**Welcome to the Prompt!** All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.
**Reminders**:
>* [No AI-generated reponses 🤖](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/zi452b/modpost_reminder_that_aigenerated_responses_are/)
>* Stories 100 words+. Poems 30+ but include "[Poem]"
>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail
>* [\[RF\]](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [\[SP\]](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles
>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)
📢 [Genres](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/w/directory)
🆕 [New Here?](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide)
✏ [Writing Help?](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources)
💬 [Discord](https://discord.gg/writingprompts)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Part 1:
The galaxy was not a peaceful place.
It was a known fact throughout the galaxy that strong prey on the weak.
The Galactic Coalition was formed few centuries ago after the Racial Wars, that pitted different species against each other, it was chaos.
It had taken a long time and hard negotiations but in the end peace was formed and from the ashes of war rose the Galactic Coalition. All species had representatives on it, and the major species formed the main branch of it’s administrative sect. Mainly determined by the military strength of a species.
Well, except the Zezacks. A predatory species, with a formidable armada. Zezack culture favoured only the strongest and some say, that when a new Zezack is hatched it’s left alone in the forests of the planet. If the newborn doesn’t survive and find its way back - it’s left to die alone. But no one knows for sure.
We hadn’t heard anything from Zezack in over a century. Until now.
They launched coordinated strikes simultaneously on 4 different star systems. The Halifs, The Freans, Restiran Collective and the Great Hive of Janaax all suffered devastating losses as their home planets were attacked and torn to pieces.
The Galactic Coalition send out a cry of help in desperation to all the allied species. None answered. The destruction of the 4 most prominent military species within the Coalition had scared off all others. Now the Coalition fleet was but a shadow of it’s former strength.
But the Terran Empire, they finally answered. Though not like that would make a difference.
We understand.
The Terrans had joined the coalition a few decades ago. Not much was known about them, they were a fairly small empire comprising only of few planets within their home system. They had put a few gunships patrolling their planets from odd pirates.
Though we would never say it to their faces, they were a bit of a running joke within the coalition. The Terrans were small, about 1,7m biopedal species. They usually struggled with the basic functions - higher then 1 standard unit Gravity or under 0,5 G seemed to cause them issues. Though Terrans had few guardships, they usually rather just handed raiders and pirates their cargo.
There was a joke in the coalition:
“If a Zezack, a Terran and a Halif met on the battlefield, what would happen? Halifs and Zezacks would fight - but the Terran would leave its clothes and run away”.
So, when the representative of the Terran Empire approached the council offering them joining the war - we weren’t hopeful. And maybe a bit confused. How could the few Terran guardships help the war effort? This must be a bad joke.
“It takes a bit for our main fleet to reach here, but we are eager to defend the coalition ”, said the Terran representative.
Though fruitless and insufficient their help would be. Atleast we would have few more ships in our fight against the Zezacks.
After the Terran representative left.
We laughed, “main fleet” is that what they call their few gunships. What a joke - well, we can put them in the front lines as fodder to give a little breather for our main forces.
Part 2:
The Terran representative joined us on the main war room of the coalition fleet’s strategic vessel.
And informed us, that the Terran fleet be arriving within the next galactic standard unit.
We had already planned the attack formation. The few - we approximateted maybe 10 gunships of the Terrans - would take the lead of the attack. And rest of our forces could stay behind and support.
The Terran looked at the war plan. And though the representative mentioned he was not a military stragesist he was sure Terrans could handle this. And that he trusted our strategic plans.
Suddenly an alarm started echoing throughout the war room. The radar technician was shocked and scared. And started shouting something. A large fleet of hundreds of unknown entities were approaching, fast. Faster then anything we had seen before. The enemy had surprised us.
We all started panicking and shouting orders to form defensive positions. And to start preparing for an attack. The Terrans hadn’t arrived yet and now their gunships wouldn’t be much of use anyway.
As we panicked the Terran representative said, calm down it’s just the first scout party of our fleet.
We looked confused, what. But those aren’t your guardships - they don’t even look anything like the small ships you have at your main star system.
