The sunlight glittered off the top of the large dome that let the light filter down through the layers of the atmosphere. The burnt orange color of the atmosphere was set off by the large burning deserts surrounding the large citadel. The dome encompassed acres of the desert, converting it into a livable atmosphere and a place for the inhabitants of the planet below. As the twin suns were slowly rising, one in the east and the other in the south, a very different sight was being met by the people that were just waking up.

Twin large shapes loomed over the horizon, coming closer and closer to the domed citadel, gliding along the air currents and then sliding in lower towards the city. The twin shapes were oblong in their design, with large towers protruding from the top of an ellipse that seemed to be partially flattened. As the light glittered off the metal hulls of the two ships they glided into a stationary position just above the citadel. The dome flashed briefly and then the ships started to move up towards the orange and purple atmosphere, slowly breaking through the ionosphere and entering out into the blackness of space.

As the twin ships broke through the atmosphere they were met by a much large ship, at least three miles in length and another mile in width as the others seemed to cluster around it slightly. Even the space between the ships seemed to show a tension that was hanging in the air. Dozens of smaller ships seemed to be flitting around the larger ships, some going into smaller bays and others disappearing entirely from space.

In the center of the largest ship was a large circular control room set about with holographic displays and various interfaces for the people that manned them. The people that sat at the stations looked human enough with various pieces of machinery in their ears or on their arms to aid in their task. The main control chair for the entire ship sat at the center and stations along the outer rim of the walls. Seated in the main chair was a regal looking woman, her back straight and her long black hair cascading down along her shoulders as she surveyed the fleet before her.

"Madam President, he has been located and is being transported up to the bridge right now." A brunette seated off to the woman's right spoke slowly, a hand pressed against a nearby control with concentric circles.

There was a flash of white light from a nearby booth and a man seemed to materialize out of nowhere, his molecules slowly piecing him back together before he stepped out. His long brown hair was pulled back slightly off of his face, but there was no denying that it was long and stringy. He wore an old style black velvet top coat covering a brown curvet tucked into a silk vest and white shirt. He seemed to carry himself with an odd flavor of dignity and uncertainty as he stepped from the booth and bowed to the woman on the throne.

"Madam President, I believe you have called upon my services." His voice remained inquisitive as he surveyed the woman.

"Indeed, I am in need of a Doctor at the moment. Do you know of the situation?" She leaned forward with a slight smile on her face. The man nodded and kept his eyes focused on her.

"I have, although I am unsure as to your motives, Lady President." The woman quirked a slight smile and nodded to her companion.

"Yes, I believe I should call the council to order before more have come to light. We need a decision." She made to move from her throne, but was stopped by a flashing light directly in front of her.

The people on the bridge rushed around to determine the cause for the klaxon while one was courteous enough to turn it off. The screens directly in front of the large bridge flashed quickly and then were replaced by the vastness of space, and hanging there were several disks with bubble like protrusions coming from the top and the bottom. The design might have been comical had it not been easily recognizable. The people on the bridge remained calm as was their training, but the fear was evident from the first voice.

"Lady High President, the fleet has arrived earlier than expected. The transduction barriers are holding thus far, but they are penetrating into the solar system."

"It seems the Cascade is no longer safe. Should we retreat?" The man in the velvet coat turned to the regal woman whom was just smoothing down her garment.

Before she had time to reply there was a shout from one of the controllers at a nearby station. "They've engaged the fleet, casualty reports already coming in. There are several reported sightings of others on the outer barriers."

"Ideas?" The woman sharply spoke, commanding the respect of those around her.

"Fighter squadrons have been mobilized, but they're still outgunned." A female voice came from behind her. Turning the woman saw others entering the bridge, two men and one woman with regal robes draped along their bodies. The man sneered slightly at the man in the coat for a moment and then diverted his eyes back to the woman on the throne.

The odd contingent of people watched as the saucer like ships glided through space and seemingly effortlessly cut down three larger ships that had come out to meet them. The oblong ships were firing at them with the contingent of missiles and energy weapons, doing damage, but it didn't seem to be enough as the ships continue to bombard the sleek metal ships until they were utterly destroyed.

"They have chosen the battlefield, now it is our turn to end the war. Ladies and gentlemen, we need ideas, and now." The woman spun the throne around to face the assembled council, looking between the one woman and to the others.

"We have beaten them back continuously until now, we should continue with this tactic." The sneering man stepped forward; he had a pointed black goatee, and was going to continue when he was cut off by a shout from the other side of the bridge.

Spinning the throne around the woman observed the man in the velvet coat working at one of the stations. The man nearby that had raised the shout was staring at the screen that now depicted the true force of the invading fleet. It spanned most of the screen and seemed to disappear back into the reaches of the space as it continued on its trek towards the central planet. The fleet seemed to have reached the outer barriers as a shimmering light seemed to push them back, but the battering of the light seemed to lessen as the time went on.

