PROLOGUE

WELCOME TO TERRA NOVA

Out in the deep reaches of space a large ovular spaceship propelled by three thrusters glowing neon blue flew around a moon.

"Roger that Mother hen. Vector 17439, Alpha Tango Charlie, target online," announced what was presumably the pilot over the radio.

Another voice responded, "You're looking good over the barrel line Vulture we'll see you at Ke'stad,"

"Gracias Mother Hen, Vulture breaking chat," the radio comm ended as the ship finished circling the moon and descended upon a planet with a blue surface and feathery clouds hovering in the atmosphere like cotton strands.

"Alright soldiers," announced Vulture, "get onto the bus."

Ten seconds to depressurization," announced an automated female voice on the intercom.

Inside the ship's docking bay two dark grey, armored figures raced towards a small dropship attached to a magnetic clamp.

"Depressurization complete"

The magnetic clamp on the dropship released and the craft dropped down through the air to the planet.

(Insert aggressive guitar riff)

"Hold onto your hats cause here we go."

As the dropship flew over the planet's barren surface, the two armored troops jumped out of the open door one by one, "Go, go, go!"

The armored soldiers leaped out of the drop ship, their jetpacks cushioning their descent as they made touchdown. Instantly they were greeted by a staccato of enemy laser fire.

The first soldier returned fire on the enemy, causing several explosions off-screen, oblivious to his squadmate's explosive absence.

Suddenly he spotted a hostile blip at seven o'clock on his radar. He turned to see a pirate clad in a ghoulish looking parody of his suit. Quickly he raised his wrist-mounted Ionic fusion rifle and pulled the trigger, only for a dry hiss to come out. "Damn," he cursed.

He heard the pirate make a sound that resembled a childish, inhuman giggle as the latter took aim at him with its wrist-mounted rail gun . . . but nothing happened except for a harmlessly spinning barrel sputtering a metallic rattle. Uh oh, somebody forgot to reload their rail gun today.

The pirate only had enough time to realize how screwed he was, before the last thing he saw was a flash of neon blue light.

Pirate base

In a dimly lit storage area, over a dozen ghoulish figures clad in dark, power armor resembling a reject H. R. Giger painting rushed about, hauling cargo crates,

"Hurry up you moron, we gotta get our big score outta here! Clan Avila's onto us and Clan Petrovsk wants their grenades back!" yelled a supervisor to his slow poke colleague.

"What's the rush, we already dusted the strike team dumb enough to drop in on the front yard," protested the latter.

"Ain't that a relief . . . just wait till they send another strike unit and pray they're polite enough to knock on our front door! Now move it!"

"All right, all right, the moving van will be stocked, pronto."

Soon after the lazy cargo hauler left in a hurry, another pirate came up to the supervisor, "Boss I got a bad feeling about this."

"Arrgh, have you any idea how pathetically, cliche'd that line is?"

"No for real, I listened to the man at the sensors, he reported only one outta two enemy Avila PBA's toast, and our patrols never called in after that. The pirate grunt began to pant nervously, " Is it "him?" Do you think it's the Terror Shark . . ."

"You wanna be afraid of somebody, just at look at me drak!" the captain snapped.

"O-okay boss, didn't mean to get the boys worked up over nothing."

Meanwhile, in a far corner of the storage, a section of the wall opened and out came the aforementioned, object of every Centauri pirate's fear.

With his EM dampener active he snuck through the store room and from behind a crate, he watched a few pirates in their power armor hauling cargo crates to their ship with the benefit of hydraulic muscle, shoddy engineering notwithstanding. Several other pirates without armor were operating forklifts to speed up the moving process.

"That was one hell of a short cut, intel on every nook and cranny on this abandoned docking bay was totally solid, especially with that secret smuggler's entrance."

"Indeed you were also fortunate on the landing corporal," spoke an automated, droning female voice in the PBA'S system. "If that pirate's ammunition reserves were full, your ionic fusion rifle would not have recharged in time."

"Typical of pirates Kathy, lazy maintenance for lazy engineering completes the package, amateurs."

The power armored soldier thought back towards the smoldering corpse/wreckage of his squadmate after killing the last pirate patrol, "Don't forget my so called squadmate, he didn't have much better luck."

