Planet Omega

Prologue

TW: Excessive swearing, violence, death, alcohol & drug use, thoughts of suicide, mentions of abuse/sexual abuse (this is not an exhaustive list). Read at your own risk. 

We all began on another planet, one that should have taken us all down with it when it burned up in a fiery rage. We had no business living longer than that. We certainly had no business colonizing elsewhere, murdering, ravaging, taking.

It wasn't ours. Yet, we'd felt entitled, simply because it was there. Humans had always done that well, all throughout history - taking things that didn't belong to them.

No matter the cost.

"Run."

Violence is in our blood, every single one of us descended from the millions of humans who'd dared survive after Earth could take no more of them.

"Run now, and don't look back."

The eternal contradiction that life simply could not exist without death, nor death without life. A double-edged sword. A two-sided coin. The problem mankind has worked hard to eradicate.

"Callisto, go!"

There is no colonization without murder. No empire without fear-mongering. No hope for any shred of goodness that remained on our god-forsaken planet. They took the last glimmer of light, and snuffed it out before it could infect the people with something real. They murdered the last sliver of humanity left in their hearts.

"Lineya!"

We cursed this planet the moment we dared set foot on its soil. We slaughtered its people, shed blood for power. We desecrated and devastated until we were the only ones left who had a say.

And for what?

So that the purest of all of us would be hunted down to the corners of the planet, put on display like a sick sideshow, and then left at the mercy of a depraved population?

"Don't hurt her! Please! Please don't!"

Witches. They threw that word around like it meant something. Like it was a vile sound that had come up their throats. Like it was the most disgusting and monstrous thing anyone could ever be.

So then why had the only person in the world who'd ever loved me, who I ever loved, been hunted like a beast? Why was she stripped naked so her tattoo runes, insignias, and marks were on display for all to see? Why was she about to be added to the tally of the millions they'd already slaughtered?

"She's human! Don't punish her for my sins! She's only a child!"

Mankind should never have made it this far. It didn't deserve to be given a second chance. We should have burned. All of our ancestors should have burned for their wicked and cruel acts.

Because this wasn't justice. The deafening sound of a dagger being unsheathed that echoed in the coliseum wasn't justice. The gore that sprayed and splattered all over the sun-bleached and blood-stained cement wasn't justice. The head of Lineya the Mage that was held up and set on a pike while the crowd roared and cheered wasn't justice.

All of it was pure, unadulterated wickedness.

Lineya's insignia tattoo burned furiously over my chest.

"Kill me! Kill me, too!"

It would have been the safer option for them.

I might be human, but I'd lost my humanity the moment I witnessed true horror.

We never should have taken what wasn't ours. We never should have lasted this long. Lucky for all of them, we won't.

Because nowhere on Planet Omega will be safe when I'm done with all of them. That's a promise.