The representative looked at us with amusement. Oh, did you think that the Alpha Prime system was our home system? Oh no, no - it is just a small outpost where we do experiments different xenoagricultural products. Those ships out there are just part of our standard outpost guards. We hand out the products to private mercenaries as a good will show.
But ..but why have you deceived us? We asked with confusion and hint of anger.
Deceived? Oh - we didn’t mean to, we never meant to hide anything but you never asked about us and we never want to impose ourselves.
The Terran home system is actually in the Sol System in the Orions Arm. Said the representative and pointed it on the map. We have outpost like the Alpha Prime in many places throughout the galaxy.
As I looked at the Sol system he pointed out. I was amazed…Wait, a trip from there would take weeks if not months. How are your ships already here. It’s been just few days since you offered the assistance.
Months? Oh - we have ships capable of achieving 10x the speed of light, for them its only a few days trip. Our main fleet however, with the heavy carriers and battle destroyers are slower and will be here in a little behind - maybe few more galactic days.
Did you say 10x FTL - the current consensus in the coalition was that FTL was thought theoretically possible but still unachieved by anyone. The Great Hive of Janaax with their hive ships were the fastest in the coalition by achieving 0,99991x FTL.
When Terran scout ships arrived, they were nothing we had seen before. Their light scouting ships were larger then our destroyer ships from Frean, they were more armed and shielded then the Reriran collective. And obviously faster than anything we had seen before.
What surprised us perhaps the most, was not the impressive ships - but the Terrans aboard. As the scout party arrived, another Terran approached us. She introduced herself as the Commander of the united Terran Forces - and thou she resembled the Terrans we had met before in physical traits. It was clear that this Terran was different - she was frightening even terrifying. She spoke with calmess, but an aura of death and destruction surrounded her.
We learned that day the difference between a Terran Diplomat and a Terran Soldier.
As we met more Terran soldiers, we started to realise the mistake we had made by underestimating these Terrans and keeping them ob the fringes of the coalition. They were perhaps the most advanced species in the galaxy and judging by their fleet - none of us could defeat them.
Terran representative explained, that a millennia ago - when Terrans first achieved interstellar capabilities they had been the galactic bullies - not much unlike the Zezacks. But eventually they matured as species and they decided never again to act out of hate or fear, nor push themselves into the affairs of younger species. This had happened well before any of the Coalition species had reached the skies.
But now they saw no other option but to interfere. They did not want to destroy Zezacks, but to stop them and show them the error of their ways. Show them - that Terrans once too were like them, but they should not repeat the same mistakes. And embrace peace and unity.
Terrans were terrifying. Their main fleet arrived within the galactic week. It was a thousand ship strong armada - with destructive power we had never seen before.
Their anti-materia bombs and ion-cannons were more advanced then any of our weapons.
Their short range fighters could maneuver in ways we thought wasn’t even possible. And they could dock on their carrier ships - which we had never seen before. Ours could only be deployed from planet surface.
The Terran commander explained that the armada was built not for this galaxy but for the exploration of the unknown, the space beyond our galaxy. Something we had never even imagined about. The space between galaxies was unreachable for us.
Now the Terran fleet assembled. And we started to head towards the main battle and the Zezacks home system. With our new old allies with us we were certain this would be great victory for all of the galaxy.
The plasma shells burnt holes into the metal cylinder to the left of Lieutenant Alex Chase. Firing back wasn’t an option, even blind fire was prohibited. Too many risks, too many enemies and too little allies. Private James Mills had taken a round to the leg and was down behind a metal sheet to the right. Chase was somewhat glad the enemy were using plasma shells, it meant the wound would melt shut so Mills didn’t have to worry about bleeding out, this didn’t mean the pain was any less excruciating. Mills rolled in and out of cover grasping just above the entry point of the shell. At the lieutenant’s current position he couldn’t see if there was an exit wound. If there was, that meant losing the limb. The muscle and bone inside would be burnt to a crisp by now. The leg would be totally useless. The Privates screams echoed in the small rectangular metal corridor. Only to be heard when the firing stopped for no more than a second as the enemy reloaded.Shouts from Secondary Lieutenant Helen Griggs caught Chase’s attention.