"Confirmed, all traces of warrant officer Andres Cortez's life status read KIA."

"Ah true that!" He couldn't help relishing the image of the former's headless human shaped coffin. I feel bad for the parents who reared and spoiled him and now have to bury him with a closed coffin; he looks more related to leathery burnt, bacon."

"Somehow I know you don't mean that."

You're just too clever for me Kathy, he was never a nice guy to anyone outside his posse or the chain of command, I only regret he wasn't a victim friendly fire. Good riddance puta."

"Somehow I agree with your emotional gratification corporal," droned Kathandra. Our chances of survival have risen to forty-five percent, but it isn't enough to guarantee it."

"You know me Kathy, those odds are just the way I like em."

"Move it you crummy draks, the Captain wants all essential cargo onboard the ship ASAP, or SFC is gonna bust down our door and stuff fifteen caliber, tungsten up ours!"

The supervisor didn't know it, but he had given the Avila PBA commando an idea. The latter snapped his mechanical digits, "A ha! Perfect!"

"As a human would say, Pesatro for your thoughts corporal?"

"You know my thoughts for free Kathy, it's an old trick in the swashbuckler's manual. I hitch a ride in a cargo crate and they'll carry me onboard. Thank you Harrison Ford."

"Technically it was Odysseus who invented the ploy your planning."

"Maybe, but he didn't impress the idea on me first. Once inside I'll disable the ship's engines, then we can slip out for reinforcements to finish the job."

"A good plan corporal, but a dubious one."

"Its the best we've got Kathy."

"Sir, your dedication to the mission is admirable, but your safety is my top priority and this mission is still compromised. The chances of your rank of warrant officer being renewed are high if you pull out."

"We won't get another chance to nail these guys, they've been hitting our cargo ships for months, always vanishing like ghosts, intelligence practically tore the whole system apart trying to find these guys. We pull out empty handed they'll just slip away again. Besides, whose fault is it for not mentioning there'd be a, bad radio connection?"

He opened a comm channel and to his delight, his bluff was backed up by the buzzing of static. "Courtesy of our mateys," he smugly added in an olde pirate accent.

"I understand corporal, but I still recommend we wait for backup."

"This isn't just about promotions Kathy, it's about principle, I'm the Terror Shark of New Hope. Once I bite, I never let go of my prey."

"Hurry up this is the last but of essential cargo, once its onboard were outta here!"

Under the cover of the supervisor's shouting, the armoured commando slipped by and found a crate meant for carrying PBAs. Opening it he pulled out its occupant; a stolen XR-5 standard PBA. "So last generation, wait till they meet the new XR-6 models. Now move it pal, this is my cruise ticket."

Dragging the older PBA to a secluded corner, he hid it behind some crates, then he got back to the crate, he jumped inside and closed the hatch, the locking mechanism making a satisfying snapping as it closed. "This is it Kathy, all we gotta is play the wait game, let them escort us to our cabin, then throw them a surprise party."

"Move it draks, time isn't just money, it's life, and we'll lose both if were not outta here soon!"

"Don't worry boss, this is the last load, a whole batch of Centauri XR-5 models."

"Good, get them onboard and let's blow this overgrown popsicle stand, not enough life to fill a space cruiser besides us," the supervisor sighed with relief.

"Wish we could literally blow it, didn't like this planet either," muttered another pirate in agreement.

The forklifts, trucks and PBA-clad pirates carrying cargo proceeded towards a large, rust brown space freighter that resembled a giant cargo crate with six thrusters on its rear end and a bridge on the top front with a semi-circular viewport. A door slid shut behind the pirates once they were all aboard.

"All right send those PBAs to the cargo hold with the rest, but make sure they're in a highly accessible position in case of emergency, we don't want to dig them out of a mountain when we need them," ordered the supervisor.

Carefully the pirates carried the crates to a vacant section of the cargo bay and loaded them against the wall in a straight line. Once they were done they left the room to crash in their bunks after a stressful day. Unbeknownst to them, after they left the area, a crate lock suddenly disengaged and out popped . . . a deadly stow away.

"I'll give these pirates some credit, they may be engineering dropouts, but they sure know how to organize their merchandise."

"If were not careful, they will "organize" us as well."

