LOCATION : PLANET MERLAN

“They’ve broken through the first line!”

“Put up barriers and defend the center!”

“No use, they just blast right through our defenses! We’ll all be wiped out at this rate.”

Fornas stood and stared his eyes wide and unblinking. His right hand was placed on his lap and his fingers drummed rapidly, a habit of his whenever he was anxious or worried. And today he was both extremely anxious and worried. From every direction came the sounds of his men screaming at the top of their voices, filling his ears and troubling his heart. They were all desperately trying to hold fight off unknown assailants who’d tried to break into the building. Fornas was the one placed as the head of those guarding this place and had done so without trouble for nearly a century, only having to deal with the occasional beast that never even got past the barrier. This place had seen many chief guards in the many centuries since it was established, each one passing down the mantle after successfully completing their duty, from the first down to him, the current chief guard. But unlike the others it seemed like he wouldn’t be successfully completing his duty and passing down the mantle to someone else because today could possibly spell the end of this place.

He had sent someone to scout the enemy a while ago, and get back to him with information on their numbers, power and if possible their identity. After a short while of anxiety filled waiting the scout returned to him. He was a young man, this fact Fornas knew not because of his appearance- as voyagers never looked their age but because he was acquainted with information concerning each and every person he was in charge of. The young man was breathing heavily, terror was written on his face and fear filled his eyes so much that he could barely speak. He’d never been so close to death before and his mind couldn’t handle it. But Fornas had no time to waste on the young man putting himself together and demanded for the information “How many attackers are they? From what sides? What do you gauge their collective strength to be? Answer quickly, we need this information to respond accordingly. “

As ordered he began to explain the situation, talking in between breaths “There’s two!” he exclaimed and paused to continue breathing.

“Two? Two what?” asked Fornas.

“Two of them, one of from the west and the other from the east.” The young man replied.

“There’s only two assailants?”

“Yes sir.” the young man affirmed.

He didn’t need to ask about their strength any longer. Two people had stormed this place that boasted nothing less than a hundred voyagers and were quickly bringing the place to its end. The fact that only two of them came meant that they were very confident in their power being enough to bring it down. What sort of monsters had chosen to attack this place?

“Any idea who they are?”

“No, we couldn’t identify them with any groups.”

“Has word been sent out for backup?”

“No sir, we’ve been unable to contact anyone beyond this place.”

It was reasonable on the side of the enemy to cut off communication but horrible news for them. They were left with no help to face their fates. No other option than to hold out as long as they could and pray some miracle would happen.

“Head to the west and tell them orders are to stop attacking and focus entirely on defense.” said Fornas as he handed the young man his badge as proof. And then he headed east to join the battle.

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Fornas was on his last legs. Blood poured from the hole in his gut and his skin was now deathly pale from the blood loss. They’d defended with everything they had but the enemy took them out so fast it made their efforts seem pointless. The enemy had broken through completely and got into the building after killing or mortally wounding every voyager in site. All around lay the dead and dying bodies of Fornas’ men, some he’d been with for decades and others merely a few years. This was it, nearly a century of faithfully carrying out his duty ended in mere minutes, there’d been no miracle to save them. But even if this place had fallen there was at least something they should be able to accomplish and that was to deliver word of what had happened here.

He got up from where he sat on the ground, one hand on his stomach to cover the hole in his gut and limit blood loss but it was as helpful as trying to seive water and blood flowed with barely any restriction. He walked arduously through the area checking to see who was in the best condition to deliver the message, he would’ve gone himself if possible but it was clear he wouldn’t be able to make the journey. A minute later and he’d found his candidate, the young man from before. He wasn’t completely unscathed, his left arm was twisted in an angle arms weren’t supposed to turn. But compared to everyone else he was in ok condition, enough to make the journey.

“Corae.” called out Fornas. That was the young man’s name as he had recalled. Corae had been lying on the ground, eyes closed and body unmoving or he thought he was but he was shivering slightly. It was clear he was trying to avoid the enemy and wait it out till they left, which was probably why he was in a good condition compared to others. It was cowardly but had turned out to be of use. Corae didn’t respond to the first call and tried to maintain his pretense which made Fornas call his name again, this time even louder “Corae!”

At the second call Corae opened his eyes, they were trembling and tears were starting to pool. Scared as he was he’d have to carry out this mission, it was his duty.

“Corae, put yourself together and prepare to leave this place. Like it or not you’re in the best condition out of everyone and hence our best option. I would’ve gone myself but as you can see I won’t be alive for much longer.” said Fornas then he fell to his knees.

“Go to the closest planet from here, to the Centros base and tell them all that happened. The enemy is undoubtedly faster than you are but you’d have the head start, move as fast as you can in one go and you might escape them.”

Corae didn’t take this order too well and began shaking his head furiously. Fornas might as well have ordered him to commit suicide.

“Everyone here has carried out their duty till their last breath and it’s time for you to do the same.” said Fornas. He was bent over now, both arms around his stomach. He was in pain but that wasn’t important at the moment.

“We’ve failed to defend this place. We’ve failed Illarion and Centros but at least we have to get word out.” Fornas stressed, every word taking the last bits of his life.