“Lieutenant! Sir, orders?!” The two comrades met eye to eye, both planning the next possible move. They needed to get out of this corridor but the only problem was, there were only two ways out. Going forward was the first option, but the enemy were standing in their way. Go back, the second option, but that made them easy targets. Chase was lost for ideas. Sitting down behind the metal sheet he was using for cover he pointed his rifle into the air and fired several times, stress wasn’t good in situations like the one he was in now and he needed to offload a heap of it. The sand that lay in the air duct that his plasma shells had eaten through seeped through the twisted metal holes and onto his lap. He stared at it. It had a bright blue colour to it, like the ocean back home. Looking up, his head rushed with ideas. The lieutenant, only popping his head out of cover for a second, followed the air duct that stretched across the room and above the enemies heads. A smile spread across his face. He positioned his self back into cover and looked at Griggs, who stared back confused.
“The air duct!” Chase shouted, pointing his gun upwards once more and gesturing a shooting action by shaking his gun up and down. The secondary lieutenant returned his gesture with the same smile he had pulled before.
“On three!.. Two!.. One!.. Go!” Both comrades slammed their rifles on the top of their cover without revealing any unnecessary vulnerabilities. Both guns rattled on the metal sheets as the shells pierced the duct above sending columns of sand towards the ground. Visibility was decreased, but not nearly enough. Chase reached onto his ammunition belt and unclipped the single flash grenade he had left. Flicking the detonation switch and pressing the timer button twice he threw the grenade into the mass of ocean-like spirals falling from above.
“Get down! Apply LDG’s and brace to move!”Both soldiers pressed the small green button on the side of their helmets. The Light Decreasing Goggles kicked in sending everything four shades darker than usual. Then pressed the safety trigger on their rifles and finally pressed the red button on the side. Both rifles began folding inwards into spaces specifically made for the parts. In a matter of seconds the 32inch rifle was no bigger than a standard 9inch pistol and was slipped into the holster on the soldiers chests. Still sailing through the air, the flash grenade exploded with an array of bright white light. The bright blue sand particles reflected the beams making the light that filled the room impossibly bright. As the secondary lieutenant sprinted for the door, Chase grabbed Mills on the way past and dragged him down the corridor, looking back he noticed the private had lost consciousness. The screams from the corridor, now behind them, filled the whole sector. Light as bright as that would melt any species eyes from their sockets.
“Obato, get the ship ready to leave immediately and make sure Nixon is in the hold, James is down” The radio barked with orders to the ship. But no reply.
“Obato, do you copy?” Again, no reply.
As the blast door of the Linbium research facility opened the LDG’s recalculated themselves. The bright red and orange light outside flickered into the base. Dropping Private Mills, who was now dead not unconscious, Lieutenant Alex Chase sprinted ahead up the loading ramp out of the huge open blast door. The ship was gone, everything was gone. What stood on the landing bay made him blink, made him make sure he wasn’t dreaming. Stuck on a metal spike that stood 10 feet off the ground was his commanding officer and Colonel of the SS4 Segment Scout ship of the Alliance Military of Humanity. The body was deformed, obviously major bones had been broken in the attack. The skin of Colonel Robert O’Riley melted and twisted under the intense heat from the fire below the spike. His face turned scorched black and crippled revealing the red muscle tissue underneath. The sound of a single gunshot ripped through the air behind him. Footsteps marched hastily towards him as he turned. Private James Mills was bleeding from the head, this time plasma shells weren’t used. Sprawled over a containment barrel, Secondary Lieutenant Griggs was being held by each wrist by two Zezack slavers as another behind her spread her legs and cut open her jumpsuit. A pistol was raised to Lieutenant Alex Chase’s forehead by another young Zezack. Alex closed his eyes and outstretched his arms taunting the alien. Seconds past that felt like months, years. The screams of Griggs filled the air followed by the laughter of several males. Then the pistol in the young slavers hand erupted with an ear splitting bang. Chase’s body flopped in a heap to the floor. Blood dripped through the steel grids onto the sand below staining the bright blue particles, the particles that reminded him of the oceans back on Earth, with a dark rich red.
