Somewhere in the cold, lonely embrace of space there was a single spaceship drifting among the stars. It was just big enough to house nothing more but personal quarters, a kitchen, a bathroom and the cockpit. On the bed in the back lay a small, feminine human boy, geared up in his space suit with the helmet off as the ship provides ample oxygen. He was lying on his side, looking at what seemed like some sort of digital logbook.
“I’m so happy they let me keep this logbook despite it being a piece of our history they only discovered recently…” he thought to himself. “My ancestors, huh?” A momentary wave of melancholy filled his chest. “Ever since my parents died I didn’t have I didn’t have anything but my fighting skills to work on. But now… I just want to walk back the path my forefathers took. I know they told me not to. That our planet is long dead. That we shouldn’t dwell on our past mistakes but improve ourselves instead. But I just… want to see it. This ball of ash and flame our mistakes have culminated into.” He sighed, rolling over on his back, his sapphire eyes staring at the ceiling. “Heather Hawkes and Simon Richards… their child… and somewhere very far down the line, me. How long has it even been since then? How many generations?” Sighing again he got up, jumped off his bed and wandered into the cockpit, his long, black hair fluttering behind. The autopilot seemed to still be on course and working perfectly fine. He should have been almost there, or so he thought. But what he saw looking out front was more than just a surprise. “I… what am I seeing?” he questioned. “Shouldn’t this be where our home planet once was? Wasn’t it supposed to be a ball of flame? Or destroyed even? But this… it’s green, blue, verdant. T-This is a healthy planet! It… it couldn’t be… right?” Almost panicked he started stuttering, quickly sitting down in the pilot seat to configure something on the console. “Surely… if I scan the core… it’ll tell me this is a new planet, born long after, in place of ours… right?” A bunch of beeps and boops sputtered from the electronics before spitting out a result. “This… this can’t be. This is our home!!” he uttered in disbelief. “I have to go back and let the people know… they deserve to know!” Immediately he entered the coordinates for their new planet in an attempt to turn back and inform his people. This wouldn’t go quite as planned however. As the ship was about to turn around it began rumbling, red lights flashing, warning sirens going off. “What?! Not now!” he complained, trying to fix it. What he didn’t realize was that the planet’s gravity was higher, further reaching than it once was. Abruptly, his craft got sucked into the atmosphere with the boy doing his utmost to prevent the worst. Barely scraping by, he crash-landed on a snowy mountain range high above the regular ground levels.
Slowly the side entrance to the spaceship opened, the boy crawling out of it holding his head. He looked around himself. Left. Right. Straight ahead. Not a soul in sight. “This is bad… really bad…” he thought to himself, knowing full well that the flux drive and with that any sort of propulsion were entirely busted. “In a bit of a pickle, aren’t you, boy?” a somewhat lascivious voice suddenly spoke right behind him. Instinctively he jumped forward, doing a one-eighty turn in a swift motion. A few good feet away in front of him and right in front of the ship’s exit stood a petite woman with fox tail and ears, clad in black and pink leather and latex wardrobe. “No need to be startled, little one” she commented with a grin on her face. The boy could have sworn there was no one around. “Who are you? Where did you come from?” he inquired, still in a defensive stance. She flipped open her fan, holding it in front of her face. “Don’t worry about such trivial details” the woman urged. Then, in a blink of an eye she disappeared with his vision fading to black for but a split second. “You’ve made quite the ruckus” it sounded behind him. His heart skipped a beat. Once again he repeated his earlier motion, landing him a good bit away. “I’m sure some of my new children have noticed and will come pick you up soon… You just have to make it for a few days. I’m sure you can manage, right?~” Flipping her fan closed she disappeared into a pinkish mist. “To think I’d see one of you people again after all this time~” it echoed in the distance, the woman’s voice slowly fading. Making sure he was once again alone he lowered his stance, shook his head and went inside. “What just happened?!” he questioned before checking his rations and other necessities. He was good for quite some time still and electricity was thankfully also still working. It was definitely enough to last a few days the stranger mentioned. But was he just going to sit here and wait? Of course not! Packing some gear he began venturing over the snowy mountain to look for a way. Unfortunately however it quickly became apparent that this wouldn’t do him much good. He had no idea about the geography of the land or the dangers this area posed. Visibility was also bad and he had no idea how long he’d even have to wander before finding anything, or anyone. Not having much of a choice he returned to his craft, deciding to hold out for a week at most before going on a more treacherous journey.
A few days had passed by now. The boy was sitting in his bed, sighing. He wondered whether or not it was even worth waiting for the whole week. Was this woman even someone trustworthy? In the end she was just a stranger. And truth be told, he wasn’t even sure whether or not she was even real. As he was lost in his thoughts however he couldn’t help but notice a commotion outside. It sounded like footstops. A lot of footsteps. One pair of them… very heavy.