No "digi-sweat" Kathandra, choking their engines will be a breeze for an AI like you, You can just wirelessly hack into the system and you can make this rust bucket sicker than a toddler with tetanus. But first I gotta change into something more comfortable and lighter."

The Avila commando closed the casket and snuck to an alcove full of crates where no cameras were looking. Once there his armor hissed like a soda can and opened. The helmet on top snapped into place on a socket and flipped open revealing a smaller helmet covering the pilot's black, grilled, under-helmet. Then the artificial muscles that shaped the suit inflated, chest plates slid and folded over each other to open and the thighs followed suit opening up as well releasing the under armored latex form of the commando. "Party time Kathy ."

"Roger corporal, engaging cyber infiltration protocol."

"Area secure secure, no sign of any intruder, over and out." With his report sent the pirate nicknamed; Jackal, smug and over confident that he and his buddies had made a clean escape decided, "Now would as good a time to get wasted on metathine while the shop took off. Sitting on a crate in the cargo hold he took a needle with blue substance inside, stuck it in his wrist and felt the rush flow. Soon he found himself on the tropical shores of New Hope's most beautiful resort.

Wouldn't you like a margarita senior," asked a hallucination of a sexy Hispanic hula themed waitress with a glass tray.

Jackal felt a wonderful sensation in his pants seeing that the waitress dressed like a hula girl. "I don't need that baby, all I need is you."

The waitress smiled with delight and leaned on for a kiss. The pirate pulled the waitress closer till she straddled him.

Man that metathine was good, it took him places he'd never find in all the universe, screw all the other contraband stolen here, metathine was Jackal's treasure.

"Oops" said the waitress, her flirty exspression turned sinister. A sound of thunder emanated from the distance. "Looks like you should have booked sooner senior, it's now high tide." Suddenly he noticed a wall of water looming above him, and he found his paradise literally wiped out by a tsunami.

Trapped underwater he thrashed and struggled trying to reach the surface. But as he held his breath he stifled a scream when he saw a massive black shape swimming up to him, one that meant certain doom for many a careless beach goer. It was the New Hope Shark, the only feared predator in the Centauri system, similar to Terra's prehistoric Carcharadon Megalodon. He was screwed.

Jackal flailed his arms frantically, but he didn't seem to budge an inch. Either way it was futile, you can't outswim a sea creature.

With dread Jackal looked behind himself. The New Hope shark had stopped just a few feet from him grinning cartoonishly at the hapless junkie like the Cheshire cat, "Hello matey, what's wrong, lost paradise?"

"I think he has darling." Jackal's eyes widened in shock, the hula waitress who'd been "serving" him was under water with them and her legs had been swapped for a mermaid's tail.

"I believe momma warned you senior, metathine is very bad for you," she giggled maliciously, before giving the shark a kiss on the cheek.

"Very wise of his mom, very wise," the shark agreed, "Not so much for her little boy here. In fact yo momma would've been even wiser if she told you that space is an ocean full of life other than lowlife space dogs like you, and most importantly . . ." It swam a little closer, its grin still plastered on its face, "There's always a bigger fish to watch out for."

Jackal finally realized with horror, this was no tripped out fantasy, it was a nightmare coming true.

"Welcome to the food chain." The tripped out pirate guard could only scream out the last of his air reserves as the shark swam closer, it's jaw wide engulfing him and slammed shut, trapping him in eternal blackness. His last conscious thought was that he had become the definition of the most terrible meaning to the term "wasted."

The Avila commando looked down at the dying pirate junkie as he held his beating heart gasping his last, two extra spent needles lay at the side of his twitching body. "You like that stuff, why not drown in it," commented the commando.

He reached into the pirate's pocket and pulled out his ID card. " Thanks for the cruise ticket matey." He slipped over to the cargo bay doors, leaving the overdosed pirate's corpse to stare at the ceiling in frozen horror.

Metal Gear Solid OST-Warhead Storage

The commando silently walked through the freighter's hallway, wary of possible patrols or the occasional drunks bound to show up in the hallways.

"How's it coming with the hack job Kathy?"

"I looped the footage on the security cameras, you are virtually incognito."

"Have you managed to get to the engine room door controls?"

"Yes, I've made it . . . wait . . . hold on . . . unexpected obstruction detected."

