Several years ago-

Hilas was a planet that sparkled in wealth and sparkled in the light. The abundant wealth and the affinity of the arts to its inhabitants design every surface to be aesthetically pleasing, the surfaces to shine and the people simply loved wearing glitter. The city would have been beautiful if artillery and bombs weren’t exploding and destroying everything. Families ran past scattered corpses and hid in shelters while a vast battle was being fought on and above their world. The smell of explosions mixed with the smell of fire and death. Nostrils stung as they breathed burning air and smoke on Hilas.

A Space Marine heavy fighter, a large beast of war that was proof anything could fly with enough engine attached to it chased down three fighters piloted by the Vax, a reptilian race, who with the Zerk, cyborg Gophers and a pale grey race with large heads and big beady eyes had led countless others to conquer the symbol of success and freedom that Hilas had become.

Nearby, a family huddled fearfully in their home as the large fighter shook the planet around it as it flew just above rooftop level. Windows shattered and the shingles on roofs scattered behind the fighter as tones rang and alarms buzzed in the cockpit while every warning indicator that could alert him warned the pilot of his madness. The fighter’s missiles jammed so the gunner on the front of the large heavy Marine fighter switched to cannons and destroyed two of the fighters which then crashed and exploded. One fighter fell into a closed department store, erupting in a huge ball of fire, and the other enemy fighter veered off into a small hospital killing almost a hundred people.

The consequences were not wanted, but they remained irrelevant as if Hilas fell, billions on this world alone would die. Then the sector would fall and following the retreat, a hundred worlds might be lost. Hilas would suffer so others could be saved. This had become the last ditch effort of the failing United Free Planet Forces to survive.

The Marines shot down the third fighter which crashed into a river and then they, themselves, were destroyed too, flying into an apartment building and creating an inferno of death for the hundreds of residents. People jumping from the burning inferno fell with people who were simply blown out of windows. Finally, the word came out, fleet wide, to all the Space Navy and the Space Marines, they were to prepare to fight to the death. Their enemy would give no quarter and no retreat would be allowed. Men prepared their souls for death and their weapons for combat as the end of freedom exploded around them.

Above the planet, a lone fighter exited faster than light travel, a type of high-velocity space-flight referred to as T-Space. The pilot was clad in black armor, she was referred to as the Shadowbird and she had just helped ravage an enemy world. The Shadowbird was a wrath for good, she was capable of becoming more terrible than their enemies, and the Shadowbird lived in the nightmares of evil. The true stories about this monster exceeded the legends and she had kept hell stocked with a fresh supply of their enemies' souls for hundreds of years. The Shadowbird lived by one rule and that rule was to destroy the enemy.

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A transmission came from fleet intelligence, admiral Mabbie had reported a fleet assembling at Alasia was preparing to arrive and turn the tide against their allies. The Alasians were the finest military force in the galaxy, a planet of mercenaries, and were available to anyone who could hire them. Not that they were without honor, but they were for hire and this would tip the balance against any hope or dream of survival on Hilas. An Alsian command cruiser flew in space ahead of the Shadowbird’s fighter.

The Shadowbird flew in and destroyed several enemy fighters to reach the cruiser as they exploded silently in space. The best Alasia had to offer joined the great debris field that fell like millions of shooting stars below. She destroyed the shield generators of the cruiser, shot a tunnel through the armor of the warship, and then she flew into it, exiting her fighter into the burning ship before slaughtering the crew. Electronics exploded, passageways turned dark and the metal decks of the Alasian cruiser blackened with her footsteps. The Shadowbird entered a compartment and terrified men and women began trying to claw their way through an armored bulkhead in panic as the grabbed them and tore them apart. Dead eyes and blank looks gaped aimlessly behind her as she proceeded through the ship.

Those who did not die first fell pray to the ability of the Shadowbird’s duality which had the ability to read the mind, near and deep. When the subject didn’t cooperate fully with the mind penetration, they were broken and bent until the pain took the search where it needed to go. Quickly, she acquired the codes from the chief of engineering, seized the ship, reached the bridge, and slaughtered the rest of the crew before capturing one of Alasia’s senior admirals and learned all their deepest secrets before she smashed his head into the bulkhead behind him and he fell lifeless in a pile of bloody ooze. The Shadowbird left with Alasia’s most secure codes and reached their planet where she disabled their fleet defenses and began to destroy the now defenseless waiting armada. The planet of mercenary warriors gaped in horror as they witnessed her destruction as the Shadowbird lead an attack that vaporized thousands of ships. Alasia begged for it’s first surrender in history.

Until then, no one had ever surrendered to the Shadowbird, and still no one did. Alasia fell, per the public story they surrendered to the Shadowbird and the same girl in black armor disappeared from the galaxy a day later. Few knew where she went and those who knew wisely left her alone.

Gone was the person monsters checked under their bed for at night.