The sky on Earth was said to be blue, but Xavier didn’t really believe it. He’d tried for a long time to picture a blue roof stretching out over the horizon, but it seemed ridiculous to him. Why would the sky be any different to the green of Vermasse?
Not that many had ever seen Vermasse’s true sky, but Xavier had. It had broken through the clouds like small lasers. It was something he would never forget. He had climbed Venendi’al mountain many times since in the hope of seeing that brilliant green once more. He shot a glance at the gray clouds above and furrowed his brow. Today would not be the day.
Drifting his eyes down the mountain, he took in the town below. A thousand small domes sprouted from the valley floor. Somewhere down there his parents would be working, whilst his sister started her morning at the academy. Instinctively he looked over at the great collection of curves and spheres that was Vermasse academy and a moment of guilt took him.
His classmates would likely be studying cybernetic systematization about now. Or something equally boring. He raised an eyebrow and shook his head slightly at the pointlessness of it all. He, nor anyone else in his class, ever had, or ever would see any sort of deep space communication arrays. There was a communication hub on Vermasse, of course, but it was only ever operated by outsiders. Men and women who would come for a year at a time and then depart as hastily as possible. Vermasse was a dumping ground for the sub-par. Those who were destined for mediocrity and needed to be stashed away somewhere on the outskirts of human space.
He didn’t blame the spacers for not wanting to stay on Vermasse. He didn’t want to stay on Vermasse. It was just too boring. With ninety-five percent of the planet being uninhabitable, the entire world was one small community. Xavier reckoned every single living person on Vermasse was currently in his field of view.
He sighed and adjusted his body, placing his arms behind him he leaned back, determined to enjoy the quiet whilst he still could. He knew his parents would find out he had missed class again. Sooner, rather than later most likely. And they would be angry. Again. He debated making up an excuse but dismissed the idea. The truth would be better. Xavier was old enough for a posting in the military or even to serve on a galactic runner. That’s what he would tell them. That he wanted off Vermasse. And they will say no, said a voice in his head. He swore out loud.
Not for the first time he considered just boarding the next ship to dock on Vermasse. The Union ships wouldn’t take him, but there were others. Xavier had seen them. Bulky cargo vessels and smaller merchant craft came to Vermasse for the kulit crop that grew so easily on the planet. Cramp began to build in his arms, and he leaned forward, staring out over the valley once more.
Even as he saw the town, he knew he would never be able to escape it. The Union monitored the movements of every citizen on Vermasse. Even now his absence from the academy was likely being uploaded to the town’s Daylog. He picked up a loose stone and threw it, watching it arc into the air before spinning out over the ledge and disappearing completely. He wondered idly if the Union even monitored the movement of the planet’s stones, before laughing bitterly at the absurdity of it all. Digging his fingers into the rocky soil, he sent a shower of smaller pebbles trailing over the edge. If life in the Union meant a life on Vermasse, then he would leave the Union he resolved. Or more likely the Union would disown him when they learned of all the classes he had missed. He smirked. They probably didn’t even know he existed. His sister was the prize, not he.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small device. “Protean,” his voice sounded strangely hollow in the light mountain air. “Bring up the record for Nuria Albion.” Almost immediately the Protean unfolded into a hand-held tablet and a freckled face beneath messy blond hair flashed before his eyes. Her pale skin was a stark contrast to the light brown he shared with most of Vermasse’s other settlers, but her school record was what really set her apart. Genius. Exemplary. Generational. The superlatives leaped out at Xavier and he suppressed a feeling of jealousy. Just as his school record had gradually slipped, his sister’s had only improved. With a flick of his fingers, he dismissed the Protean before re-pocketing it.
He sent another stone tumbling down the mountain and breathed in deeply. With the fresh air in his lungs he closed his eyes and thought back on happier times. A time when his sister and best friend would have joined him on his climb. Nuria jabbering excitedly about her latest classes.
“Hey Xav, did you hear about Colm? The garden planet, they called it! No? What about Palosia? It’s like Colm, but my instructor told me….”
“He doesn’t care about Colm,” Bellec would interrupt with a wink. “He only goes to class for Alau…”
Xavier could never retaliate. Thoughts of Alau made his mind go blank and his mouth dry. Her big white teeth and welcoming smile were the only reason he bothered with class, and he hated that Bellec knew it.
