8 doesn't exist lol.