The space pirate Respyn had come to Kitania for a job. Since Kitania was relatively new on the galactic stage many people had taken an interest in them, and some of those interested parties had unsavory goals.

Respyn had a reputation for making a scene, but he always accomplished what you paid him for. If a stealthy mission was desired, he was the wrong man for the job, but if you wanted a person kidnapped, an enemy murdered, or an object stolen, Respyn would get the job done in a messy spectacle.

Retrieving an object was the job he was on currently. A collector of exotic animals had caught wind of the eggs from Kitania’s festival and thought they would make an excellent addition to his collection. Whether the story of monsters being contained in them was true, or if they were just lifeless objects used for the ceremony, this didn’t matter to the collector. The story that came along with them was just too much to pass up, and if they were indeed lifeless they would still fit in well amongst his collection of fossils and stuffed creatures.

Respyn’s plan to grab the eggs had gone off perfectly. He set up the explosion to create a panic, and then casually hopped on stage grabbing his prize. Peaceful planets like Kitania were some of Respyn’s favorites to work on. The fear of conflict had long since been forgotten, so when something shatters the people’s peaceful times they shut down. There were no soldiers or guards keeping watch over the event. Just normal, weak, everyday people with no experience with conflict.

While the snatching of the eggs had gone off flawlessly, Respyn was aware that the space around Kitania was different. The people on the planet might only know peace, but the soldiers aboard the orbiting space station were familiar with battle. While they may not have experienced a real war, they were trained for it and tasted a small battle or two. Respyn knew getting out of Kitania’s orbit would pose a bit of a challenge.

While Respyn was prepared for a fight, he was still confident he would escape. He had seen plenty of firefights in his line of work, more than any Kitanian soldier. His piloting skills were excellent, as was his shooting ability. On top of skill and experience, he had an ace up his sleeve that he knew the Kitanian’s had no way to counter

As an alarm rang on the space station orbiting Kitania, soldiers scrambled to get to their battleships. These small single-pilot ships were built with speed and mobility in mind. Their weapons weren’t as strong as what could be put into larger ships, but their objective now was to chase down a thief.

The soldiers were shocked when the alarm initially rang out. Just like the people on Kitania, the soldiers in the space station were also enjoying the holiday. When an announcement was made over the intercom informing the soldiers that the eggs of their historical heroes Gil and Iora had been stolen they all quickly jumped to their feet.

One such soldier was Lura Farjor-Grekian. She quickly covered her brown skin with her military uniform and placed a cap atop her head. As the hat sat snugly on her crimson-haired head, two holes were in the top of the cap to allow Kitanian’s antennae to go through. Along with her fellow soldiers she rushed into the cockpit of her ship, and flew out of the space station.

Lura was born in a famous military family. Her father and grandfather had both made names for themselves in the military, and her career had been chosen for her before she was born. Maintaining the reputation of the Farjor name was her top priority, beaten into her by her father from a young age.

The “Grekian” part of her name was actually a title bestowed upon her grandfather decades ago. Having your family given the name of the current ruler was one of the highest honors on Kitania, and proved how much her grandfather had accomplished. While her father was never bestowed a royal name of his own, he achieved much and had risen up the ranks until he was stationed off-world escorting a Kitonian ambassador.

Once her ship had taken flight, Lura looked towards her radar. Command center at the space station had spotted Respyn's getaway ship, and had marked it as an enemy ship. Now all the Kitanian pilots could tell Respyn's ship from their own. Dozens of blue dots on the radar showed the Kitanian ships, and the red dot showed Respyn. Lura wasted no time in chasing down Respyn, as did the other Kitanians.

While many soldiers were furious that such significant historical relics had been stolen, and wanted nothing more than to protect this important part of their culture, Lura's intentions were less pure. For her, rising through the ranks was all that mattered. Many fellow soldiers who had tried to befriend Lura quickly became enemies as she did whatever she could to rise above them. The eggs she was chasing after held no significance to her, but she knew if she were the one to capture the thief she would be rewarded greatly.

The number of ships following Respyn were what he expected. Only a few dozen small ships manned by a single pilot followed him. Eventually, Respyn intended to warp out of Kitanian space, but for a small ship like his it takes significant time to build up enough energy to make such a jump. In the meantime all he could do was fend off his pursuers, which he had ample confidence he could do.

With nothing but empty space in front of him, Respyn set his ship to continue traveling forward automatically. The seat he was in rotated 180° facing a single joystick. The cockpit of his ship was set atop the ship and was a transparent dome, making it so he had a full view of his surroundings.

