United We Stand

by Christian Messe

  “Well then, we finally get to wipe these bastards off the chart…” He looked at Cyrus, smirking, “Commence the attack.”

  “Beginning the attack sir.”

  Thousands of small white flying saucers, green in the middle, flew out of their hangars, towards Cyrus, and its crumbling core.

  “Ready yourselves, these new Dark matter soldiers were made to overwhelm, not to be skilled, don’t get yourself ambushed.” An admiral said over the fighter’s intercom.

  Then, out came the Jupitains, inside of warships that had once belonged to the Cyrisians. The giant ships had two ends, each end looked like half of a smooth downwards pointed shark tooth, with a two-mile hull attaching the two sides, with the back half the same half shark tooth, but with a giant engine booster installed inside it.

  There were over twenty-thousand of these kind of warships, and millions of fighters. They clashed in an epic battle that would go down in history, as one of the Kelisian Empire’s worst defeats.

  “Charge up Saucer three’s primary Focus-Beam cannon; we’re going to blow Cyrus into oblivion!” A captain ordered.

  “Charging the cannon now sir.”

  It was a Kelisian superweapon, able to emit enough energy to destroy a planet. It was a modified Tempest cannon. Its barrel had two sides, and a hollow middle, that when charged would glow a blinding green light. Each section was charging with a loud pphhmm, pphhmm, pphhmm. Green energy was being thrown everywhere, and the cannon’s barrel was emitting a kind of gravitational force to keep the tremendous amount of energy in. The energy started to spiral at the end of the barrel, then fired. The giant ray of energy zoomed out of the massive barrel with a vvvoooouuuummmm, and hit the planet directly in the core, shattering part of the surface, and splitting the world in half, showing its core.

  Cyrus’s core, which was the size of Earth, wasn’t like any other planet’s though, the Cyrisians embedded a protective shell of Meta-Core around it, to serve as the planet’s last defense. It worked.

  There were pieces of rock spewed everywhere, hitting fighters and ships on each side, causing some to explode, and others to be forced out of the way.

  One of the Kelisian’s Gigantium-class saucers was torn through its core and was split in two. The pieces crashed into Cyrus, causing a blinding green explosion.

  The rest of the battle was history. The Kelisians soon became overwhelmed and had no choice but to flee. Then, the Jupitains began to massacre, and enslave the rest of the Galaxy. Slowly. Some systems fell in days; others took years. Primitive or advanced, it didn’t matter, the only difference between the two was time.

  Every planet the Jupitains conquered, the stronger they became, using their victim’s technology for themselves. They amassed a force of over twenty billion Jupitains, and over one-hundred thousand warships, but after the battle of the Nova-Alliance, they were barely left with ten-thousand. It was a victory, but one that had almost cost all of Alpha’s forces. It was still enough power to keep the galaxy oppressed, and shut down any rebel operation attempted.

  Over the centuries, when the Kelisian’s allies were all wiped out, their only option left was to flee to small remote systems and hide from the Jupitain’s wrath.

  One of these systems had only two life-sustaining planets. Neptune fell in hours after getting demolished by almost a fifth of everything the Jupitains had, leaving the Kelisians only able to hide at a world, where nearly all life was wiped out merely decades earlier, except for a few underground outposts, barely managing to survive. Mars.

  There were dozens of other systems that housed lifeless planets and were not under Jupitain control, but the Kelisians chose Mars, and they avoided Karalus, and his rage-filled search, for over four decades.

  As for Riois, he would use Cyrisian innovations to prolong his life and attempt to keep the Cyrisian species alive through different colonies around the Galaxy, but constant persecution from almost every system made that impossible. He would live for centuries, watching his civilization, and the rest in the Milky Way, slowly crumble.

  CHAPTER 8

  “This is not good, no, no, no go back towards Earth, not away!” Apparently talking to it didn’t work. The ship was flying faster than the speed of light, past nebulas, and star systems.