He opened his eyes and turned back to the clouds, willing them to disappear, to see the sky behind them and the stars even beyond that. There was adventure out there, he just had to find it. Puffing his cheeks, Xavier blew out some air, watching the thin cloud of mist. He followed it up into the air, arching his neck as he did so. He froze. Pushing a hand to his brow he squinted. The cloud he had been watching only a few moments before was moving!
It shifted, bulging and warping like nothing Xavier had ever seen. He found himself holding his breath. His heart beat faster in his chest and he risked a glance back into the valley. Even there the cloud was breaking. A thrill of anticipation ran through him.
Rising to his feet, Xavier waited. And then waited some more. His brow creased. Was the cloud getting darker? This isn’t right, a voice in his mind warned. He ran a hand over his shaved head, just as the cloud exploded outwards. A great block of deep black emerged from its insides. Xavier took an involuntary step back as the shape grew larger and larger. A ship! he realized. What the Pasht was a ship that big doing on Vermasse?
As more and more of the vessel emerged from the cloud, Xavier was able to make out the giant markings engraved across a hull of contorted black. Oh no. He swallowed. His breathing rose and, eyes wide, he stared fearfully down into the valley. Somewhere down there his parents, friends, and sister were all blissfully unaware of the terror slowly revealing itself above them.
He cried out, fear twisting his voice into an animalistic scream. He tried to urge himself forward, but his legs refused to move. The huge behemoth and fear it inspired locked him in place, and all he could do was watch as the ship grew larger. He tried to blink away the horrifying truth, but with every passing second the craft became more and more real.
The Vruhr had arrived on Vermasse.
With a trembling hand, Xavier pulled the Protean from his pocket and held the device to his mouth. “Telescope. Twenty magnitude.” It was an effort to voice the words.
The device quickly adjusted, turning itself into a small circular tube which Xavier attached to the side of his head, pulling the Protean’s lens down over his eye. Vermasse’s town grew larger and clearer until it was as if he were standing in its streets. He could make out the townspeople, see individual expressions turn to horror. A burning ache flared within him, as if his heart had become lodged in his throat.
At that moment the valley-wide warning was triggered. An alarm sounded in the back of Xavier’s mind, soft, urgent and repeating. Just as it would be for all Vermasse’s citizens. A second later the protective dome was fired. A wall of blue rose over the valley.
As the shield flared to life, he held his breath, hoping it wouldn’t be too late. The perimeter of the dome spread from a dozen different locations, attempting to converge in on itself at a central point. Xavier knew that, in practice, a defensive dome should be up within no more than four-point-three seconds. Just as Vermasse’s would have were it not for the giant vessel obstructing its progress.
Maybe, he thought, the Vruhr will flee from the dome’s current before it strikes their ship. The hope was extinguished almost immediately. Rather than avoid the shield, Xavier watched as a white belt of energy pulsated around the ship. He stood, hopeless, as a great charge left the Vruhr destroyer and struck at Vermasse’s primary source of defense.
“Please, no,” he whispered.
A moment later, a huge wave of power ripped through the dome. A bright light flared, forcing Xavier to look away. Turning back, he watched in despair as the shield sent out one last defiant ripple, before collapsing in on itself. The light faded away and for a merciful moment, all was still. Then the Vruhr guns opened fire.
“NO!” With a shout, Xavier launched himself into a run. “Protean! Drone mode!” Almost immediately, a small ball of whirring electronics detached itself from the headset Xavier wore, shooting up into the sky. The images it sent back to Xavier’s eyepiece were scenes of chaos.
One eye focused on the terrain in front of him, he skipped over rocks, loose pebbles rolling out from under his feet. In his drone eye, he watched as Vermasse’s automated defense guns whirred to life, firing upon the great ship in silent, rhythmic defiance. Xavier knew it was a hopeless gesture. The guns were a left-over relic from more than a century ago. They weren’t designed to combat a ship as large and advanced as the hulking Vruhr vessel. Despite it all, Xavier hoped.
Please. He repeated the single word in his mind, a mantra that followed his frantic descent.
