Hybrid, Prologue: The Last Battle

Prologue:
The Last Battle

  In a room filled with glowing crystals, a tyrian reptilian man, Seiton, sat in his high throne engraved with gargoyles. He held a glass map of the Milky Way Galaxy and smiled deliciously as his beady red eyes skimmed the surface of its black and shaded portions.

  Only this star system, Navi was highlighted blue. He touched that star for interface and an image of planet Okma flickered above the map. This planet had native ships flying around it like bees warning each other of danger.

  “Spacers,” the man spoke. “All your worlds are destroyed by my touch. Your corpses are disintegrated by my footsteps. You don’t stand a chance in the universe. Now, my Titan Empire has become my galaxy against your world. You will all perish.”

  A spiky armored-Titan entered the room. “Lord Seiton, my men are ready.”

  His throne creaked as Seiton turned to the soldier and smiled. “Excellent, activate the relay and set our course to Okma. It is time the Spacers all die.”

  “Yes, my lord,” the soldier bowed and hurried out of the room.

  Meanwhile, the last fleet of Spacer cruisers formed a shield around their home world. They appeared as a set of three large blue glass spheres connected by gold rails on each side with wings. There, they waited in the atmosphere for their enemies to close in.

  Some distance away, a white speck appeared and spread outward into a vortex. Violet streams of electricity shot out as swarms of sharp corners emerged out of the void. The Titans' movements were sharp, precise, and cut through the defense wall. Spacer ships fell as a storm of shooting stars. The Titans mercilessly spread the full extent of their invasion upon the people of Okma. Wildfires burned across the land.

    Gaion, the only remaining city, stood tall in this growing storm. The tallest tower in this last city quickly spread an orange force field in an attempt to hold back the ships' attack. To buy more time, the remaining Spacers activated their turrets. Blue beams pierced through the overhanging clouds of destruction. The first line of Titan cruisers disintegrated upon contact. Hundreds remained. Angered, they fired and the Spacer's shields wavered until it shattered like thin glass.

    The Spacers ran out of the city amidst the collapsing buildings and raging fires. The Titan ships landed and their troops ran after them. The Spacers ran through the burning forest as the tall, grey-skinned Titans gained on them. The Spacers soldiers fired their rifles' particle beams as they ran. Burning trees fell like dominoes, forcing them slide under.

    As the Spacers found themselves in a desert of ash, a few of them threw gamma grenades, which vaporized a couple rows of Titans. Many of the Titans retreated, having had their armor torn apart, revealing their glowing open wounds. Some hacked away burning trees with their swords with electrical blades. A couple released lightning bolts from their hands and blasted a path out of the forest.

    As the Spacers fled, they caught a glimpse of an iron step pyramid. The Spacers were knocked down as Titan tanks plunged from the sky and smashed into the surface like meteorites. These resembled giant king crabs with eight high legs attached to a spherical body and two particle accelerator cannons as pincers. With agility and speed, the Spacers leaped onto them and tossed their last grenades into the accelerators. They jumped off and took cover as the tanks exploded.

    The Spacers, hidden in the pyramid, grabbed ionic machine guns from the armory and aimed them out of the openings. On their scope, they spotted three of their comrades running toward them with a wave of Titans behind. Two of them opened the bunker and fired cosmic ray launchers. Then balls of lightning shot out of the weapons, ripping enemy ships apart. The running Spacers sprinted to the open the vehicle entrance and pushed a button to seal themselves inside.

    In the bunker, the computer screens that covered the walls showed the planetary defense systems failing as more Titan ships entered Okma’s orbit from the open rift. The Spacers fleet had been destroyed, along with the cities. Some soldiers loaded their weapons in a dark armory and ran to the windows to fire at the Titans. The others were at the back of the bunker repairing their tanks. These looked like blue, glowing fighter jets with bulky accelerators instead of wings.

    One soldier touched the back of his neck. The nanobots of his diamond armor released the latches. Steam hissed out of the opening. He lifted his helmet off. His snow white skin touched the air. Tattoos cyan icicles scarred the Spacer's neck and forehead. He revealed his pale face with purple flame tattoos on his cheeks. His hand passed the long white hair to touch his communicator implant in his ear.

    "Captain Carato,” he yelled through the firestorm. “Corporal Fedlo, here. We are pinned at north of the Atla Region."

    Captain Carato responded, "I'll contact Councilor Feidlima to get your men out of here. Once she finds you, follow her into the Ark. Hold the Titans off as long as you can."