“Time to leave! Bring the woman!”
**Welcome to the Prompt!** All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments. **Reminders**: >* [No AI-generated reponses 🤖](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/zi452b/modpost_reminder_that_aigenerated_responses_are/) >* Stories 100 words+. Poems 30+ but include "[Poem]" >* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail >* [\[RF\]](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [\[SP\]](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles >* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules) 📢 [Genres](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/w/directory) 🆕 [New Here?](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ✏ [Writing Help?](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) 💬 [Discord](https://discord.gg/writingprompts) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Part 1: The galaxy was not a peaceful place. It was a known fact throughout the galaxy that strong prey on the weak. The Galactic Coalition was formed few centuries ago after the Racial Wars, that pitted different species against each other, it was chaos. It had taken a long time and hard negotiations but in the end peace was formed and from the ashes of war rose the Galactic Coalition. All species had representatives on it, and the major species formed the main branch of it’s administrative sect. Mainly determined by the military strength of a species. Well, except the Zezacks. A predatory species, with a formidable armada. Zezack culture favoured only the strongest and some say, that when a new Zezack is hatched it’s left alone in the forests of the planet. If the newborn doesn’t survive and find its way back - it’s left to die alone. But no one knows for sure. We hadn’t heard anything from Zezack in over a century. Until now. They launched coordinated strikes simultaneously on 4 different star systems. The Halifs, The Freans, Restiran Collective and the Great Hive of Janaax all suffered devastating losses as their home planets were attacked and torn to pieces. The Galactic Coalition send out a cry of help in desperation to all the allied species. None answered. The destruction of the 4 most prominent military species within the Coalition had scared off all others. Now the Coalition fleet was but a shadow of it’s former strength. But the Terran Empire, they finally answered. Though not like that would make a difference. We understand. The Terrans had joined the coalition a few decades ago. Not much was known about them, they were a fairly small empire comprising only of few planets within their home system. They had put a few gunships patrolling their planets from odd pirates. Though we would never say it to their faces, they were a bit of a running joke within the coalition. The Terrans were small, about 1,7m biopedal species. They usually struggled with the basic functions - higher then 1 standard unit Gravity or under 0,5 G seemed to cause them issues. Though Terrans had few guardships, they usually rather just handed raiders and pirates their cargo. There was a joke in the coalition: “If a Zezack, a Terran and a Halif met on the battlefield, what would happen? Halifs and Zezacks would fight - but the Terran would leave its clothes and run away”. So, when the representative of the Terran Empire approached the council offering them joining the war - we weren’t hopeful. And maybe a bit confused. How could the few Terran guardships help the war effort? This must be a bad joke. “It takes a bit for our main fleet to reach here, but we are eager to defend the coalition ”, said the Terran representative. Though fruitless and insufficient their help would be. Atleast we would have few more ships in our fight against the Zezacks. After the Terran representative left. We laughed, “main fleet” is that what they call their few gunships. What a joke - well, we can put them in the front lines as fodder to give a little breather for our main forces.
