Prologue
"Run!" Those words, panicked and pained, were the last words of a father to his son. Words said before being cut down by a masked figure in black armour and a red blade in hand.
The little boy was horrified as he watched the attacker turn to him before his father's body had even hit the ground. Their weapon was raised and ready to stab the young child right through the chest.
"Get back!" Galen yelled, thrusting out his hands, and even to the little boys' shock, a wave would send the figure off balance.
The figure was taken aback, and before he could recover, Galen was forced to cover his ears in pain as a barrage of loud bangs was heard.
Once the gunfire was no more. The person standing over Galen also collapsed next to his father in a pool of blood from the dozen gunshot wounds now covering their armour's upper regions.
Galen's saviour stood in the doorway. Black and yellow armour glistened in the light, with a gold-trimmed cape billowing in the wind behind her. It was a picture-perfect scene of a hero's arrival, the arrival of a Helldiver! Galen was saved, but in that rescue also came the rush of emotions suppressed by survival instinct.
"Dad…." He ran over to his father, trying to get his father to wake up. The Helldiver would even try putting medicine into his neck, but it was too late. "He's gone, young man. We have to get you to safety," She said, touching his shoulder. The calloused and rough glove contrasted with the gentle touch of a sympathetic adult trying to rescue a child
Galen thought back with a mix of emotions to that day when he watched both parents be killed by that inquisitor or whatever it was. It brought him such hate but also much pride as he remembered what followed. The Helldiver fighting off all those undemocratic monsters in white armour. Gun in one hand and holding him in the other.
When all was said and done, the Helldiver had raised her right fist in a salute, "For Super Earth, friend!" She had said before he was taken away.
Galen would never see that Helldiver again; from what his new guardians told him, she was Killed in Action only a few days later, giving her life-fighting Termineds to keep the wheels of Managed Democracy turning.
His new home would be the Ministry of Science headquarters on Super Earth itself. For years, he worked with them, teaching them and being taught at the same time. Years would go by, and much was learned about the energy field that Galen could draw on; the scientists knew it was there binding all organic material together, even the Communist bugs, much to their chagrin. But despite all that work, they failed to find a means of replicating the powers Galen was learning to wield through the experiments on other soldiers.
He might be one of a kind, but with the second Galactic War on in full, the Automatons having taken Cyberstan and conducting experiments on Helldiver corpses, a Wormhole threatened to spill some alien menace, not to mention the threat that had come to kill Galen's family before vanishing into unknown space still on the horizon. The Ministry of War could no longer afford to leave such a powerful weapon in the lab
He would prove this to an audience from the Ministry of War as he went through a supposedly impossible simulation. Handgun in one hand and Lightsaber in the other, Galen moved as if he had a jetpack on his back, leaping around hoards too big to be gunned down and cutting down the ones that lept at him—finally throwing his grenade into the hole, closing the hole and completing the simulation without a scratch.
As the doors to his simulation opened, a tall figure approached him. Galen raised his right fist in a salute to this man.
"At ease, Soldier." The figure wearing black and yellow armour said.
"With respect, sir, I am not a…."
"You just completed Helldiver training, Galen." One of the scientists said to him, pointing behind him. When Galen turns around, he sees.
A cape.
"There's no more you can teach us about your gifts. Now it's time to dive." The scientist said, barely hiding nervousness but raising her hand in salute regardless.
"Don your cape, soldier; the forces of fascism don't stand a chance!" The general said encouragingly and with a vigour that made Galen skip a beat.
Turning to the newly raised cape, Galen couldn't help but take a double take. The particular cape has a gold trim. It's a very familiar design. He was so thankful that he was wearing a helmet to hide the single tear of sadness and pride on his face.
"For Super Earth, friend." He whispers to himself as the cape is put on his back and walks towards the shuttle.