    A woman dressed in a thin-skinned diamond suit awoke to find herself under a pile of burning metal scraps. She turned her head around to look for her helmet. She frowned. It was crushed to bits by the rubble. It was dark and so she closed her artificial eyes and her vision changed to night vision.

    Her eyes widened as a tank opened hissing a vapor of toxic green gas. I got to get out of here she thought. She coughed as her lungs burned through suffocation. Water dripped cold onto her face. Pushing the button at the side of her waist, the dripping water was absorbed into her suit. Finally, mist shot out of out her hand and ice sealed the leaking tank. She breathed with relief as the air gap cooled.

    She looked up and saw a small hole with a light beaming down to her. With all her strength regained, she pushed the rubble up and got up on her feet. She bent and punched the hole to make it bigger. After she was able to climb out of the scraps, she found herself in the middle of Gaion, now just a mountain range of rubble.

    "Feidlima, are you there?" Her communicator vibrated in her ear.

    She touched her ear. "Yes, Captain Carato. What's the situation?"

    Captain Carato said, "Most of us are at the Ark. Corporal Fedlo and his team are being bombarded at one of our bunkers. They want to get escorted to the Ark and they need you!"

    "Give me the coordinates to the bunker," said Feidlima. Five seconds later, a holographic map projected out of her wrist. Looking at where she was as compared to the bunker. She put her hands in the city's last leaking water reservoir and absorbed the water into her suit. Sprinting through the burning forest, she put the fire out by spewing mist out of her palms.

    She got out of the other side of the forest and leaped to the top of a sand dune. There the Titans were firing at the Spacers' bunker with their tanks. Her eye implants zoomed in close to the bunker. As she looked, the cosmic launcher-wielding Spacers continued to fire at more approaching Titan fighter ships. More tanks flew down to the ground to blow up the bunker. One Titan fired his sniper and hit a couple of magazines of the Spacers’ machine guns, electrocuting three Spacers. The soldiers regrouped and continued to fight.

    Feidlima ran up to the Titans' side of the battlefield and placed her hand on the ground. Blue mists spewed from the arm of her suit, causing the opponent's side to transform into a frozen landscape. More Titans stepped onto the ice and crystallized into frozen sculptures.

    A few more Titans dove from their ships and she fired radiated ice bullets from her pistol at them. As the projectiles struck them, they froze and smashed into pieces when their bodies crashed to the surface. Other Titans charged at her and she pressed her hands firmly to the ground. Her hands glowed and she waved them around and aimed for the ground. Stakes of ice pinned more of them. A couple of surviving Titans charged at her, but she impaled them with her ice blades from her arms.

    Fedlo and the others bowed to her as she entered the bunker. He said, "Councilor Feidlima, twenty-five of my soldiers died."

    "You did what you could," said Feidlima. "We must reach the Ark. Councilor Cade had his men hack the Titans' gates, sending every fleet of their ships into this region."

    Fedlo's eyes widened, finding this news nothing short of insane. "You transported them from across the galaxy to here? They will wipe us out."

    "They will if we don't activate the portal in time," she warned. "Now hurry!"

    Under her order, Fedlo rushed to the control panels. He quickly looked around to find the self-destruct button. Other soldiers ran out just as the Titans bashing against the door shook the bunker. He placed his hand on a red square for self-destruction and trembled to the back of the bunker. As he got to the exit, Feidlima grabbed his hand and they sprinted back to the group. They ran as fast as possible towards the Ark. He grabbed his binoculars and zoomed in to see the Titans burst into the bunker. Through the scope, the Titans disintegrated as the bunker exploded.

    Columns of smoke rose from mountains of ash and dust as the Spacers passed by. Their vehicles skid from the ground’s shaking. Within minutes, they came upon a massive golden pyramid with engraved writings. The white tip brightened to the countdown for the Ark’s launch.

    Fedlo's men rushed out of the convoy and headed to the top while Feidlima stayed behind, freezing everything. Titan fighter ships locked target on her. A male Spacer with a cannon shaped like a Van de Graaff generator shot them down.

    Feidlima ran up to him. "Thank you, Judus!"

    Judus grabbed her hand. "Come on!"

    Feidlima and Judus looked up and another wave of Titan ships came out of the rift. The last Spacer fleet hovered above the Ark and then flew into its hangar. The rest of the Councilors-- Teutor, Cuno, and their leader, Cade, guarded the entrance at the top as they waited for them.