Respyn grabbed the joystick in front of him which controlled a pair of blasters at the back of the ship. The ship was old and battered, so the accuracy of the weaponry wasn't what it used to be fresh off the construction line. Respyn had grown accustomed to its inaccuracies though, and was able to take that into account while firing without even thinking about it anymore.

Taking aim at the nearest pursuing ship, Respyn fired a laser from one of the ship's rear blasters. The blast hit the ship's right wing causing it to spin off course. Without missing a beat, Respyn took aim at the next ship and fired. This one made a direct hit to the cockpit.

Respyn let out a twisted laugh as he continued shooting down ships like he was playing a game.

Orders from the space station rang out over the coms of all Kitanian ships, "multiple ships are down, we are going to have the remaining soldiers split into three groups. Two groups will attempt to flank the ship from the left and right, while the other group will remain in the back. The group in the back will begin a counter attack. We have been given permission to go all out and have been assured that no matter what attacks we make the eggs will be able to withstand them.

"Please look at your onboard computer to see which group you will be a part of."

Lura looked to her computer, just next to her radar, and saw she was assigned to the group who will attack from behind. To cover the two groups breaking off, Lura, as well as other soldiers following from behind, began firing at the ship in front of them.

An orchestra of beams flew from the Kitanian's ships toward the fleeing space pirate, but before making contact the beams ran into a translucent shield surrounding the ship. Through the barrage of Kitanian shots a few shots from Respyn's ship would pick off a Kitanian or two. They continued firing upon the pirate ship, as their only hopes at stopping the ship were to waddle down its shields.

Kitania had been space bound for a century now, but they were still not nearly as technologically advanced as societies that had been traveling the stars before the Kitanian's had built their first spaceship. Their technology had advanced greatly since meeting other civilizations, but their knowledge, and especially their available resources, were not yet on par with even the standard space outlaw.

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They had a basic understanding of how shields like Respyn's worked, but were unable to recreate it using their technology. They had attempted to integrate an existing shield generator they had bought off a merchant, but putting two very different technologies wasn't as easy as putting two puzzle pieces together.

Eventually the Kitanian government had forgone using the foreign technology and had spent decades trying to adapt the technology to be recreated using materials Kitanian's had access too. This had proven difficult and only within recent years had they gotten a working prototype made.

The Kitanian military did have experience fighting against those with shield generators, so they knew they had their limits.

Shield generators use energy to create a shield, and every attack that hits the shield disperses some of the energy. If you hit the shield with attacks faster than it can reproduce the lost energy, then holes will begin forming in the shield.

Lura along with her fellow soldiers continued to fire upon Respyn's ship, and Respyn continued firing upon them. His ability to aim had caught Lura's attention. While every shot wasn't necessarily critical to their Kitonian ships, each shot he took hit his target.

The other two groups of ships had successfully positioned themselves on either side of Respyn, and now they also began firing upon him. With the three groups all laying into the shield generator they were finally destroying it faster than it could generate, and shots began making it through.

Continuing her assault, Lura never stopped firing at Respyn even as many ships around her were picked off. As his shield falters one of her shots made it through, hitting his ship. Almost as if paying her back, Respyn fired a shot at Lura hitting the top of her ship.

Then, Respyn's counter attack stopped, and his ship began slowing down. Static rang out in Lura's communications, the blast she had been hit with hit a vital part of her comms, leaving it broken.

This had left Lura unable to hear the warning all the other pilots had gotten. The ships that had been on the left and right of Respyn had zipped ahead when he slowed down, and after the call all the other ships received, those following behind started moving away.

By the time Lura had noticed all her fellow soldiers making distance, it was too late. She had gotten within a few meters of Respyn's ship, so when a bubble supported his ship preparing to warp him, Lura was caught up in it.

In the blink of an eye, Respyn and Lura were gone.

Lura, who had never traveled at light speed before, was unable to comprehend what had happened. In the span of 15 seconds she had gotten within spitting distance of Respyn's ship, seen thousands of lights whip past her view, and then stop. That was the reason she didn't let up on firing at Respyn's ship. If she had known she was light-years away from her planet with no way to call back she likely would have panicked.

The power used to make the jump had left the shield of Respyn's ship unable to recover as quickly as normal, so for a brief moment every attack Lura fired passed through Respyn's shields. Respyn's ship had already taken a beating from the barrage of attacks back in Kitanian space, and this attack pushed his ship to its breaking point.