"Impossible, those transduction barriers were set by the Great-"The man started, waving his hands in the air.

"And yet they're here, I suggest we set that aside. Madam President?" The man turned from the console and stared at the ruler of those around him. He had made it very plain in the past that he held no great love for the ruling council of the planet of his birth, but he would still stand loyally next to them and defend it if necessary.

"Begin the recall sequence; bring them all home to defend it." Before the woman was even finished flashes of light were passing from her throne down into the deeper reaches of the ship. Lights began to flash along the hull of the ship before it seemed to disappear; swirling blue lights appeared at the back of the ship to disappear a second later.

XoXo

A man in a long black cloak gripped his right arm protectively as he snuck past the guards that were conversing in thick English accents. He paid little attention to what they were saying, slipping into the museum that was surrounded by the high spiked walls. The clatter of horse hooves brought him out of his thoughts as he slipped into the shadows to watch a bobby carriage rolling past, catching the conversations of the two men atop it.

"Did you hear about the latest one? Right pretty girl with her neck slashed."

"The ripper claims another Mistress I see."

As the carriage disappeared into the fog the man slipped into the museum and down the darkened corridors. At the end of one long hallway stood a wardrobe, seemingly out of place as it stood next to a miniature of the battle of Hastings. The man slipped into the wardrobe, closing it as it shimmered out of existence, a slight wind picking up just around it.

XoXo

A woman stood in slight irritation and pain staring at the bank of flashing lights and small cells before her. The wall was organized into small hexagonal containers, each with a small window so that she may view what was inside. Currently her collection was disappearing, each specimen being returned to where it came from, but it was the slight tingle in her arm that she tried to ignore.

Stepping away from the wall she moved to the central controls and flipped a few switches, determined to get away from the call. She knew what it meant, it would mean her death and the destruction of her work if she didn't get away, but she would be tracked.

The groaning of the central chamber ceased and she stepped out of the doors into the smell of salt in the air and the beach stretching before her. Before she was even out of the door the "No Swimming" sign started to disappear. She leaped away from it, hitting the sand as she went as the sign disappeared from view.

XoXo

The strange party of men and women had adjourned to a war room just behind the main bridge that held a large holographic display of the solar system. Currently the enemy fleet was tearing through the barriers that kept the inner planets safe, already there had been three larger ships destroyed with minimal damage to the enemy. The president leaned over the display with her face fixed in a stern and yet saddens state, it was her job to ensure the safety of her people and now everything was being destroyed before her eyes.

"You would think the destruction of their home and loss of their creator and leader would slow them down." The man with the black goatee spoke slowly and menacingly to the others as he twirled the hair around his finger.

"Now is not the time to play politics, we need ideas and we need action. All of those available are here with the exception of two. One refused the call and exiled herself while the other we exiled long ago." Spoke slowly the only other woman in the room. "What of the Eye, could we utilize it in some way?"

"The Eye provides the energy to our fleet and our lives, should we destroy it our way of life would collapse around us. In any case, it is simply an energy source, not a weapon." The man in the velvet coat moved around the display, looking at it from all angles, but it was bleak to say the least.

"It can be." The president stood up and put her hands on her hips. "The final solution utilizes the Eye." Those around her seemed confused, except for the one man in the velvet coat who seemed horrified.

"You can't be serious, that would mean-"

"I am well aware of what it means, but would you rather wait for them to finish us off and then go one to the rest completely unchecked?" She swept her hand over the visage that showed the fleet already advancing on the fleet in orbit.

Seeing the confused looks the president turned to the group and spoke slowly, making sure that each word held weight. "The final solution is a procedure given to each Lord President in the event of the possibility of destruction of the planet. It utilizes the energy of our lives to destroy an enemy."

"You're forgetting the larger issue. Someone has to go down to the main Eye itself on the planet sheltering them from the destruction. We would be condemning someone to be the last." The man spoke slowly as well still staring at the holographic image and letting the words sink into those around him. The woman nodded and looked at the ground.

"I should not ask any of you to make such a sacrifice, but we need someone to take the initiative." The sneering man started to step forward and then thought it over.

"You would be destroying everything, all that we have worked for simply to combat an enemy that is his fault that is still here." He threw a finger to the man in the coat and glowered at him. "We tasked you with their destruction long ago and you decided not to."

"Gentlemen, this isn't solving anything." She turned to the man in the coat. "Would you….I'm not asking you as a president, but as a concerned citizen of our planet. Would you do it? The rest of us are needed here in case you fail or if there are complications." Sensing the steel edge to her voice no one disagreed with her conclusions. The outcome of the war was bleak and it would seem that their race would end to save the rest of the universe; no one would ever know the true sacrifice.