By now the Vermatian garrison were in the streets, their deep blue and white uniforms easily identifiable in the crowds. They did their best to regain some control over the mob of people, directing them to the Union cantonment or the Vermatian academy, the two largest and strongest buildings in the area. They were just starting to have some success in instilling order when the first Vruhr soldiers touched down on the ground. Immediately, they brought up their powerful weapons. Xavier came to a halt, watched horror-struck as living, breathing people were cut down under the Vruhr barrage. He wanted to look away, to tear off the headset but fear gripped him too tightly. People Xavier had walked past, maybe even shared a few sentences with, were rounded up. He watched as one fell into the mud, another tossed effortlessly into a huddled group. Fear and death ran rampant.
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The Vruhr assault was met with return fire as Vermasse’s few soldiers made to intercept the invaders. The planetary defense guns, having made no impact on the great ship, instead turned on the Vruhr soldiers. Energy beams tore up chunks of earth and limbs alike.
“Come on!” shouted Xavier, as Vruhr now began to fall. He stumbled again as his attention was caught entirely by the unfolding battle. Cursing, he righted himself and turned his uncovered eye back to the mountain path. But still, the augmented horror that the drone showed him hovered over his vision.
He grit his teeth as more and more dropships fell from the sky, disgorging legions of the enemy. He saw one brave security guard lose his left arm to an explosion, before taking down an enemy combatant with a shot from his rifle. The man’s victory was short-lived as a great Vruhr warrior tore the man’s head from his body with a single swipe from a wickedly bladed weapon. The pulsing edge tore through muscle and bone with ease. Xavier ordered the drone to look away.
A host of emotions battling for control, he breathed in deeply. Remember your training! He screamed at himself. He could hear some of the lessons taught to him by his martial instructors. If you rush, you die.
He ran faster.
The base of the mountain grew closer and Xavier began to slow. Coming to an overhanging ledge, he dropped to his stomach and crawled to the edge. Lifting the headset from his eye, he scanned the bottom of the mountain for any sign of movement. Satisfied it was quiet, he locked the headset back into place over his eye. The drone above was still sending images and he called it back, instead choosing to use the Protean’s telescopic lens.
Attempting to focus on the laboratory where his parents would be, Xavier’s attention was instead drawn to a single human, cloaked in a heavy coat. The figure held a narrow alley against a group of oncoming Vruhr. Behind the lone soldier, Xavier saw a huddle of people running to a temporary safety. Turning back to the man in the coat, Xavier was amazed to see him gone, where he had been standing were instead the bodies of three dead Vruhr.
He wanted to cheer the small victory, but everywhere else was a slaughter. Those who weren’t dead and dying were being rounded up in their scores. He looked away, calming his breathing he tried to collect his thoughts.
He had to get to his family. Nuria would be closer, he knew. The academy on the eastern side of the valley was only a few kilometers away. And then it would be only a few more kilometers to his parents’ laboratory. A few kilometers and a few thousand Vruhr.
Think Xavier! He studied the Vruhr closely, trying to see some pattern in the chaos. He tried to recall everything he knew about the Vruhr, but it wasn’t much. Despite the ongoing war, all reports stated the Vruhr rarely ventured outside of their own space, preferring to defend their borders with brutal efficiency.
“Clearly those reports were fucking wrong,” Xavier swore loudly. He adjusted his lens, zooming in on a group of Vruhr apart from the rest. It was unnerving, seeing one so close and Xavier had to fight off the urge to zoom back out.
He had seen Vruhr before, in holo-simulations at the academy. They had become a myth to the giddy group of teens enrolled in the Union’s security program. Something to scare each other with, tell stories at nighttime when the dark was closing in. Xavier never thought he would see one in the flesh. He found they were the same and yet somehow much more than the images he had seen. More imposing. Terrifying.
Their armor was blacker than a Vermatian nightfall. Yet some of the soldiers wore no helmets, revealing charcoal black skin and cloudy green eyes. He zoomed in yet further, noting the thin, almost delicate translucent lines that traced their hairless faces and the strange colored markings they bore. The Vruhr he was watching pointed. Xavier followed the direction of the long, thin appendage.
The laboratory! The alien pointed at the laboratory! A deep dread threatened to root him once more but he leaped to his feet with a burst of energy. Scanning the battlefield, he watched as the Vruhr battalions began to regroup and descend on Vermasse’s science facility. Panic wrapped a tight fist around his chest.