“Don’t ignore your duty, Corae.” said Fornas finally before going silent.

Corae lay flat on his back, eyes to the sky. His mind was racing, the only thing that concerned him was his survival, duty was secondary. He’d been assigned to this place a few years ago and had counted himself as lucky for it. Although it was considered a very high priority by Centros, in all its time it had barely ever seen any attacks and none beyond what it could handle. A noble duty with little risk. Most people didn’t even this place existed, so why now? In his time? He was only twenty-one, very young and even younger for a voyager. He never imagined that this early in his life he’d find himself in a life or death situation like he was in.

He continued to play dead, desperately trying to mask his presence, but as time passed he began to doubt the safety of this choice. What if they could sense him? And came down to finish him off? Staying here wasn’t entirely a sure way to survive. But what if he left? If he was fast enough he might be able to escape and he’d be completely free. Fornas’ order started to seem more appealing. After contemplating for a minute he decided he would leave, he couldn’t ignore the fear building in his heart. The enemy was down at the building and wasn’t paying much attention to this area. In incredible one burst of energy he’d escape, faster than he’d ever been.

Gathering all the strength he had, he made his escape, speeding like a beam of light. In the blink of an eye he’d escaped the planet’s atmosphere and was already up in space. He continued his escape traversing through space, accelerating faster and faster. He couldn’t tell that anyone had pursued him, his escape was a success. A while after he’d left Merlan, a planet began to come into view. A large planet with a red surface. He’d land there and get to a Centros base. It was possible now. The planet wasn’t far now, a little more. He headed straight for it but as he got closer he noticed something strange. Were his eyes blurry from exhaustion and pain or was the planet shimmering? He ignored the thought and finally he arrived at……. The sky?

He was back on Merlan, lying on his back with his eyes up to the sky. But how did he get back so fast and exactly to where he was before? Did he even actually leave?

An illusion?

He tried to get off the ground but he couldn’t move his limbs. He looked turned his head to look at his right arm, it was bound by the wrist by a band of aias energy. He looked in front of him, only being able to raise his head above his torso to see. A few meters away stood a man, his hands clasped behind him with a calm but frightening expression on his face. It was the enemy. Corae began to panic. He trashed around trying to free himself but it was no use, the binds didn’t budge. As he was struggling the man began to move towards him, walking gently with his hands now by his sides. He had deep black hair and dark eyes with fair skin that contrasted his hair. He was garbed in a long black coat and on his hands were similarly black gloves. He walked down to were Corea lay struggling and stopped just in front of him. Corae was hyperventilating now, tears streamed down his face and he began saying a prayer in his heart.

“Are you not a soldier?” questioned the man.

But Corae didn’t respond and just breathed even faster.

“It’s unsightly for a soldier to react as you just have. This is what you applied for, death was always a possibility.”

Corae was shaking his head rapidly now, spreading tears and snort on the ground around him as he did.

“Struggle as much as you like, death is unavoidable.” said the man. He raised up his hand and pointed a finger at Corae’s head. Mal energy began to gather and then it fired off the tip of his finger. In a flash, Corae’s head was obliterated and his body finally lay still.

Once the man had made sure everyone was dead he walked towards the building they had come to invade. It was a very large building, spanning about one kilometre in diameter, coloured gold and white. It was originally spherical in shape with a flattened bottom but after the battle it had been reduced to a short cylinder, losing nearly half of its mass from the top. The remaining half was riddled with holes and and the top rim was jaggered. He got to the building and waited not far from it for his partner who had gone in. A while later, the figure of his partner appeared from the top edge of the building. Once he reached the very end he jumped down the nearly five hundred metre building and landed without making much of a sound. He moved towards his partner, shaking his head as he approached.

“There wasn’t anything there,” he said “like all we’ve rest we’ve gone through so far.”

“Nothing? Well that wasn’t beyond our expectations. We’ll find them eventually.” replied his partner in the coat.

“There wasn’t really a need to kill everyone.”

“There also wasn’t a reason to leave them alive. It’s a war.” replied the man in the coat. “It’s time to for us to head back.”

He turned around the left the area in a blur and his partner followed not long after. The aftermath of their visit was nothing but death and destruction.

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It was night time on Merlan now. In front of the oval building where Fornas and his men had met their end stood a man with pale white skin, deep black hair and eyes just as dark. He was examining the area, moving from one end to the other, trying get a better picture of what had taken place here. But he wasn’t the only one at the scene. All around the area several other people were investigating the scene as he had ordered them to, every one of them garbed in a uniform of black and red.

From the current state of the bodies he could tell they were killed several hours ago. Despite the dire situation the occupants of this place had been in, they didn’t contact anyone, and it was likely they were unable to. Their demise only came to notice when it was discovered that they’d lost contact with this place. The assailants must have been been few seeing as most of the dead bodies were concentrated around two spots. This was the seventh attack now, all occurring in similar fashion. The attackers were powerful and also well prepared. But what was most important to note was that they knew about the existence of these places.

A storm was coming, one much larger than they might’ve imagined.