• Prologue


    We were told that there was nothing wrong. We were told that the weather’s changing patterns were normal, that it happened every thousand years or so. We were told that the increasing mass of missing people was nothing to worry about. Our government knew where they were. What we were told were lies.

    My brother was in the Army when he disappeared. We weren’t told for seven months. His mission had been top secret. Perhaps we would never have been told if the press hadn’t found that tape.

    The tape was blurry during most parts, and wobbly during the rest. It was amateur, if that. The content looked like something straight out of a fantasy book. Yet, I don’t think any book or even our technology could have prepared us for what we saw.

    Beings, taller than any human I had ever seen stood towering above a line of humans. In there hands were spears and glowing, translucent shields. Their bodies were like stretched humans, thin and long. Their ears were pointed and reached up and behind the head like horns. Their eyes were larger too, taking up most of the face. They had no pupils, only orbs of color. In the darkness, they glowed with a greenish color. Their hands, like claws, gripped the chains that bound the humans in front of them, showing off more muscle than one would have thought possible from the lithe figures.

    The people in front of them were ragged looking. Men, women, and children cowered in these Beings’ shadows. Most had rips in their clothes and blood on their faces. A couple, however, continued to stand tall though spears constantly jabbed them forward. It was easy to tell they were soldiers of the Army. Their uniforms were torn and burned, but recognizable. They were also far more fit than most of the others. Proud, they refused to bow their heads though their hands were chained.

    Among those soldiers stood my brother. His face was bruised severely; we didn’t recognize him at first. Then the camera person zoomed in and there was no mistaking him. His hair was just as red as mine, burning crimson in the firelight. The tattoo on his arm of a winged sword stood stark against his pale skin.

    It was at this time that there was a knock on our door. The military had come to deliver the news of my brother’s capture. Had my parents stayed a moment longer, as the camera began to zoom out again, they would have seen my brother look straight at the camera, his right eye fierce. His left eye was gone.

    It wasn’t long after the release of this tape that the government issued their own press release telling us the truth. Our planet was slowly destroying itself and the government was desperate for a way out. Space had resulted in nothing. It was two years ago that the beings showed themselves. They spoke almost perfect English and spoke good things about their home planet. The government agreed to send over people to scout. What they found was a savage but habitable world. The beings, called So’ritiis, had shown them the most beautiful places of their homes. Their palaces glowed with riches. Their cities bustled with activity. Their mountains and forests flowed with amazing metals and minerals. They didn’t see any poverty or violence, despite the fact that most of the So’ritiis carried weapons. As far as they could see, there was plenty of room for the human race.

    Of course, the So’ritiis fooled our government and began taking humans from their homes. It seemed these beings had problems of their own, having suffered a mass plague that had covered the world and severely depleted their slave population. They were unable to farm and mine the necessary amounts to keep up with So’ritiis demand. Thus, as they had in the past, the beings invaded another planet to retrieve new slaves. My brother had been with one of the first groups sent to stop them. They faced strange technology and though the government wouldn’t acknowledge it, magic. The soldiers were unprepared for what awaited them. They fell easily.

    I promised then and there that I would get my brother back.