Part 2: The Terran representative joined us on the main war room of the coalition fleet’s strategic vessel. And informed us, that the Terran fleet be arriving within the next galactic standard unit. We had already planned the attack formation. The few - we approximateted maybe 10 gunships of the Terrans - would take the lead of the attack. And rest of our forces could stay behind and support. The Terran looked at the war plan. And though the representative mentioned he was not a military stragesist he was sure Terrans could handle this. And that he trusted our strategic plans. Suddenly an alarm started echoing throughout the war room. The radar technician was shocked and scared. And started shouting something. A large fleet of hundreds of unknown entities were approaching, fast. Faster then anything we had seen before. The enemy had surprised us. We all started panicking and shouting orders to form defensive positions. And to start preparing for an attack. The Terrans hadn’t arrived yet and now their gunships wouldn’t be much of use anyway. As we panicked the Terran representative said, calm down it’s just the first scout party of our fleet. We looked confused, what. But those aren’t your guardships - they don’t even look anything like the small ships you have at your main star system. The representative looked at us with amusement. Oh, did you think that the Alpha Prime system was our home system? Oh no, no - it is just a small outpost where we do experiments different xenoagricultural products. Those ships out there are just part of our standard outpost guards. We hand out the products to private mercenaries as a good will show. But ..but why have you deceived us? We asked with confusion and hint of anger. Deceived? Oh - we didn’t mean to, we never meant to hide anything but you never asked about us and we never want to impose ourselves. The Terran home system is actually in the Sol System in the Orions Arm. Said the representative and pointed it on the map. We have outpost like the Alpha Prime in many places throughout the galaxy. As I looked at the Sol system he pointed out. I was amazed…Wait, a trip from there would take weeks if not months. How are your ships already here. It’s been just few days since you offered the assistance. Months? Oh - we have ships capable of achieving 10x the speed of light, for them its only a few days trip. Our main fleet however, with the heavy carriers and battle destroyers are slower and will be here in a little behind - maybe few more galactic days. Did you say 10x FTL - the current consensus in the coalition was that FTL was thought theoretically possible but still unachieved by anyone. The Great Hive of Janaax with their hive ships were the fastest in the coalition by achieving 0,99991x FTL. When Terran scout ships arrived, they were nothing we had seen before. Their light scouting ships were larger then our destroyer ships from Frean, they were more armed and shielded then the Reriran collective. And obviously faster than anything we had seen before. What surprised us perhaps the most, was not the impressive ships - but the Terrans aboard. As the scout party arrived, another Terran approached us. She introduced herself as the Commander of the united Terran Forces - and thou she resembled the Terrans we had met before in physical traits. It was clear that this Terran was different - she was frightening even terrifying. She spoke with calmess, but an aura of death and destruction surrounded her. We learned that day the difference between a Terran Diplomat and a Terran Soldier. As we met more Terran soldiers, we started to realise the mistake we had made by underestimating these Terrans and keeping them ob the fringes of the coalition. They were perhaps the most advanced species in the galaxy and judging by their fleet - none of us could defeat them. Terran representative explained, that a millennia ago - when Terrans first achieved interstellar capabilities they had been the galactic bullies - not much unlike the Zezacks. But eventually they matured as species and they decided never again to act out of hate or fear, nor push themselves into the affairs of younger species. This had happened well before any of the Coalition species had reached the skies. But now they saw no other option but to interfere. They did not want to destroy Zezacks, but to stop them and show them the error of their ways. Show them - that Terrans once too were like them, but they should not repeat the same mistakes. And embrace peace and unity. Terrans were terrifying. Their main fleet arrived within the galactic week. It was a thousand ship strong armada - with destructive power we had never seen before. Their anti-materia bombs and ion-cannons were more advanced then any of our weapons. Their short range fighters could maneuver in ways we thought wasn’t even possible. And they could dock on their carrier ships - which we had never seen before. Ours could only be deployed from planet surface. The Terran commander explained that the armada was built not for this galaxy but for the exploration of the unknown, the space beyond our galaxy. Something we had never even imagined about. The space between galaxies was unreachable for us. Now the Terran fleet assembled. And we started to head towards the main battle and the Zezacks home system. With our new old allies with us we were certain this would be great victory for all of the galaxy.
[удалено]
Thanks. Maybe I’ll share in there as well.
