Shattered Destiny: A Galactic Adventure, Episode One (15 page)

I, like most other citizens of the modern
galaxy, knew of the empire that had come 2000 years before, I also
knew that no technology remained from that time. Just sparse ruins.
Destroyed buildings. Planets that had been scorched from space. No
technology. Nothing useful. And yet… If I was right, and this
building had belonged to the Great Empire, then….

A
compulsion welled in my chest as if
someone had tied a rope around my heart. It pulled
me
forward with such force I staggered. I reached a
set of stairs, and somehow with jerking, broken steps, managed to
push down it.

I saw a door at the end of the
corridor. Ornate, made out of carved
and
gilded metal
. It was at least 10 meters high and five meters
wide.

And it had… gravitas, this feeling of
import. I staggered towards it, one bloodied hand outstretched. It
felt as if I was about to knock on the doors of heaven.

“What?” the word broke from my bleeding,
white lips.

I reached it.

At first I hesitated, whatever
sense was left in my mind telling me to stop. But I couldn't fight
against the compulsion, and before I knew it, I threw
myself
at the door.

…
And it opened. It slid
open without a sound, the metal mechanisms moving so smoothly it
was as if they'd been made that very day.

I entered the room. Or at least tried to.
At that exact moment my broken body became too much for
me.

And I fell.

Crumpled, my knees jerking out
from underneath
me
as my head struck the
floor.

For a few short seconds I remained
conscious enough to lock my eyes on what was inside the darkened
room.

Though I could barely see, my bleary gaze
locked on something in the center of the room.

A white metal plinth. And on top of that,
a small handheld device.

It was the strangest design I'd ever seen.
It glowed, light blue and orange lines scattered across its
surface. It pulsed, too, with a steady beat, like a
heart.

I fought to keep my eyes open. I could
not.

I
slipped into the arms of
unconsciousness.

…

Arterian assassin

She
walk along the rugged, rocky peaks,
head tilted to the side as the wind tried but failed to unfurl her
cloak from her face.

There was very little
technology in the entire modern galaxy that would be able to
un
-cloak her and reveal her true identity.

This fabric came from the Great Empire,
from the Illuminates.

So she didn't bother to lock a hand on it
as she strode forward, one hand pressed against the rocky outcrop
beside her.

Far in the distance she saw what she was
looking for. A simple, weather-beaten metal shack.

If her information was correct, then the
evil one had been born there. The one who would threaten
everything, who had the power to pull down the Arterian
Empire.

The destroyer.

Just thinking about her set the assassin’s
teeth on edge, brought the bile rising up her throat, and made her
clench her free hand into such a tight fist it was as if she wanted
to snap her fingers off.

It had taken a great deal of investigation
to find out the destroyer’s birthplace. A lot of blood,
too.

But the assassin had been born to spill
blood.

T
he galaxy demanded it. You did not buy
peace and prosperity with hope. You did so over the ashes of those
who got in your way.

The assassin took a strong, ringing,
resounding step over the stone.

Then she simply pushed off. She flattened
her palm against the rocky outcrop beside her, and jerked
backwards.

It wasn't a fatal move. As she plummeted
down the sheer side of the rocky cliff, she tapped something on her
arm and she began to float. An inertia field sprang up around her
form, encasing her body in a light pleasant blue glow as if she'd
jumped in a tropical ocean.

It guided her body right down the side of
the sheer cliff. As she moved slowly past, she caught sight of the
striations in the rock and could have almost counted the billions
of years of history that had weathered this beaten
planet.

She didn't care. The only thought that
possessed her mind was the future.

Finally she reached the bottom of the
canyon.

She pressed her feet out, and as soon as
her black heels landed on the ground, the field cut out. She strode
forward, several crackles of electricity darting over her cloak and
discharging into the air.

She walked up the side of a hill, that
persistent wind still trying to pull her cloak from her body.
Finally she caught sight of that dilapidated metal
shack.

She tilted her head fully to the side,
brought a hand up, and tapped her plush bottom lip.

The destroyer
had been born to a
single mother, a survivor from a colony war. The mother had died a
little under two months after giving birth to her. The destroyer
had been thrust into the care of the community. And when she'd been
old enough to look after herself, she'd left. To find
work.

It was a far cry from the assassin’s own
privileged upbringing.

As a full member of the
Arterian Royal Family, she did as she pleased. She had not had to
fight to live. And yet, now, she embraced fighting for all it
was
worth
. Bloodlust had always been in her
bones.

The assassin quickly covered the distance
up to the shack, then she reached it, stretching out a hand and
tapping her perfect nails against the broken metal door.

She smiled at it for a few short seconds,
then leaned back, brought her leg forward, and kicked it in a
powerful, resounding move.

Her
heel sank so hard into the metal door
that the thing cracked.

The assassin was full Arterian, but her
heritage did not completely account for her unusual strength,
speed, and efficiency.

From birth, she had been grafted with
Illuminate technology.

It was in her very bones, and gave her the
edge no one else had.

The metal door clanged onto the floor,
skidding several meters into the broken metal shack.