"What do you mean unexpected obstruction, Kathy? What's wrong?"

"It appears that the door controls to the engine room are guarded by an unidentified type of firewall."

"A firewall, last I checked every pirate computer would welcome you like a celebrity model walking down the red carpet."

"Not this one apparently. Unusual, it is similar in concept to Centauri high end, software protection, but there is no record of it's development in any clan's database, absolutely untraceable."

"You gotta be kidding, pirates don't have access to that kind of cyber security. That kind of merchandise isn't exactly for sale, total government property."

"I'm a PICSI corporal, I'm not programmed to kid you."

"Well how did they get their hands this technology . . . unless, damn the answer was that obvious, it was an inside job, someone must've been leaking intel to them, no wonder they were so slippery. He probably even sold them this new cyber security, That's a slam in the head!

"What is your backup plan corporal?

"Looks like I'll have to take some harder measures, that means having a conference with the engineering staff or the captain himself, personally." The commando cocked a pistol, it was time to get to the head of the problem.

Sneaking through the corridors, the commando leaned against the wall at an adjacent corner where the halls intersected. He heard the hiss of an airlock door.

"Warning hostiles approaching your six corporal," Kathandra announced through his helmet.

The commando quickly lunged at the horizontal hallway in front and leaned against it, pistol in hand.

"Oh man, why the boss want us to leave New Hope so soon? I'm gonna miss all those clan Avila women," ranted a drunken pirate.

"You wanna rot in a Avila prison? They aren't much for hospitality."

"Who cares about that, I hear the Avila prison system is short on "manpower," which means they got more female guards. Makes serving out your sentence worth it."

"Ooh that's comforting, female guards beating your gimpy ass to the next thirty light years drak."

The hidden commando raised his silenced pistol, ready for bloodshed if need be, suddenly he heard the sound of the two approaching pirates flopping onto the metal floor, followed by groaning. Peeking out from the adjacent hall, he saw The bodies of the pirates lying motionless on the floor with their flasks in hand, "Lucky break, they drank too much."

The commando continued his silent trip to the bridge, but another message came in, "Corporal, surveillance cameras indicate the rest of the pirates in the mess hall, the bridge and in the cabins have collapsed like the others in the hallways."

"No surprise there, pirates just love their rum."

"That is not the case corporal," informed Kathandra. In fact they don't have the benefit of alcohol or any narcotic. I'm detecting a concentrated amount of carbon monoxide emissions in the air vents."

"Hu-ho," he chuckled with excitement. "A convenient mutiny, just what I needed, when i find the guy I'll give him a big thanks for making my job much easier . . . before I share him the same kind of air he fed his buddies. Keep an optic len out for anything, the bridge should be up ahead."

With a subtle approach fully guaranteed, the Avila commando skulked towards the bridge. Carefully he scooted from side to side surveying the freshly made corpses of the pirate crew before jumping out into the open. He pushed the helmsman's dead body off its chair. "Now, let's see if we can turn this baby back planetside, huh what!

The commando looked at the bridge terminal in surprise, "It's counting down to hyperspace, but these coordinates don't lead to New Hope, Thatcher or even the earth system. Wherever this ship is going, it's uncharted."

His musings were interrupted when he heard the hissing of the bridge entry doors behind him.O

Voltron: Legendary Defender OST - Detecting Voltron

A figure in red armor, and a trench coat topped with a raptorial helmet strolled into the room, paying no heed to the bodies of his deceased employees lying at his feet.

He carefully skulked up to the helmsman's seat. He spun the seat around only to find a dead man sitting in it. The man in red armor stood there silently in contemplation . . . "THUNK," and he turned to see the intruding commando right behind him, pistol in hand, "Freeze, hands in the air." The red armored man did just that without hesitation.

"You cannot bear to disappoint, just like your notoriety implies, Terror Shark," said the captain.

"If were here to flatter each other, I should thank you for making my job easy, good thing there is no honor among thieves nowadays."

"Don't worry about my temp workers Terror Shark, their contract had expired the moment this ship left the atmosphere."

"You'll expire too if you don't pull the plug on this ship's autopilot and bring her to New Hope."