An explosion broke out in the cockpit of Respyn's ship. Then two larger explosions happened below the cockpit, where the mechanisms of the ship were. Respyn's ship blew apart in front of the stranded Kitanian soldiers eyes, and she watched as they began falling towards an unfamiliar planet they were near.

Lura looked toward the planet and its surroundings, realizing she was in an unfamiliar place. She reached for her communications device to try calling back to the space station she lived and worked on, but there was no response.

A blue planet with only one moon. She had never seen it before, or heard talk of it from her superiors who had more experience traveling into far out space.

After collecting herself for a moment she turned her ship towards the planet. Her radar showed her where the remains of Respyn's ship were falling, so she decided she would head to the surface to try recovering the stolen eggs. It was necessary for her to land anyway to see if the damage to her ship was minimal enough that she could repair her communications and send a message back to Kitania.

On Earth, in a small American town, there was a boy. Every night he would climb to the top of a large hill that sits beside the forest. He sets up a telescope and looks up to the stars, fantasizing about what could be out there.

This particular night the boy thought he was extremely lucky. As he was observing the night sky from his usual spot, something out of the ordinary happened. He saw a shooting star. And then another one. Before he knew it there were a dozen lights streaking across the sky.

He was in awe from the beautiful sight, but before long that awe became panic. Those shooting stars were no longer streaking across the sky, instead they were flying in his direction.

His first instinct was to run home, so leaving his telescope behind he started running down the hill along his usual path. Before he could make it down the hill though, a series of loud crashing sounds erupted behind him. The loud sounds scared the boy causing him to trip and tumble down the hill a ways.

Once he was back on his feet he looked back to the sky to see nothing but the still stars he was accustomed to. Thinking they must have all fallen he made his way back up the hill.

Back at the top of the hill the boy stood next to his telescope once again. The hill had remained untouched, but the large forest beside it wasn't so lucky. From his vantage point the boy could see a few trees knocked down in various parts of the forest as well as some smoke billowing out from the trees.

A curious boy with a fascination with the unknown had just seen stars rain down from the sky. The fear he had just a moment ago was gone. The only feeling left was glees as he ran towards the nearest damaged part of the forest to see what he could find.

The excitement of what he could find was moving his legs faster than the fear for his life did moments ago.

Is it a meteorite? A satellite? Or could it actually be an alien spacecraft? These thoughts filled the boy's mind as he ran full speed through the woods, hopping left or right when a tree was in front of him.

Finally, the Boy reached a part of the forest where many trees had been knocked over. Some trees had snapped in the middle, having been hit during the fall. Others were uprooted and fully knocked down.

In the midst of this mess was a long trail of kicked up dirt, where the object had skidded across the ground. The boy followed the trail for around 20 feet until he saw at the end of the trail a mound of dirt.

The boy approached the mound, kneeled beside it and started to brush away the dirt, revealing the object buried beneath it. It was the largest egg the boy had ever seen, as well as a strange color. The boy picked up the large egg with both hands, it was heavy, but not as heavy as he had expected. As he held the egg in front of him, turning it to inspect every inch, the light from the moon shone down on the egg. As the boy twisted and turned the egg the colors changed depending on the angle he was looking at it from and the amount of light that shone on it.

After observing the egg for a while, the boy quickly jumped to his feet. "I have to show this to mom," the boy said, before running back the way he came. The excited grin on his face glowing almost as brightly as the moon in the sky.

The pirate Respyn laid on the cold forest floor. Despite the damage his ship had received, his cockpits' emergency decoupling had saved him.

The landing wasn't pretty, and the hole blown into the cockpit meant many of his possessions had been sucked outside during the fall. This included one of the eggs he had stolen, but luckily he had managed to grab the other one before he lost it too.

Respyn picked himself up as best he could, using the tree beside him as support. He was sure bones had been broken, and he had lost a lot of blood before using the ship's first aid kit to seal his wounds.

He would have loved to continue laying on the cool ground, but he knew he had been followed. After the warp speed jump Respyn was sure he was in the clear, the man who hired him had assured him that Kitania didn't have warp speed technology. Somehow though, he was followed here. And his trusty ship had finally been done in.

He looked around at the remains of the cockpit of his ship. "Tch," he clicked his tongue and set out.

Respyn didn't know where he was going, but he knew if he stayed here he would be captured. His plan was to wander as long as he possibly could in his state, and then collect himself and think of a plan another day.

The space pirate, with the remaining egg held against his side with his ungloved right hand, wandered into the unknown forest before him.