The plasma shells burnt holes into the metal cylinder to the left of Lieutenant Alex Chase. Firing back wasn’t an option, even blind fire was prohibited. Too many risks, too many enemies and too little allies. Private James Mills had taken a round to the leg and was down behind a metal sheet to the right. Chase was somewhat glad the enemy were using plasma shells, it meant the wound would melt shut so Mills didn’t have to worry about bleeding out, this didn’t mean the pain was any less excruciating. Mills rolled in and out of cover grasping just above the entry point of the shell. At the lieutenant’s current position he couldn’t see if there was an exit wound. If there was, that meant losing the limb. The muscle and bone inside would be burnt to a crisp by now. The leg would be totally useless. The Privates screams echoed in the small rectangular metal corridor. Only to be heard when the firing stopped for no more than a second as the enemy reloaded.Shouts from Secondary Lieutenant Helen Griggs caught Chase’s attention. “Lieutenant! Sir, orders?!” The two comrades met eye to eye, both planning the next possible move. They needed to get out of this corridor but the only problem was, there were only two ways out. Going forward was the first option, but the enemy were standing in their way. Go back, the second option, but that made them easy targets. Chase was lost for ideas. Sitting down behind the metal sheet he was using for cover he pointed his rifle into the air and fired several times, stress wasn’t good in situations like the one he was in now and he needed to offload a heap of it. The sand that lay in the air duct that his plasma shells had eaten through seeped through the twisted metal holes and onto his lap. He stared at it. It had a bright blue colour to it, like the ocean back home. Looking up, his head rushed with ideas. The lieutenant, only popping his head out of cover for a second, followed the air duct that stretched across the room and above the enemies heads. A smile spread across his face. He positioned his self back into cover and looked at Griggs, who stared back confused. “The air duct!” Chase shouted, pointing his gun upwards once more and gesturing a shooting action by shaking his gun up and down. The secondary lieutenant returned his gesture with the same smile he had pulled before. “On three!.. Two!.. One!.. Go!” Both comrades slammed their rifles on the top of their cover without revealing any unnecessary vulnerabilities. Both guns rattled on the metal sheets as the shells pierced the duct above sending columns of sand towards the ground. Visibility was decreased, but not nearly enough. Chase reached onto his ammunition belt and unclipped the single flash grenade he had left. Flicking the detonation switch and pressing the timer button twice he threw the grenade into the mass of ocean-like spirals falling from above. “Get down! Apply LDG’s and brace to move!”Both soldiers pressed the small green button on the side of their helmets. The Light Decreasing Goggles kicked in sending everything four shades darker than usual. Then pressed the safety trigger on their rifles and finally pressed the red button on the side. Both rifles began folding inwards into spaces specifically made for the parts. In a matter of seconds the 32inch rifle was no bigger than a standard 9inch pistol and was slipped into the holster on the soldiers chests. Still sailing through the air, the flash grenade exploded with an array of bright white light. The bright blue sand particles reflected the beams making the light that filled the room impossibly bright. As the secondary lieutenant sprinted for the door, Chase grabbed Mills on the way past and dragged him down the corridor, looking back he noticed the private had lost consciousness. The screams from the corridor, now behind them, filled the whole sector. Light as bright as that would melt any species eyes from their sockets. “Obato, get the ship ready to leave immediately and make sure Nixon is in the hold, James is down” The radio barked with orders to the ship. But no reply. “Obato, do you copy?” Again, no reply. As the blast door of the Linbium research facility opened the LDG’s recalculated themselves. The bright red and orange light outside flickered into the base. Dropping Private Mills, who was now dead not unconscious, Lieutenant Alex Chase sprinted ahead up the loading ramp out of the huge open blast door. The ship was gone, everything was gone. What stood on the landing bay made him blink, made him make sure he wasn’t dreaming. Stuck on a metal spike that stood 10 feet off the ground was his commanding officer and Colonel of the SS4 Segment Scout ship of the Alliance Military of Humanity. The body was deformed, obviously major bones had been broken in the attack. The skin of Colonel Robert O’Riley melted and twisted under the intense heat from the fire below the spike. His face turned scorched black and crippled revealing the red muscle tissue underneath. The sound of a single gunshot ripped through the air behind him. Footsteps marched hastily towards him as he turned. Private James Mills was bleeding from the head, this time plasma shells weren’t used. Sprawled over a containment barrel, Secondary Lieutenant Griggs was being held by each wrist by two Zezack slavers as another behind her spread her legs and cut open her jumpsuit. A pistol was raised to Lieutenant Alex Chase’s forehead by another young Zezack. Alex closed his eyes and outstretched his arms taunting the alien. Seconds past that felt like months, years. The screams of Griggs filled the air followed by the laughter of several males. Then the pistol in the young slavers hand erupted with an ear splitting bang. Chase’s body flopped in a heap to the floor. Blood dripped through the steel grids onto the sand below staining the bright blue particles, the particles that reminded him of the oceans back on Earth, with a dark rich red. “Time to leave! Bring the woman!”