Her eyes grew wide in disbelief, shock, as she tried comprehending what had just happened before her eyes. The aliens worked around her, like she was invisible, and cleared the bleeding bodies of her people without so much as a frown. Finally, everything caught up with the poor High Priestess and she fell to her knees, crying out in anguish as hot tears slid down her cheeks. Celeste lost track of time as she stayed curled in her heap upon the floor, letting the sobs rack her wiry body in grief for the loss she felt looming over her skin, like a stain she could never wash off.
When her eyes burned and she just laid on the floor, staring at the feet of the aliens walking around her, Celeste slowly came back to herself. She needed to pick herself up off the floor and figure out what was going on, and she did just that. She wiped at her cheeks and looked around, sniffling. The aliens, bulky creatures with black armour coating their bodies and that killing device strapped to their backs, had cleaned the room and were now moving in odd objects of dull metallic colors, foreign things. The throne was taken away and so was the stage, replaced instead with the odd machines arranged in a circle around a large table made of some material Celeste didn't recognize. It was all so odd to her.
She couldn't understand what the aliens were saying, their mouths much like her own but pink were creating short, clipped sounds that Celeste didn't recognize. The machines whizzed on, the screens lighting up with pictures of her planet; the castle, the amethyst trees with dangling sapphires, the village made of gold and onyx and various other gems, and then her holy altar, an octagon room with chrysocolla walls and connected to the castle by an obsidian bridge. Panic washed over Celeste as she watched the images flit across the machines and the aliens appear at some of the places, killing any of the people left.
They began smashing odd looking things at homes in the villages, making the gem buildings crash down, and then collected them. That was why they killed her people? For the materials? She noticed when she glanced at another screen that they were heading to her holy altar and gritted her teeth. They would not destroy the Lady Star's home, Celeste would not let them. With a hot rage fueling her, she raced out of the castle and down the bridge, arriving in front of the building just as the aliens were walking up.
"You will leave." She commanded, voice firm and hard as flint. The aliens acted like they didn't hear her as they climbed on to the bridge and walked back towards the castle, most carrying chunks of rubble from the village. They skirted around her as if she wasn't there and yet they knew than to touch her, making Celeste cry out in frustration. But then she realized that the holy altar was also safe, like her.
She watched the aliens walk, sometimes occasionally talking to each other in ways she didn't understand, until they became small blips of color entering the castle then ducked inside her holy altar, shutting the fluorite door tightly. Nothing was disturbed, it was exactly as it was left with the dusty pink pillar candles scattered around the rocky, cave-like surface of the blue walls and the star rock altar still spilling out mercury. Celeste did the only thing she could think of at a time like this: kneel before the blood of her sisters and bow her head in prayer.
"Bothynus, Lady Star, have mercy on me." She pleaded, her voice thick with grief. "My people...My people did not deserve this. Was there no warning to give, Lady Star? Have you grown cold and turned away from us? Is there nothing I can do to save them?" She felt tears slip past her closed eyes. "Please, Bothynus, show me the way, show me how to avenge my people. Lend me strength to avenge you. Those creatures are not welcome here." Her voice grew stronger as her conviction solidified and she stood, angrily glaring at the space rock. "I will avenge my people."
A rush of energy coursed through her, lighting her veins on fire, and Celeste set to work, walking behind the altar to the rock shelves filled with supplies. If they couldn't see or hear her, she'd make herself known in other ways.
Six moons have passed since that evening on Nova and despite her fruitive efforts to stop these aliens, Celeste was no successful. The planet she once loved, once shimmering with beautiful jewels and minerals in a multitude of color under the blue and purple starry sky, was now a barren wasteland, the only building still standing was the her octagon room and half of the obsidian bridge. It was abrupt and nearly silent. Celeste woke up one morning to walk out, the large white hot sun shining brightly over the dark purple dust consisting of the ground. She looked around with a frown, noting the odd vessels of the aliens were gone and as were they...Flat land stretched around her, reminding her that she was completely alone…
Or so she thought. Her eyes squinted in the distance and she noticed a square shadow on the horizon. With her curiosity leading her, she picked up the hem of her long robe and hurriedly walked towards it. The purple dust tickling her feet a bit until she slowed, frowning at what stood before her. A blue box stood in the middle of where her village once was. There was a light atop the box and white words reading "Police Box" which Celeste was surprised to be able to read. Then the door slowly opened and another pink alien stepped out, looking around with wide eyes before spotting her and grinning. "Ah, a Novician!"