The Captain merely snickered, "I'm afraid that is impossible, As your PICSI has figured out I've ensured this ship will it's final destination no matter what and you us pirates never use a dead man's switch."

"Attention all personnel," said an automated announcement over the intercom. "Hyperspace jump occurring in three minutes and counting."

"Frack," he cursed in surprise, The ship was gonna jump sooner than anticipated, and he'd be taken along for the ride unwillingly. His eyes darted around, he needed to end this fast before the ship went into hyperspace.

As he panicked the red pirate captain noticed Terror Shark's trigger finger slacken. He grabbed a surprised Terror Shark's right gun arm and twisted it.

"Aaaarrrgghh," Terror Shark grunted and felt the captain's elbow hammer into a pressure point of his elbow elbow pressure point; Chize, causing him to relinquish his gun. But he countered back with a swift side-kick and he was free. The fight was on.

Terror Shark lunged at the captain, delivering a flurry of punches and slaps, but the captain caught the last one in a joint lock. Terror Shark kneed him in the thigh, breaking his balance then pocked his trapped left hand free, followed up by a palm strike squarely to the torso and the captain recoiled back.

Staring each other down the two foes got into stances, Terror Shark got into a Kajukenbo stance, the captain got into an eagle claw stance, and like the hungry predators they represented they lunged!

The bridge erupted into a kung fu, hurricane, two interstellar warriors utilizing ancient fighting styles in a furious dance, one seemingly gaining the upper hand, only for the other to quickly turn the tables.

Terror Shark sent another flurry of punches at the captain from torso to head, the captain blocked all of them, but failed to see the next punch aimed at his lower torso.

The captain regained focus and blocked a side snap, kick, then a knee, and then caught a punch locking it right under his shoulder. The captain hit Terror Shark with two jabs to the elbow pressure point; chize, but the latter retaliated with a head butt and a jab of his own, forcing the captain to kick his captured opponent free.

The captain went on the offensive, he jabbed at Terror Shark, then snap kicked sideways, only to get his right leg caught in the latter's grip. Terror Shark palm punched at the immobilized captain with his free hand, getting blocked until he snuck in a clear shot, striking the captain's faceplate, then tossing him aside. But the ship's low gravity offered his opponent an advantage. The captain re-oriented his body and landed with cat-like grace.

Terror Shark charged at the captain, jabbing and kicking ferociously to end the fight, but one poor strike left his hand caught in a clinch. Before he knew it, the captain had him in a full Nelson.

"You need not flatter me about mutiny against my wretched crew," the captain smugly admonished. "They were expendable the moment I took command from their previous captain. To further clarify, this goes beyond petty larceny." Terror Shark elbowed him off balance and managed to unwrap and slip free of his grasp

"What the flack you squawking about?"

"I'm no a petty bandit, I'm a fisherman." They traded blows before getting caught in mutual arm locks. "And this isn't a cargo ship, it's a dip net, and your the catch."

Terror Shark gasped as realization dawned on him. Suddenly, "Countdown to hyperspace in 10, 9 . . .

"You hear that," gloated the captain. That is the sound of inevitability, you have a date with fate."

Only one thought raced through Terror Shark's mind. "Kathandra take control of my PBA and get an escape pod ready!" Terror Shark yelled frantically into his helmet's comlink, "the mission is aborted, repeat we're pulling out!"

The captain sent a punch at him, but he caught the punch slamming the captain against the wall.

He ran for his handgun and grabbed it in a roll, but it was already too late.

"Hyperspace jump, now commencing," announced the automated intercom.

"No! " Terror Shark desperately lunged for the controls, it was all he could do before everything stretched into kaleidoscopic, spaghetti.

"What . . . where the he'll am I?" Terror Shark looked around in wonder and shock. He was no longer in a pirate ship, he was in . . . space. He looked at himself to see wasn't in his under-armor, he was practically naked, yet simultaneously nothing was exposed, courtesy of an unnatural white bio-luminescence highlighting him, like he had gone . . . ethereal. He had one logical question, "Am I . . . dead?"

Once he regained focus, he saw a moon, but with some cause for dismay. Half the moon was broken in pieces leaving the rest in a crescent shape.

"Did the Hegemony do that?" He thought, but on second thought, "No way, their too magnanimous for that, too much money to lose and too easy to make fun of, like that raisin-faced, wizard trying to compensate for his shriveled up "space balls."

