Chapter 1: Commence

Maria

What happened? The world used to be cracked and unstable, but now it shattered before my very eyes. Did I fight for nothing? Everything is destroyed or captured now! The demons called death haunts me, laughing at something that I could never comprehend. Does every great nation end this way?

“Maria,” A voice. It was female and familiar.

Instinctively I turned my head towards the voice even though I was blindfolded.

“How disappointing Maria.”
Suddenly, an alarm sounded off. I heard several shouts and an explosion, screeches and gunfire.

“I want all Xenos to block their exits! Archangels take them out,” The girl shouted, “Damn! There are too many! Retreat!”

I heard several footsteps furiously running away and the sound of buzzing. I heard more footsteps except these are more relaxed.

“How many did we lose?” A calm, cold voice asked.

“Three dead and five injured ma’am,” A soldier responded. His or her voice was distorted.

“Release her,” The cold voice ordered. I felt the blindfold lifted off of my face and saw a soldier’s helmet. It completely covered his or her face so I don’t know who it was; it also contained a device that disguised the voice.

The soldier cut the sleeves off the prisoner’s jacket so I can move though the sleeves were hanging loosely off my arms. I got up and looked at where the commander was. I immediately recognized her. The unemotional eyes, the short and childlike body.

“Snow…” I was surprised that she was alive this whole time!

“You were not the only one that lived Maria,” Snow was wearing a small NER uniform.

“You joined the humans?” I looked at the sleeve which had a shiny silver chevron indicating commander status.

“They are not just the humans Maria,” Snow looked up and stared into my eyes. Snow didn’t change much from her old self except that her eyes had a hint of emotion, just a little and by the look of the eyes it meant that it was a bad sign,
“Bardiel betrayed us and I want to kill him. Even if I had to ally with the broken Galactic Union, I will do so!”

“Snow…” She was obviously enraged at Bardiel. I would be too, and I am! Bardiel deceived Snow and everyone all this time, “Who else are alive?”

“Rika, Kay, and Emma are MIA and Ryu has been killed,” Snow’s face showed no remorse for the ones lost, “Rika has most likely been captured. Belle is…”

“I know about Belle,” I looked away. I remembered my first days as a prisoner of war. Bardiel presented me with a welcoming gift.

“So what will you do?” Snow looked at me. She wanted me to join her, but knows that only I can make that choice. I had to make the choice of whether I should choose to follow emotion or morals, “Are you willing to fight again?”

I felt my face become hot. My hands became fists to hold back the inevitable tears. The possibility that I would have to fight again…

“No…” I decided.

“So be it,” Snow turned around. She ordered the human soldiers to leave with her.

“Wait!” I shouted back, “Why did you save me? Why go all this way to get me out? Am I needed for something?”

“You are conceited Maria,” Snow’s face seemed to have been carved from stone to remain in such an unmoving state, “I needed an ally. The GU doesn’t care how much resources I am using to find one as long as the result is effective.”

Fiona

Controlling Xenos throughout various worlds at the same time is exhausting. Helping Bardiel’s army was fatiguing. Though despite this, everything is simple, it just felt…wrong. With Bardiel’s army, I destroyed civilizations, I saw dreams crumble, and innocent lives vanish.

“It is necessary for universal peace,” Bardiel stepped in. He can tell what I am thinking by examining body language, “Because of us, the universe is in chaos. Empires that consisted of galaxies are now in planetary civil war. Because of that, the strongest empires are taking these stray planets into their fold. It was because of us that racism has been all but demolished!”

“I understand,” I looked away from Bardiel, “but the sacrifices. Aren’t they too high? How many innocent people do I have to massacre just for universal peace?”

“You have to accept that universal peace is only attained by war,” Bardiel laughed at the irony.

“If that is universal peace, then I will have nothing of it!” I shouted.

I immediately felt my feet lifted off the ground. I was carried by the neck towards a cave wall. Once there, he slammed me to it. I screamed as the force of Bardiel’s arm met the wall with me in between. He pulled me away from the wall only to slam me into it again! He pulled me away from the wall again.

“No stop!” I screamed, “It hurts…”

I was crying. I hate pain. Pain reminded me of the world. Bardiel is reminding me how rotten the world is through pain. He let go of my neck. I fell on my knees gasping for breath.

“Fiona,” Bardiel turned away from me, “Go check on prisoner 6-3.”

“Why?” I cried. I know who 6-3 is.

“Go!” Bardiel pointed at the prison.

I slowly walked towards prisoner 6-3’s location. Even though I was walking slowly, I seemed to get there in a few seconds anyway. I opened the door and found 6-3’s cage. Her long brown hair touched the floor and the prisoner’s jacket made sure that she cannot move nor speak, but the worst part is that she can still see. She looked at me with absolute sadness and betrayal.

“Rika…” I froze in my tracks when I uttered her name. She looked broken, Bardiel personally cut down her lover.

Rika’s grey eyes met mine and I let out a tiny cry. She knows that I am scared, no…frightened of Rika. I gulped and walked away. Rika continued to stare at me until I closed the door. Bardiel wasn’t in the cave this time. He probably switched locations to ensure his safety. Of course, my own safety is not as important as his.