  “Ugh, how do you work this stupid thing?” Claire started to press random buttons and then punched the control pad with her Meta-Core hand. She didn’t feel any pain. She sat in the control chair, giving up on controlling the ship, and watched, watched as she sped through space, the beauty of it from far away was breathtaking until the blue light turned into a flashing red warning light, and the control pad started to repeat,

  “Collision course scanned, time until rupture, one minute.”

  “What? What could possibly be in my way?!” Claire panicked a little.

  “Star-Class: giant, 321,868,800,000 kilometers until impact.”

  Hypotonic travel worked by activating a ship’s engine and going so much faster than the speed of light, that it would cause the molecules of the ship, and its contents, to leave the physical reality temporarily, but there were exceptions, things that the super speed system could not go through, and that was black holes… and stars. Not even the frenzied molecules could escape the gravitational pull or intense heat of those.

  Claire hit the control pad, but it didn’t do anything.

  “Course unchangeable, fastest route to Ceriun-B, in progress… 300,176,732,851 kilometers until impact.”

  “Ugh!” Claire opened the power compartment, only to see jumbles of random alien symbols. She held the translator sphere up to it, and it scanned. The sphere located the course transmitter, and Claire shot it with a laser cannon she made out of her Meta-Core. A small spark flew from where she hit it, and the control pad said,

  “Course is now editable, select interstellar flight course.”

  “Haha, yes!”

  “Collision in fifth teen seconds, Shields forty-six percent.” The giant star was starting to burn the outside of the ship. Soon the interior became so hot that Claire began to sweat.

  “Collision, ten seconds, course change recommended, extreme heat warning, course change recommended, molecule tension; devastating. Course change recommended.”

  “Oh, you think?” Claire said to herself, frustrated and frantic at the same time.

  Claire pressed a button that was flashing on the control pad, and the ship jerked to the left, throwing Claire into the wall with a thud. She had forgotten to put on her seatbelt. The ship dodged the giant star, barely avoiding the pull of its gravity. The button had changed the course of the Jupitain ship to head to the nearest Jupitain controlled planet.

  Claire sat there, back to the wall, letting the ship take her to the unknown. When she finally got back up, she looked out the view window. A planet, with only one Pangea like scorched landmass, and a grey ocean surrounding it.

  “It’s horrible...” Claire gasped. The sight got worse when she saw two Jupitain warships orbiting it; they were there probably to make sure that no one got out without the proper authority. Since the ship Claire was in was Cyrisian, it wasn’t stopped when it entered the planet’s atmosphere. Her sphere turned blue, and started to give information,

  “Planet name, Kalaria, Threat level, Gorger;C-9.”

  Claire was astonished, she’d never seen or heard of another race besides a Kelisian before today, and Jupitains didn’t count since they were made of Dark matter. The ship’s control pad turned green, and said,

  “Automatic landing procedure seven nine zero activated, stand by.”

  The ship flew through the clouds, and Claire saw living hell. A small city, most of the buildings in ruin, others rusted, with people living in them. Mining sites were everywhere; if you weren’t looking, you could probably fall in. Giant metal drills were digging into the ground, Jupitain soldiers guarding the perimeter. Jupitain hover tanks patrolled the streets, not stopping for anyone or thing that was in the way.

  “So, th
is is what the rest of the galaxy looks like,” Claire said to herself, sadly.

  The ship landed in a busy cargo port, a giant rusty cargo ship in front of hers. The inhabitants of the world were humanoids and had extremely pale white skin, and tattoos all over their faces. They were walking around casually, like it was normal to be enslaved by monsters. The white aliens inside of the cargo ship were emptying their payloads onto hover platforms. Jupitains were standing guard in watchtowers.

  Claire knew she couldn’t just walk out with what she was wearing; she had to ditch her uniform, or else she would stand out. She transformed her Meta-Core hand into a sharp knife, and cut off the Earth symbol on her uniform, and raised her pant-legs higher, to the bottom of her knees. She rolled up her sleeves, and that was the best she could do. She grabbed her translator sphere and left the ship. Since a mine was so close, the smell was terrible. Claire had to put her hand over her nose to barely cover the smell.