He had to warn his parents somehow. But how? The Vruhr were everywhere and his planet-wide communicator was in the academy.
“You idiot, Xavier! You pasht-loving idiot!” He raged at himself, furious that his desire to escape the academy had led to him not taking the one device that might allow him to help his family.
Despair threatened. He forced it back.
Think! Xavier knew the mountain trails better than anyone but, even if he could get into the town, it would be impossible to move unseen. And he would be useless as he was; alone and unarmed.
He needed a weapon. He scanned his Protean over the valley. The academy, he saw, was still relatively unharmed by the invaders. If he could get there, he could not only get to Nuria but also a weapon. Even now he imagined the military recruits equipping themselves from the weapons’ training armory. He thought of Bellec. His friend would already be wherever the guns were, he knew. If he could get to Bellec and Nuria, maybe they could find a way out of this. He looked back, involuntarily, at the behemoth in the sky. Still more dropships disgorged hordes of Vruhr streaming through the town.
There would be a way. There had to be a way.
He closed his eyes, said a quick prayer, and opened them just as the explosion lit up the valley. The light pierced his skull first, then the noise rolled over him as a cloud of black and fire erupted from the earth. Skull pounding and his eyes streaming Xavier clawed at the lens, yanking it from his face. His vision a stream of bright lights, like bursting stars behind his eyelids, Xavier fell to his knees.
And then he kept falling.
He felt the air seething, hissing around him and he screamed. He hit the ground and then everything fell into a merciful black.
Xavier opened an eye. Then another. His vision was blurry, his eyes full of moisture. He struggled to focus on the stars above him. They seemed close. Too close.
Stars?
Awareness slowly filtered back. There were no stars. The glowing lights came into focus as a robotic face stared back at him. He made to scream, but an armored hand clamped onto his mouth. He struggled and kicked but the Vruhr holding him was too strong. Blind panic overwhelmed him, and he clawed at the arm manically.
Suddenly a voice. “Stop it, kid.” Human? Did the Vruhr have language translators? Why hadn’t they killed him already? He squeezed his eyes shut.
“Kid. Kid!” The voice became a loud whisper. “Look at me, damnit.”
“He thinks you’re one of them, Isais,” said a second voice. Deeper than the first. “Your helmet.”
Helmet? Xavier opened his eyes and focused on the robot in front of him. The front of the robot disappeared to be replaced by a pair of eyes. Then the entire helmet withdrew in on itself and Xavier found himself looking at the face of a man.
“What’s your name?” the man spoke.
“Who are you?”
“Relax. We’re the good guys.”
“The Union is here? The army is on Vermasse?”
“Not quite the whole army.” The man laughed. “It’s just us. But trust me, we’re enough.”
Xavier pushed himself up onto his elbows and looked around at his surroundings. He could hear movement but struggled to make out anyone in the darkness. He tried to put together a time frame. It was dark already, but then on Vermasse that was the norm. He twisted his head, scanning his surroundings for some sort of reference. Usually, the city’s lights and sun-gens would create an aura of daylight. But many of those lights had gone, leaving a growing black on the landscape. He reached for his Protean but saw it had been destroyed in the fall. The wave of anger and pain that had been threatening for so long boiled over and he cried out in frustration, tossing the useless device at the floor.
“Calm down. At least no bones were broken. Ladislav here already checked you out.” The soldier flung a gloved hand behind him, but Xavier couldn’t see who he pointed at.
Isais saw his confusion and shouted into the night. “Ladislav, glasses!”
Someone in the darkness grunted and Xavier saw something flash through the air. Isais caught the item and handed it to Xavier. He put the glasses on and suddenly the world around him became a little more visible, the glasses’ night-vision giving a dull light to his surroundings. Xavier could make out Isais and another man, standing behind him tall and imposing.
“What did you see? Can you tell us what happened here?”
Xavier considered the question and used the time to study the two men. The first, Isais, was slim but everything about the man's athletic frame screamed speed and power. The second soldier was perhaps the largest man Xavier had ever seen. Both men were encased in armor, though to Xavier’s eye it was difficult to tell the color. It seemed to constantly shift between black and gray and deep green. The men were armed, too. Heavily. Xavier lost count of the number of gun handles and blade hilts melded into the men’s suits. Whoever they were, they weren’t from Vermasse. That much was obvious.