She
swung her head from side to side,
clenching her teeth together twice to activate her internal
scanners.

They swept over the 5 x 5 meter room.

It had been picked over for possessions
long ago. The colonists on this world were poor, pathetic souls.
They’d obviously stolen anything they’d thought was
valuable.

But they were still fools. For they’d left
the most important item. An item that could change the course of
history.

As the assassin strode forward, she
brought her hand up and waved it to the side.

S
he picked up a unique energy
signature.

She thrust down to her knee, flattening
her palm against a thick section of metal flooring.

….

The assassin didn't pause any longer.

She brought her hand back, rounded it into a
fist, and struck it into the metal floor. Though it was thick, and
she should have shattered her knuckles, she didn't.

Her fist sailed right through, at the last
moment small inertia shields flickering over it and protecting it
from the impact.

She punched right through the metal, pushed
her fingers into the hole, then ripped a massive section of the
plating clean off.

She ducked forward, scooped her
hand into the hole, and plucked out a metal strong box.… a
sophisticated one.

She held back a
satisfied
smile as she sat down and brought the box into her
lap.

She tapped the case with one
long fingernail, before bringing the same hand up and tapping her
lips. “Interesting,” she commented to herself.

The technology of this box was
far more sophisticated than anything you
could imagine you
would find in a dilapidated metal shack, let alone
on this entire planet.

It possessed the kind of secure
technology they used in the Arterian Royal Family.

In fact, as she brought her
face closer and inspected it, she realized it did belong to the
Arterian Royal Family.

“
I've
got you now,” she said, lips spreading with mirth.

She pushed to her feet, tucked
the box under her arm, and walked outside, shields clicking over
the metal.

She
tipped her head back, and saw a storm brewing along the
horizon.

It made her smile even further.

Because it wasn't just the horizon that
would be cut down by that storm, it would be the galaxy.

A change was on the wind, one
she would push through no matter the costs.

…

Prince Xarin

I thrust forward with so much
speed, my armor crack
ed the floor beneath me.

I’d never felt such
desperation. Such a drive to save someone.

It
was foolish, impossible to
understand. I kept begging
myself
to stop, but I just
couldn't.

I couldn't describe it, but I knew that Shar
needed me. That she had minutes. Damn minutes.

A
scream cracked from my lips as I
suddenly found a set of stairs.

I ducked down and pushed a finger through a
drop of blood.

Then I
pushed down the stairs, leaping off
the last few, falling to my knees, rolling, and punching
forward.

That’s when I saw a
door.

It was no ordinary door.

It was Illuminate
technology.

You didn't have to glance upon
the sophisticated elegant design for long to realize that. Plus,
the symbols carved
into
the surface was
unmistakable.

I pushed towards it, but hesitated before I
reached a hand out.

A sick feeling pushed through my gut,
sinking hard into the center of my chest.

I'd come to this planet on the
slim hope of finding Illuminate technology that had not been
ravaged by the Great War.

If the perfect state of this
door was anything to go by, then beyond that was just what I was
looking for.

And yet… I hesitated.

Because this went against
tradition. And not just tradition, my family.

It was forbidden for lower
members of the Arterian Royal Family to go after Illuminate tech.
There was a specific division of the family that did
that.

For it was considered
dangerous. The Illuminates and the Great Empire had been destroyed
by an unknown force. Not enough archaeological information existed
to understand who they were. But they had destroyed the Illuminates
because of their sophisticated technology. That much the Arterian
Royal Family knew. It was ingrained within their tradition and
history. The first thing I'd ever learnt when I’d reached the age
of understanding, was that I had to be careful with Illuminate
technology. Use it out of hand, let the commoners possess it, and
the great force may come back.

To
many Arterians, they considered that
force God. An angry, vengeful god who did not want man born in its
exact image. Man belonged on Earth, on the dark, dirty, rocky
planets of the Milky Way.

Not in heaven.

And when the Illuminates had
invented their powerful technology, they had tried to ascend to
that heaven.

So they’d been wiped
away.

“
You
shouldn't be doing this,” I said out loud as if a verbal reminder
would somehow pull me to my senses.

It did not.

I didn't care about possible
repercussions from my family. Because I had taken every effort to
keep this secret
.

I hadn't told my men, and I
would never dare breathe a word of this to anyone else.

This wasn't the first time I'd
diverted my war cruiser on the hope of finding Illuminate
artefacts.

And it wouldn't be the last.

Because I was determined to find out the
truth, no matter the costs.

I did not subscribe to the
belief that the Illuminates had been wiped out because of their
superior technology. Though that thought alone could get me
deposed, it simply didn't make sense. The victors always rewrote
history to make the brutality of war sound justified.

So
I took a deep breath, drove it into
my gut, and pushed forward. As soon as my hand locked on that
carved, incredible door, it opened. It hissed back into a recess
with a silent, smooth move that proved it was technology light
years beyond that which the modern galaxy possessed.

I took a step into the darkened
room. My eyes should have locked on the white plinth in the middle,
on the strange device sitting on top.