  She located a small tent nearby that looked like it was selling clothes. “Off worlders get your Kalaria supplies here, right from the Peralasis Jusarian port; I’ve got rags here! Helps with the smell!” The way the shop keeper was talking made the rags seem like a luxury item. Claire ran over to the shopkeeper.

  “I’ll take two!” She said awkwardly.

  The man looked at her. He was wearing a dusty cloak that probably hadn’t been washed since it was made, and a metal mask that covered his entire face, except for his eyes, where yellow lights were coming out of instead.

  “Alright then, and I suppose you have means of paying for these?”

  Crap.

  “Um, I’ve got this.” She handed him her translator sphere.

  “You’re kidding, right? You can get those for free around here. What rock are you from, Neriasus?” He laughed at his own joke. “Listen doll; you’ve got nothing to exchange for these, so how about you run along now?”

  Claire wasn’t going to let herself get told by this guy. She raised her Meta-Core hand, and it transformed into a laser cannon.

  “Ok then, how about this, you give me those rags, and I don’t blast your head off, doll.” She surprised even herself, that was the most extreme thing she’d ever said.

  The man’s expression went from sly to horrified in less than one second.

  “Meta-Gene!! Guards help!” He screamed. He didn’t know for sure though, cybernetic limbs that could transform into weapons weren’t exactly rare. Everyone that could hear him froze. People started murmuring to each other. Claire looked back to see two nearby Jupitains running towards her.

  Claire’s expression went from cocky to frightened. She grabbed the rags out of the man’s hand and sprinted away.

  “Come back here you thief!” The man yelled after her.

  The Jupitains shoved the man away and chased after Claire. She jumped over hover tables filled with spoiled food, and poorly made mining tools.

  “Coming through!” She yelled.

  The Jupitains behind her pushed through everything in their way, including people, and shot at her. Red streaks of light passed, inches from her body. She jumped and spun around, her laser cannon firing a blast of yellow light, exploding where the Jupitains were. Their visors turned green, they were calling for reinforcements. A hover tank smashed into the shopping center. It had dropped directly from the sky. It aimed it’s turret at Claire, and fired a red burst of energy at her.

  The blast hit the ground, causing a massive explosion, blowing Claire backwards. She flew into a food cart, smashing it. The aliens around it ran away screaming.

  Claire put her hand up to her head, “God, that hurt,” She groaned.

  The tank hovered slowly in front of her, twenty feet away. The cannon charged up again, the red energy getting ready to be released. Claire’s laser cannon was in disarray, the micro pieces of metal unsure of where to go. She looked up tiredly at the tank that was about to blow her into pieces and then thought of something. The tank fired, but Claire put out her left hand, and the Meta-Core transformed into a yellow plasma shield. The laser beam collided with it, but was repelled back into the tank, causing a massive explosion.

  The tank was blown back, debris flying into nearby tents and ruined buildings. She sat there and started to laugh.

  “Ha, ha! Take that you…” She collapsed, dropping to the ground, the people around her unsure of what to do. The Gene had drained her energy. A woman that had been looking at various food carts, filled with rotten fruits, was frozen from shock. She had watched the entire event take place. She knew she was a Meta-Gene, she could tell by how quickly and precisely the inventions on her arm had transformed. The woman was wearing a cheaply made brown cloak and looked to be in her mid-forties. She took a deep breath and moved towards Claire, quickly. She knelt down, and turned Claire’s face towards her own, trying to see if she was breathing.

  The woman looked around. She could hear the Jupitains getting closer. The woman grunted and started to drag Claire away from the shopping district.

  Claire woke up in a dimly lit room, her eyes facing a rusty metal roof, lying on a dirty cot. The roof was so rusty and thin; it looked as though any second it would collapse.

  “Ugh, my head,” She groaned.

  “Is she awake?” Claire heard the voice of a woman whisper in the distance.

  “I think so. What should we do?” A man’s replied.

  “Hello?” Claire asked. She looked around; her stomach was covered with stained white bandages, her uniform around the wound stained with dried blood. “W-who’s there?”