He then noticed a shadowy silhouette in front of him, once it was close enough, he stared in awe at something even weirder. Before him, facing sideway, perpendicular and only two feet away was an unreasonably, beautiful woman. The woman's pure, white skin was shiny and smooth as marble, her figure and needless to say, measurements put eighty supermodels to shame.

Her "outfit" spared no expense when it came to flattery either; she wore gold anklets, a white loincloth, a matching collared top, wrist rings and feathered headdress over her painted face. Overall she looked like she came from a Mesoamerican empire, one of earth's ancient civilizations.

"I've been waiting . . . " she spoke in a sultry voice that could seduce ten billion saints. As she turned to face him Terror Shark's eyes slowly widened.

"For you . . ."

He gasped with horror, this being was divinely beautiful on the left, but on her exposed right was a literally shattered image. Half the woman's body looked like a clay plate smashed with the pieces floating mere inches apart from each other as if anchored by invisible strings. Even weirder was that he noticed that the moon behind her looked broken in the exact same crescent shape as her. As if floating through space as a ghost wasn't spooky enough.

For the first time since he received his appellation, he the dreaded Terror Shark, the bane of all pirates and lowlifes in the Alpha Centauri system felt terror as the woman glided up to him, "Wh-what the flack . . . are you?"

The Mesoamerican woman now inches from his face seductively cupped his chin and forced him to gaze directly into her flawless face.

"Your harbinger . . . of . . . destiny."

Then she waved her free hand in front of him and out of them came an ethereal pair of shark jaws.

Beacon Academy

"Hey Ruby, how long are you stare off into space?" A blonde girl called to her red-headed sister.

"Oh, Yang, sorry, I guess I'm really hyped after that exciting initiation, especially that slingshot special we pulled on that Nevermore."

"Oh Ruby, I'm as excited about our time at Beacon, but tomorrow's orientation and you don't wanna sleep through it. Dreaming isn't gonna get you straight As."

"Actually . . . " Ruby started

"Actually what?"

"I was kinda hoping I'd see a shooting star."

"Why, what's so special about a shooting star?" Yang asked.

"Mother once said that when you make a wish when you see one, it's bound to come true."

"Oh, so my little sister believes in wishes, eh."

"That's why your keeping us up all night, over some silly stuff kindergartners, believe in?" A cross, white-haired girl stomped right up to the sisters. "News flash scythe girl, it's bad enough that I have an underage immature, brat as my partner, but I can do without you ruining my beauty rest!"

"I have to agree with Weiss on this one, " everyone turned to a raven-haired girl with a bow-tie and yellow, cat eyes sitting on her bed, book in hand. We got a big day tomorrow. Besides shooting stars aren't that rare, in fact one could be seen on the other side of the world."

Suddenly, shades of light crawled along the walls of their dorm. "Look, twelve o'clock, there's one right now!" Ruby pointed to it, indeed there was a shooting star headed northward, and shone particularly bright.

"It's . . . kinda pretty," commented Blake .

"Well why not make a wish now Ruby," Yang encouraged.

"Sure, sure, just let me think," Ruby paused. "I wish . . . I, uh, . . . I wish that our lives were one epic adventure, we meet interesting people and make friendships that would last forever."

"That was was a wonderful wish Ruby," commented Yang, but secretly in her mind, I wish to meet the hunkiest, guy.

"Now can we get a wink?" pouted Weiss.

"Yep," said Ruby, "we can all rest at ease."

Weiss and Blake walked to their bunks, but Ruby kept her eyes fixated on the shooting star, much to Yang's worry.

"Ruby, why do you keep staring at the star?"

"I really hope what mom said about wishing on a star is true."

"Don't worry sis, if dreams come true, so can wishes."

"I guess so," Ruby took one last look at the star as it passed out of her sight, Somehow mom, I feel like you and Yang are both right.

Disclaimer: Let us remind you that RWBY is property of Rooster Teeth, as Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri is to Looking Glass. I hope you enjoyed the prologue and very much hope you look up, or even better buy the game Strike Force Centauri on Steam. It's a forgotten gem of 90s PC gaming. R&R, Speaking of which, where are my goddamn reviews!