Prologue III

Admiral Lemitov watched in wide eyed horror, as an unknown fissure was created seemingly out of nowhere. Worse, this fissure proceeded to release wave after wave of Prolaxian horrors to the universe. There was no build up, no spatial anomalies, no buildup of energy particles. Instead, there was just nothingness one second. Then the next there were monsters.

Worse, the one cadet seemed to recognize something was wrong. He had moved towards the intended location, but how? And why? Had he been able to see something? The cadet in question was known to the admiral by this point. In fact, part of why he had volunteered to be out here for support was to get a glance at this up and coming pilot. A pilot who scored perfect marks and even managed to test out of their Psionic, and Magical aptitude tests on their first day.

There were even more oddities about the boy, from the way he seemed to possess ancient knowledge on how the song Endar Rising was to be played. To suddenly awakening from his first temple run, being fluent in all major space faring languages. He was also getting special training from General Sharma herself on helping to increase his proficiency with Precognition. The candidate was an asset, that much was for sure.

The only problem was, could the student live up to the hype. He had heard of the escapades as a Freelance healer for the MAC. So much potential in one person. He had been lost in his own musings when the whole rip in space happened.

“Everyone to action stations.” The Admiral found himself bellowing orders, almost on reflex at this point.

Fortunately, despite his momentary delay, his men were already giving orders and sending out an intercepting squadron of ships.

Still there would be time before two things happened. First the Khardashian flagship began elevating their attack angle by changing their intercepting vector to be at a much higher angle. This would hopefully make it so the fleeing cadets would not be caught up in the supporting suppressive fire laid out by the flagship.

Within moments, they were in proper position to avoid friendly fire. Where they opened targeting with a barrage of attack and ranged projectiles. At least that was the plan.

The only problem was as soon as they managed to maneuver their vessel into proper supporting position a minute had passed by. This was a lifetime in a space battle and was quickly proven by the devastation that they were now witness to.

“DIIIEEE!” The distinct scream of Heal Boy came through the PA system. But rather than being a repeat of his MAC fighting event, this was him unleashing what could only be called pure hatred and visceral at the invading menace.

The moment monsters appeared from the rend in space itself, monsters feel lifeless. Their corpses moving freely one second, then lifelessly spinning away the next. A relentless pace, new of new monsters entering, while old ones died.

Just when the Admiral was going to ask what was happening, his Lead Tech engineer spoke up.

“Psionic readings are indicating high attack waves. Whatever is being thrown down there, it is nearly off the scales in terms of power and magnitude.”

“Is that the boy?” The XO asked, no one in particular. The crew all knew why they were here, this was a scouting mission. A chance to get a prize candidate before things got out of control. Ideally, they could take him here now, with a quick enlistment package and be done with it.

“What is that?” The lead Technical Engineer spoke.

“What is what?” Lemitov asked.

“There is something coming through, something that is beyond the scope of the others?”

“Is it the creature creating the rifts?”

“Negative, at least that doesn’t appear to be the case. These are far more powerful than the anchor points. We have identified them as being just beyond the opening of the fissure. If we fire projectiles through the fissure at an angle, we might be able to disrupt the anchor point.”

“Cadet Goldman, get your ass back in formation and get out of here!” DI Hopewell screamed his orders.

Hearing that Lemitov smiled at the obvious care and concern being shown for the cadet. Feeling this was his moment to make his recruitment pitch, the Admiral jumped.

“Cadet Goldman, you are performing admirably. Rest assured; we have it from here.”

“With all due respect…” The cadet began. Due to their distance, it took a second for the actions of the cadet to be visible to their sensors, but the cadet was already flying forward.

“What are you doing boy, turn around now!” The Admiral shouted, not wanting to lose such an asset.

“That won’t close the…” He trailed off.

Silence.

There was a moment of silence as the small craft was lost in the pile of dead and lifeless bodies of the prolaxians. Bodies that would have to be collected, catalogued, and then purged twice.

“Admiral. Something is going on with the anchor point.” The Tech engineer said.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know, they seem to be masking it or…” He trailed off as his voice seemed to pick up what was happening. “No wait.”

Silence.

“Any day now Captain.” Lemitov said, trying to coax his Tech Engineer to continue his prognosis.

“The anchor point, it isn’t hidden. It is destroyed. The fissure is destabilizing.” The Tech Engineer said.

Then sure enough the random fissure in space began to seal itself shut. Like a wound filled with neon green puss slowly began to seal itself.

“He, did it?” The XO called out.

“He did it. At least that is what our readouts are saying.”

Woohoo!

Cheers were let out on the deck, as it appeared the worst was over. There had been a random occurrence, but true danger had been averted.

“Come on, let’s move in, to conduct security and purging procedures.” The Admiral shouted, trying to get his men to focus. While the Prolaxians had all been killed once, there was still a chance they would all be able to come back again. Better to be diligent the first time.

“Wait, sir there is more. I am still reading two powerful anomalies that managed to pass through the rift before it fully sealed.”

“Two anomalies?”

“Yes sir. It seems that these are somehow resistant to whatever it was that the candidate was doing.”

“Fire at the creatures.”

“We can’t, our firing solutions indicate that the candidate is too close.”

“Cadet Goldman, I repeat cadet Goldman, evacuate the attack area immediately. This is an order!” Admiral Lemitov said.

.

Silence.

Everyone held their breath as they waited for what to do next.

“We have no choice but to fire. Clearing the field is more important than one promising young cadet.”

“Understood sir. Firing solution locked.”

One heartbeat. Two heartbeats.

It felt like they were about to wait for an eternity.

Finally, the time came when the admiral’s mental clock reached its limit, and he could not stall any longer. “Fire.”