  A man and woman walked over, their skin extremely pale, tattoos everywhere. The woman was the same person who had dragged Claire away from the shopping area.

  “Are you all right? How are you feeling?” The woman asked.

  “If the demons find us with her…” The man started.

  “They won’t.” The woman replied, “They didn’t see me, and I made sure to cover the dirt tracks back up…”

  “Who are you people?” Claire asked.

  “Oh thank goodness, the damage isn’t extreme,” The woman said, “We found you in the shopping district, I’ve never seen bravery against the demons like that since… since the Day of Red Sun…”

  “Red Sun?” Claire asked.

  “The day the demons took over our world.” The man replied.

  “Quilis get her some water from the depot; I’ll get her something to eat.”

  The man obeyed and walked out of the room. Claire sat up and watched as the woman opened a small metal compartment.

  “Why are you helping me?” Claire asked.

  “Well, don’t call me deranged, but when I saw you fight the demons, I thought that, well…” She paused.

  “Well, what?” Claire asked.

  “I thought that you could help me and my mate rescue our son.” She finished.

  “What happened to your son?” Claire asked, ignoring the fact that she said, mate.

  The woman handed Claire a loaf of stone hard bread.

  “The demons, a few years after the Red Sun, they rounded up the young, and took them away, including my son, I’ve never seen him since.” The woman tried hard to fight back tears.

  Claire put a hand on her shoulder, “I’ll help you, where do you think he is?”

  “H-he was taken in a group; I don’t know if it was off world or a mining camp,” She sniffed, “This is what he looks like.” The translator sphere showed a holo-image of a pale young child, he looked at least nine-to-ten years old, and had tattoos on his face like his parents, with blue eyes.

  Quilis retuned with a metal jar filled with water and walked into the room.

  In the morning, Claire thanked the family for helping her and was now looking for her friends and a missing ten-year-old, whom Claire knew was probably dead, but she was going to look anyway, it was the least she could do to help the family that saved her life. She didn’t at all have to help those people, but she at least wanted to try. What kind of person would she be
if she didn’t? She thought to herself.

  During the months after Arrival Day, the Jupitains killed most of the children immediately, which was why rebel groups started trying to hide kids instead, after they realized any fight against the Jupitains was pointless. It worked for her, but for most, they weren’t so lucky. She was wearing a brown hooded cloak; the United Worlds uniform under her stained with dirt. Her ears were flooded with the sound of churning metal drills.

  Then, her translator sphere started to beep in her pocket. She took it out, and it showed her a holo-picture of the boy, saying that he was sixty yards away.

  “That’s impossible… they would’ve found him by now…”

  She walked forward, the beeping sound getting louder and louder until she knew where it wanted her to go. The sphere was pointed towards a sealed off mining camp, with Jupitains standing guard on top of the rusty metal wall.

  “Oh… that’s why they didn’t get him,” Claire said simply.

  She watched as a whistling miner came walking out of the heavily fortified door, wearing a cheaply made, metal shock collar, and pushing a hovering table filled with glass containers, Dark matter in all of them. She waited until he was far enough away from the wall, and ran over to him.

  “I’ll trade you for that,” she said.

  The miner put two fingers up to his chin, thinking.

  “You’d be worth a fortune on the slave market,” he said.

  Claire grimaced. She turned her hand into a metal cylinder and slammed him across the face with it. He hit the floor, knocked out.

  “Fair trade… man, I love this thing,” She smiled, putting on the collar without turning it on, and grabbing the handle to the hover table. She pushed the Dark matter cylinders back towards the mine. She knocked on the metal doors.

  “You want this delivery or what?!” Claire shouted.

  The Jupitain’s visors turned green, and one gestured for her to come in. The door opened slowly. Claire walked into the view of aliens wearing the same type of metal collars as she took from the alien. Some were working the drilling cranes; others were shoveling in puddles of Dark matter. She pushed the hover table away and got her translator sphere back out. It started to beep wildly, until it led her to a small boy, who was shoveling a small puddle of Dark matter but was working efficiently, surprisingly. A visor wearing human was behind him, an Indian male, yelling,