Snow

The scattering of the Angels and Guardians struck a huge blow to everyone. The New Earth Republic has been destroyed and its planets that it controlled are now fighting each other for supremacy. The Crystallons on each planet also formed rebel groups that fight the humans, while some others have allied with each other to unite the NER’s sister planets together. The GU is one such group. I was lucky to have found them.

“Snow,” The sound of the comm. snapped me out of my thoughts, “We are sending you on another mission.”

“What is it this time?” I sat up from my bed. The man on the screen had numerous medals and badges on his uniform. He also had two golden chevrons, in other words he’s my superior.

“We want to negotiate trade routes on Fasach.”

“Fasach?” My eyes widened an eighth of an inch. I used to live in Fasach.

“We know you used to reside there so-”

“I lived there hundreds of years ago,” I interrupted, “The planet must have evolved considerably.”

“Are you trying to get out of your mission?” My superior raised one eyebrow.

“No sir,” I bowed and my commander signed off.

Fasach. I wonder how much that hell hole has evolved. I walked out of my room and assumed that my soldiers have already had the briefing. I walked towards the transport ships with the soldiers behind me.

“Destination?” The ship’s AI asked.

“Fasach,” I answered. I turned to face the soldiers. They looked away from me. They were obviously disturbed by my unemotional appearance.

I walked right past them and into my temporary room. The room was small and only had a cot and a comm. A few long hours later, the ship’s AI informed me that we are going to land on Fasach. I jumped off the cot and walked out my room and faced the window to look at Fasach. It was orange and yellow. In other words, it is still a desert. I sighed at the depressing sight.

The ship finally landed. When I stepped out I noticed the heat. It was much warmer in Fasach than in Abiogenesis. The soldiers tried to shield their faces from the sun, but still started sweating a few minutes later.

“The city is a few miles away,” I looked at the soldiers. They were pretty miserable, “We have some buggies to take us through the desert. They do have air conditioning, but we need all the fuel so I am forbidding you from using them.”

Damn the designers for not making a better suited desert buggy. There were five buggies that can fit three people each. I took the passenger seat on one of them. The buggies moved out and with my directions, we reached the city in a couple of hours. The city was small on the surface and the buildings that were showing on the surface were light colored to reflect the sun.

“Why is the main city so small?” The driver asked boldly. This was obviously his first time going to a desert.

“Most of the city is buried underground to stay cool,” I answered, “This should be obvious.” I added.

The soldier gulped and continued driving. The ivory colored gates were closed. The buggies skidded to a stop by the gates. There was an orb like object on top of the gates. It moved and seemed to have scanned us. The doors slowly spread apart to let us through. We drove towards a large domed building, the president’s building. A man with a large smiling face waved at us. I got off my buggy and told the soldiers to stay where they are.

“President?” I extended my arm, but the man didn’t shake it.

“No,” He laughed and shook his head, “I am his advisor. The president is very busy so I was told to meet you here.”

I nodded and the advisor’s smile got larger. He beckoned me inside the building. I followed him and inside was a cool red waiting room. My body drank up the cool air inside; the soldiers must feel envious of me. There were chairs and couches on one side of the room. On another was a wall with dozens of portraits of smiling women and men.

“That’s the wall of the past
presidents,” The advisor apparently caught my eye, “You may look at them until the president is ready.”

The advisor walked away and stepped through a door. I stepped forward towards the wall and looked at their smiling faces. On the bottom of each picture were a year and a name.
Curious, I traced the dates all the way back to my era. The picture was of an elderly man, “President Nick Rockwell” it read. I recognized the name. It was before I died. I traced the names forward. Two presidents later, I found an interesting date. It was exactly eight years after I died; the month and day were the same. I traced my finger towards the name, “President Mitchell Kastell.”

“Father…” I stepped back. I looked around to see if anybody was watching. Were the people toying with me? Did they put a picture of my father on the wall to distract me? How do they know my history?

I shook my head. They couldn’t have known my history; they never archived father’s history when he was found to be related to a Crystallon. Father really was president at one point. His picture showed a metal contraption on his head, probably to fix the damage I had done to him all those years ago.
I read the description: Mitchell Kastell has done good deeds in his time of presidency, he lowered taxes for the poor and also increased the economy for Fasach, and he donated money to schools and orphan branches, and hunted down the slavers and destroyed the slaving business. This didn’t sound like father! My father was cruel and evil; he betrayed me and tried to kill me! He can’t have done these benevolent things, but here is the picture and the description to prove it!

I felt a rush of emotions; fear, anger, confusion! All of them, unfamiliar! Stop it, stop it, stop it!

“Stop!” I shot a torrent of water at the picture. I jumped through the hole I created and found the picture with the frame cracked, but his face still smiling. So kind…

I froze the picture and crushed it into a tiny ball. I got up and walked out of the hole in the wall. The advisor was back and with another man, probably the president.
They were staring at me as if I was insane. I just looked them both in the eye.

“Let’s get this started shall we?” I sighed and wiped the tears.

Galactic Union Amendment 7:
Crystallons

Humans and Crystallons are now equal. All rights that were exclusively human are now shared by the Crystallons. Crystallons may be allowed to join the military if they choose to do so. Any Crystallons that do however will gain rank slower than average humans to even up pay. All Crystallon live experiments must be done voluntarily with the subject’s consent.

-Galactic Union Constitution.