    Once everyone was together, they rushed inside just as the Titans closed in on them. The control room was constructed of glass and had five enormous columns. A narrow projector in the floor displayed a holographic image of their galaxy. Lights all over the room represented the cables.

    "This is it," said Cade. "Time to banish the Titans to Tartarus!"

    "Five of our transporting gates have been installed as engines for the Ark. These will get us out of this system as fast as possible," said Teutor. He punched in the codes at the side of the control panel in front of him.

    "Activate the portal, now!" Feidlima screamed.

    Five multicolored domes emerged from the panel before the council. Each Spacer touched the one before them. Immediately, hundreds of moon-sized panels circled around the stellar region to create a planet - encompassing ring which in turn created a vortex to swallow both the entire planet and Titan fleet.

    The Titans were caught off guard as the vortex was formed. They tried to fly away from the planet, but it began growing. Their open rift also fed on it making the vortex grow faster. The Titans tried to give their ship all the power they had to warp themselves out of the system. But it was no use; the vortex swallowed them up faster than they could escape.

    The Spacers looked at their galaxy map for a new planet to resettle. Their planet was being pulled in by the vortex. Cade touched a planet within the Navi system and everyone grabbed a hold of something as the Ark shook from the vibrating gates.

    The control panels split in half and a glowing white column emerged from between them. It flashed and beeped rhythmically, indicating that someone was trying to make contact. As they answered it, an image of Seiton appeared before them. His beastly eyes glowed red with hatred. Cracks glowed from his goat horns. His cape opened to reveal his lightning bolt medallion hung over his chest. Miniature gadgets popped in and out as he stared at the Councilors.

    "Spacers," Seiton snarled in disgust. "What have you done?"

    "We are banishing you from the galaxy!" Cade shouted.

    "I will be back before long," his eyes narrowed as he pointed at them. "Soon, I will find the Cradle of Light and recreate all in accordance to my own will!"

    Feidlima looked into his devilish eyes and the implants shock within her head. She clutched her own eyes, falling to the floor. Cade touched the glowing column and the Spacer gates launched them out to safety. Seiton snarled as the transmission ended. "I will return!"

    Cade and Teutor ran up to Feidlima just as the Ark started to spin. Nearly every Spacer was strapped against as the wall. The portals had enough force to propel the Ark away from the growing vortex. It was then shot away from the region and into the other side of the galaxy. The Titans were finally exiled.

    The last Spacers unstrapped themselves and looked out the window. After fighting across the galaxy for thousands of years, space was now quiet again. For others, it was their first time seeing a calm sea of stars.

    The group helped Feidlima to her feet. She opened her eyes and tears poured out of them. She clutched her head as the implants radiated pain from her eyes to temples. Teutor escorted her to a bench as she tried to calm herself. Cade approached her and asked, "What happened?"

    Feidlima panted loudly, trying to regain her composure enough to answer. After a few moments she replied. "I looked into his eyes and saw our fate. I saw the future of us all."

    "The war is over," said Cuno. “Seiton will never return.”

    "No, Seiton will come back!" She cried and rubbed her eyes, as if trying to get rid of the vision.

    "Feidlima, please tell us more of this vision," said Cade.

    Feidlima wiped her eyes. "He will return and turn every piece of technology against our kin. Soon after, he will have access to the Cradle of Light and recreate the universe."

    The Council looked at each other trying to figure out what they must do. Seiton’s banishment was the only way to end the war. Or so they thought.

    “Seiton is beyond insane!” Cuno shouted. “He and the Titans wiped out the Mechanoids and drove us to near extinction.”

    Judus turned to Feidlima. “What else did you see in the vision?”

    Feidlima continued, "I did see other worlds inhabited with a variety of intelligent beings...but we never interacted with any of them.”

    Cade took a minute to think. "My comrades, we have been raised by the Mechanoids to thrive in the galaxy with the Titans before Seiton. For thousands of years, generations have been fighting from planet to planet. We took our last stand and banished them. In Feidlima’s vision, she saw primitives with various powers and skills that would be very useful. If Seiton returns, we must have the primitives ready for him."

   "How?" Judus asked.

   Cade went on to explain. "We must meet them face to face and cultivate them into civilization. Once their civilizations are established, their technology will grow to be as advanced as ours. With our guidance and their technological advancement, they will come together and assemble the most powerful legion the galaxy has ever seen. Then we will truly defeat the Titans."

   "What if we don't survive until then?" Feidlima asked.

   "We have to. Otherwise if we die, then they will all die."