The Void

Prologue

I let the lines of busy, flustered people surge by, lines of carts selling odd contraptions were packing up and moving out. The lines only seemed to be getting longer and longer, I had no idea why they were in such a hurry. The smell of smoke drifted, lazily on the air, this only seemed to make the people more tense. Minutes passed and you could see thick, black smoke rising and flames lapping at the buildings. I now knew that we were under attack.

Large ships drifted overhead firing lasers from all sides, those were Andreyan star ships. The ships have two large pairs of wings stretching 300 feet in wingspan, the cockpit had one soldier in it. That one soldier controlled the whole ship, the fleet was at least 100 ships strong. They were from our neighboring system, they haven't always been the friendliest toward us but, This was totally uncalled for, attacking unprovoked. I saw the fear in the people's eyes that were running beside me. Fires were starting and explosions knocked people down and blowing them apart.

I heard a loud, docile voice that rang out above the screams saying, "emergency escape pod is taking of in five minutes."An emergency escape ship was taking off in five minutes, I would have to run to get there on time. The lines of panicked people were only getting longer and longer, if I stayed behind I would become a slave for the Andreyans, or a pile of dead bones. If I made it to the escape ship I might actually make it out alive, if I didn't die of shock of course. If I was to make it to the ship, I would have to ram through the crowd of people.

I went with that idea, I didn't fancy dying if I didn't have to. I started my run toward the ship, I knew I'll be cutting it close. All the sudden I heard the sound of gunshots and screaming. The Andreyan troops were on the ground, my race was being slaughtered. I couldn't do anything about it. I was about 100 feet shy of the escape ship, I was going to make it!

"Pod doors closing in 30 seconds," said the ship's PA system.

I heard many screams flare up around me, they were panicking even more now. I felt an elbow to the back and was suddenly pushed along toward the ship. If I kept going at this pace I won't make it. I wanted other Libbayans to make it, but I knew a lot of them would be captured. Everyone was running still, I was only 20 feet shy of the ship.

The clicking of claws against the stone bricks underfoot was deafening, but I managed to look up and saw a rain of tranquilizer darts coming from a ship to hit everyone below. "LOOK OUT!" I screamed at the top of my raw lungs, but I was too late hundreds of Libbayans were falling around me. A sharp pain drove into the base of my tail and, everything went black. The last thing I remembered was screams and hot blood raining down upon me.