As they approached the large door Natsumi noticed a sign that was hung near the top of the door, it was too high for her to read but she could make out what looked like a symbol that represented a weapon, she hoped the sign said something along the lines of 'No Weapons Beyond This Point', but that might have been hoping too much. It was more than likely that it said something along the lines of 'Authorized Personnel May Only Carry Weapons Beyond This Point'. Natsumi looked around, observing the Keronian guards as they flew by overhead. She hoped that few to none of them were authorized. Passing through the giant door she was greeted by what resembled a train platform. Several ships were lined up, loading people onto them and leaving one after another.

When the majority of the people had been loaded they had to wait for another ship to come in and be prepared to take on the large numbers of human slaves. Natsumi took one last good look around, the guards were distracted and the ship was left open and unattended. Her mother, who had no heart left had become dead weight, her grandmother and younger brother wouldn't stand a chance against attacking Keronians, so she decided she would take on this suicide mission alone. Looking at her family they saw the determination in her eyes, and nodded their heads in agreement. Natsumi squeezed each one of their hands gently in a silent hug so not to draw attention.

She took a step towards the ship, then another, and another. When she was several steps away from her family and hadn't drawn any attention, she bolted. She had gotten about four more steps in when the shouting started.

"We got a runner!" a Keronian guard called.

"Somebody stop her! she's headed for the ship!" yelled a second.

The Keronians were quickly upon her, all of them were unarmed. They tried to restrain her but she was too quick. Leaping up she kicked one Keronian from his hover board while punching two more. Natsumi was only a few feet away from the door to the ship when something powerful slammed into her back and knocked her to the ground, she could feel a weight on her back and as she tried to push herself up off the ground her face was quickly met with the bad end of a Keronian gun. Locked and loaded a red Keronian wearing a belt and bearing a long scar down his face looked down at her and spoke in a deep voice.

"Don't even think about escaping Pekoponian Female slave H0031927." He spoke as he read of the number stamped on the back of her hand. Natsumi cursed under her breath as she glared at the red Keronian that had stopped her only hope of escape.

Soon the Keronian guards came and took her into custody. Handcuffing her arms behind her back, they scanned the number on the back of her hand.

"H0031927 huh?" a blue keronian that resembled a policeman read aloud. He looked around to assess the damage Natsumi had caused in her escape attempt. Several Keronians lay incapacitated upon the ground, they moaned in pain.

"Good work Corporal Giroro. Report to the higher ups, they may wanna give you a promotion for this." the blue Keronian said, keeping his eyes on the stamp gun as he spoke.

"Yes sir. Thank you sir." the red Keronian saluted before turning to leave and report to his commanding officers.

"Looks like we have our first, and hopefully only dangerous Pekoponian." the blue Keronian spoke to some of the others that had helped to restrain Natsumi. He held the stamp gun to the side of Natsumi's neck and entered in new code.

"From now on you are Dangerous Pekoponian Slave X814. You shall be kept in solitary confinement and kept under constant watch. Take her away boys." Natsumi could feel a slight burning sensation on the side of her neck where the new stamp had been placed. She could tell it was permanent; she had been marked for life. But she was determined to never let them forget why they had marked her.

Meanwhile…

Corporal Giroro couldn't stop thinking about what had just transpired as he headed to speak with his superiors. Pekoponians were weak willed, pathetic beings. Since the invasion began Giroro had seen one after another give up hope. As he looked around the crowd of captured Pekoponian slaves he looked into their eyes. He saw dead eyes, soulless eyes, broken eyes, timid eyes, sad eyes, every pair of eyes he saw were drowning in a pit of despair with absolutely no hope of escape.

Then he saw them; among the sad sea of eyes that had given up hope, there they were. Shining like flames in a sea of darkness, eyes that were cool, calculating and determined to survive. Giroro had instantly gone on the defense; he knew the eyes of a warrior when he saw them. She looked like every average Pekoponian teen female, young with long red hair. Her muscles flexed in her arms and neck, she was preparing to make her move. The other guards were all distracted and some idiot had left the ship open and unattended. He could see how smart she was, she calculated her every move perfectly.

When she finally made her move he was ready, he had expected her to make a run for it but he never imagined she would easily take out several Keronian guards. Acting quickly he grabbed his closest weapon and rushed after her, only just barely making it in time to stop her before she got to the ship.

As Giroro neared his superior's office he wondered why she had not fought on the battlefield of her home world, she could have gone down like the warrior she was instead of being subjected to slavery. Then he remembered the other Pekoponians that had been with her, she had a weak spot, her Pekoponian housemates. To Giroro they would have been vulnerability, but when he thought of the Pekoponian female, he could only think of them as her strength.

Giroro knocked on the office door and awaited the typical 'enter' command to be said. He pushed open the door and was greeted by his commanding officers.

"Ah Corporal Giroro. Good to see you. Great work out there today. Not only did you annihilate many Pekoponians during the invasion but you successfully stopped and restrained the only 'dangerous' Pekoponian. Well done." one congratulated.

"Thank you Sir, just doing my duty." Giroro responded.

"I think you deserve a raise and a promotion." another added. they all mumble in agreement.

Before they could decide on Giroro's new promotion one of their radios sounded off drawing their attention away for the moment.

"You're on speaker, go ahead, what's the issue?" one of the commanders spoke after pressing the speaker button on the radio.

"Sir this is unit 6, in charge of transferring Dangerous Pekoponian Slave X814. We've managed to transfer her to the private ship, but she took us by surprise and knocked out several guards and seriously injured the officer in charge of our unit. I'm just a low level grunt sir." the voice crackled over the radio.

"Oh my… well good work soldier. We'll send a medical team down right away." one of the commander's responded before ending the radio call.

"Corporal Giroro, if it had not been for your great skills of observation, and quick action things could have turned out a lot worse today. however it would appear that our new Pekoponian friend is still planning on being a problem." they began, "Therefore you shall be awarded a large pay raise, several honors, and we would like to appoint you as her personal guard seeing as you are the only one capable of keeping her under control without getting the froging shit kicked out of you." they finished.

Giroro contemplated the offer; he figured that since the invasion was now over he would more than likely placed on a leave of absence since he was a combat specialist. More than anything he was interested in the prospect of this Pekoponian female. She had felled many of his fellow soldiers so easily, and the offer of the challenge excited him.

"Thank you Sirs, I accept. It would be my honor to keep guard over the prisoner." Giroro responded.

-To Be Continued…