“Anyone in there?” it sounded out of what seemed like some sort of loudspeaker, loud enough to be audible inside the ship. “We mean no harm! We saw something crashing down in the mountains a few days ago and came to investigate” the girly sounding voice further elaborated. He had no idea what was happening. Were these her children she spoke of? Either way, there was no reason to stay holed up in here. It was do or die! Hopefully none of the latter. After putting on his cold-resistant suit he stepped outside and was greeted by a small army of what seemed like human soldiers. Among them, what appeared to be a large machine holding a massive axe. It wasn’t unlike what he knew from his home but still somehow… different. The soldiers assumed a combat-ready stance but the larger one motioned them to disengage, after which they relaxed. “Greetings. Can… Can you understand us?” the same female voice asked, clearly coming from the machinery in front of him. He nodded. “I can.” Afterwards, steam released from the metallic hulk, a small girl stepping out of it. She had purple hair with pink streaks and a long ponytail. She was taller than him, though not by much. “I’m Catherine Van Aruweth, daughter of the Emperor” she extended a hand towards him in a friendly gesture. “Though, not that any of that means anything to you considering you came from.. up there” she then continued. He hesitated for a moment, but then took her hand. “You DID come from up there, right?” Cathy looked up for a brief moment, then back at the boy. After the brief handshake he nodded once more. “I did. I was… observing the planet when I had a system failure. Now my means of leaving are busted.” he elaborated just moments before more footsteps approached from the opposite side. Catherine hopped back into her power suit, ready to close the hatch but both she and her army relaxed when they saw a few certain familiar faces. “What, one of your tests go haywire again Cathy?” a heavily armored red-haired dragon girl asked, black horns with fiery red spots protruding from her head and a similar kind of scaled tail coming out her back. Next to her walked one of her kin, equally clad in metal. Her horns and tail were however much more bright while her platinum-blue hair fluttered in the wintry winds. Behind them, a different army with seemingly lower tech than the one that arrived first. “So what happened here?” the blue-haired one asked. Catherine hopped back out of her mech, then rushed over to the other two arrivals. “Lucille! Ignia!” she exclaimed. “It wasn’t us, I swear!” the girl then commented hurriedly while shifting her gaze towards their guest. Lucille then went over to the boy, coming to a halt in front of him with Ignia stopping off to her side and slightly behind her. He had the most confused of looks on his face. “My name is Lucille Aura Nova. This behind me is my trusted friend Ignia Vox. May I ask your name?” Lu asked to which the boy nodded. “My name is Noah Caldwell. I kind of already explained this to this Catherine girl, but I came from beyond the stars. My starship suffered a critical failure and I crashed on this… mountain? I have no way to get back anymore unless I manage to repair it…” Noah sighed, disgruntled. “Though my priority should probably be contacting my people… this… I still can’t believe is alive and well.” he continued, frantically looking around at the sky and the ground. Lucille raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?” she asked, crossing her arms. He looked at the dragon with a stern look on his face. “This planet… used to be our home. Long ago. But we… our ancestors went too far. This planet went up in flames when they left many generations ago… Everyone expected it would’ve exploded shortly afterwards and just disappear. To think that not only it would recover, but new civilizations would bloom once again…” He was clearly still shaken up about, well, all of this and the others as well widened their eyes upon hearing this. “So all these highly advanced ruins we keep finding…” Ignia realized, thinking of the numerous ancient buildings dotting the landscapes above and below ground. It made sense, looking at the similarly styled craft right next to them that the boy had traveled the stars with. “This is a lot to take in…” the other dragon then commented with furrowed brows. “Eeeeither way. We wanna get off this mountain? It’s.. VERY cold here during winter” Catherine suggested, walking back to her mech and sitting in its pilot seat. “Sounds like a plan. Who do you want to go with, though? We’re headed in opposite directions.” Lu then added. “Hmm… good question. I have no idea what would be better. Or if you’d even help me” Noah then commented. “Well. We’d probably be better suited to repair the ship. If it’s at all possible with our current tech, we’re your best bet. But you mentioned your top priority being communication with your folks, so you’re probably better off with them for now. Their magic probably has a better shot at it than our tech does, for that distance. That, plus they have… connections they might be able to rely on for this.” the empire’s princess explained. “Oh and we can also haul your craft off this mountain for you if you like and work on it. We have plenty scientists who’d LOVE to have a look at this marvel of machinery…” Her gaze wandered off into nothingness with an oddly tired smirk on her face, probably thinking about something, or someone. For a moment, Noah seemed lost in thought, considering his options. He didn’t really have any other choice but to trust their words on this. He definitely wasn’t going to accomplish anything by himself. “All right. I’ll go with Lucille, then. And I greatly appreciate both sides’ help on this.” He bowed, showing his respect before walking over to the two dragon girls. “All right. We’ll update you on the progress!” Cathy shouted after them before closing the hatch. After this, both armies went back the way they came, parting ways and returning to their respective main cities to update their factions on the whole situation.
Many a surprise was ahead of them, and nothing would unfold as they planned or expected at all, though those stories are to be told another day…