“Who are you?” he whispered again.
“Enough. Time is of the essence here. The Vruhr attacked your planet. There was an explosion. Now we’re here. Fill in the gaps. What happened? What do you remember?”
“They attacked the town. My family are still there, you have to help me get to them!” He pushed himself to his feet, as memories began to flood back.
“One step at a time,” Isais said.
Something, the night air perhaps, caused Xavier to shiver.
“What else can you tell us?” This time Ladislav spoke.
“If I tell you, will you help my family?” Xavier pleaded.
“We’re not here to make bargains.” There was a flatness to Isais’ tone when he spoke.
“They came out of nowhere.” Xavier was careful to keep his voice calm. “They landed in the town. Hundreds of them. Thousands maybe. They killed…they killed…people. Lots of people.”
“We know that. Do you know what they were looking for? Did you see anything strange, something that could help us?” Isais pressed.
Xavier pictured again the tall, helmetless Vruhr. Saw once more the dark skin and long limbs as it stretched towards...
“The laboratory,” Xavier whispered. Then louder. “They centered on the laboratory. Whatever they want is there.”
There was a slight glance from Isais towards Ladislav, and Xavier saw something unspoken pass between them.
“OK.”
Ok. That one little word gave Xavier a fluttering of hope.
“Do you think you can get us there?” This time it was Ladislav that spoke.
“Yes,” Xavier responded immediately. “My parents work there.”
A look flashed across Isais’ face then, but before Xavier could understand it, the look was gone. He was left wondering if he had merely imagined it.
“What are their names?” Isais asked.
“What?” Xavier responded, puzzled by the unexpected question.
“Their names,” repeated Isais.
Xavier felt the hairs on his arms raise.
“My mother is Adrijana, my father is Tanner. Albion. Adrijana and Tanner Albion,” he said, ignoring the growing sense of unease that he felt. “They are scientists, just scientists. They help grow crops.”
“Ok.” That word again. “You get us to the laboratory. We’ll see about finding your parents.”
Xavier knew he should feel relief at Isais’ promise, so it unsettled him that all he felt was unease. A fear that he had missed something important in their conversation nagged at him.
Before he could say anything, two more soldiers flowed out of the dull night. Xavier blinked. They wore the same fitted armor as Isais and Ladislav and moved like phantoms, quiet and menacing. Their armor, too, constantly shifted between grays and greens, as if trying to blend with the ever-changing shades of Vermasse.
“We can’t take him, Isais. He’s untrained,” the smallest of the group spoke. A woman, Xavier realized.
“He knows the way,” Isais responded dismissively.
“It will be dangerous.”
Isais didn’t respond.
“I’m a military recruit. I can handle a weapon.” Xavier’s voice cut through the silence. He regretted speaking almost immediately, but he had no desire to be left behind. “I can show you how to get to the laboratory and I can get you in. I have security clearance," Xavier lied.
Isais looked at him, his face once more hidden behind smooth armor, decorated with soft glowing orbs that seemed to turn on and off at will. Xavier fought down the urge to look away and kept his eyes locked on that robotic face.
“There you go. You see Rada?” Isais spun to face the smaller woman. “He has security clearance.” He turned back to Xavier. “Oh, and one more thing. If you fall behind, we leave you. If you make a sound, we leave you. If you get caught, we leave you.” Isais didn’t wait to hear Xavier’s response.
“Paavo, take point. Rada, Ladislav- sweep a perimeter. Keep quiet. Keep hidden. If you see any scouts or outliers, take them out. Quietly,” he emphasized the last word.
Without so much as a glance back, Isais and his squad slipped off into the night. Xavier stumbled after them, amazed at the stealth and speed with which the four moved. He had been hiking these trails for as long as he could remember, yet he struggled to keep up with the commandos. Conscious of Isais’ warning about remaining quiet and nervous of losing the man and his ever-shifting armor in the darkness, Xavier upped his pace, following into what he feared would be certain death. In front of him, flames from the burning town threw up a sinister inferno on the skyline.
“Please be safe,” he whispered softly into the night.