XoXo

The stone circular building stretched in all directions and from any angle that he turned he could see stone cells that were filled with glowing balls of light. The design for the Panopticon had been taken to incorporate the ability to see the Eye as well as to see those that approached it. Instead of the large tower in the center of the building there was a pit that dug deep into the ground and contained the main Eye. The man in the coat shivered as he remembered his last experience with a smaller Eye, but kept moving forward.

He carried a single scepter between his hands that glittered in the afternoon light, but it was the yellow and gold sash around his body that caught the most light. As he walked he attempted to ignore the shouts and sounds of explosions from around the large building. The invasion had truly begun only a few minutes after he had been transferred down from the main ship. Now he made his way to the eye and slowly let it open, the scepter in his hands.

As he approached the central pit there was a robotic screaming that surrounded the large hall, but he kept moving. The hum of engines, and the slight skiff of dirt being removed caught his attention, but he kept his eyes on the large pit and the slowly opening Eye. The first beam of sickly green light flew past his shoulder and he broke into a run. It was so close and yet so far as he held the scepter above his head and drove it deep into the center of the Eye. He held onto it for dear life, propped up by the twin metal irises on either side of the opening as the energy swirled around him.

The moment the scepter pierced the eye a great wave of energy pulsed out from the center of it encompassing the room in a fierce wind that the man was at the epicenter of. The energy swirled in an orange glow as it pulsed outwards flattening many of the smaller buildings around the larger stone structure. As the glow started to pulse upwards people stopped to watch the beautiful and yet horrifying scene.

Every member of the race knew what the energy meant, change. As each person started to glow the same orange they turned their eyes to the sky and stared up at the atmosphere where the final battle was taking place. One by one, people started to disappear into the orange energy, pulsing upwards and riding the wave started out from the center of the Eye.

High above the planet the battle was going very poorly. Several enemy vessels had broken through the blockade to get ground troops to the planet and were ravaging the planet as they tried to push their ships back. The glow from the planet caused many of the people to stop and stare at it as it pulsed outwards from the planet incinerating the first of the enemy ships that was in a lower orbit. As the glow reached out towards their own ships, men and women left their stations to stare at the expanding energy as their own bodies started to glow as well.

Seated on the throne the president had to smile as she watched the people around her dissolve into energy and pulse outwards, destroying their own ship as well as those of the enemy. She held out as long as she could, watching the ship crumble around her, just long enough to watch the massive saucer hanging in front of her ship explode outwards in flames of fire. She let the soft warm glow of the energy encompass her body and then she, like the rest, was gone.

XoXo

The woman had stripped off the ceremonial robes that she had been wearing while she was doing her experiments. Standing barefoot on a beach on an unknown world she felt the pulse of energy even as far away as she was. Clinging to her arm she felt the pull of the energy of her body back through the vortex and back to where it was being called.

She screamed as she felt the energy over take her, but she would not let it all dissipate like the rest of them. Her body started to change, her cheeks becoming more pronounced, her nose pushed into an upturned posture as her hair changed from brown to a striking platinum blonde and grew out to her waist. She screamed as she felt the dying pulse of energy leaving her body sending her into convulsions on the beach, forgotten and alone.

XoXo

The man in the velvet coat clung to the scepter as the building was starting to be ripped apart around him. He could feel the pulse of energy pushing outwards from the Eye and seeking everything out that it could to destroy. The planet and all those around it would not survive for much longer, and he was at the center of the chaos. He felt his own energy being pulled at, but held onto it as he kept conscious control over it for as long as he could.

Staring out at the swirling wind he could see face, images of the past and the hunk of rock that they had inhabited. Energy swirled through these images playing back the history of the people that would be destroyed in a matter of moments. In a the last possible second the man pulled himself away from the Eye, surrendering to the final vestiges of the energy, but the rest of the problem came full tilt when it would not take him. Screaming in agony he barely had time to register the groaning wheezing sound around him before a blue box materialized around him and whisked him away from the danger.

As the man was leaving the energy wave consumed the planet it pushed outwards creating a massive energy wave. The wave sliced through both fleets causing both sets of ships to explode on impact. The sleek metal oblong ships were empty, devoid of life now as they sacrificed their lives for the good of the universe. The great evil had been burned along with the rest of them. The one lone survivor was carried away, far away as the blue box materialized on the beach of an island.

The man stumbled from the blue box, already covered in the warmth of the orange glow, but it was not tearing him apart but changing him. His features hardened, his jaw pushing out as he started to loose most of his hair; his body became taller, more muscular as his ears protruded from the side of his head. In a cry of anguish he struck the beach with his fists sending showers of sand down on himself, and if the universe itself were answering his cry of pain and anger the large mountain on the island exploded outwards.