𝓖𝓻𝓲𝓶 𝓒𝓸𝓾𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓻𝓼

𝟙 - 𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℂ𝕣𝕒𝕤𝕙

"Li'cera, the planet of the gods."

   Ferro chuckled. This was probably one of those stuck up puny "empires" that thought they were the center of the world.  If it were exposed to the rest of the galaxy it would be ransacked by raiders and imperialistic countries several times over. 

   As an explorer and member of the scientific community, Ferro knew it was his job to go look around and designate it as a "wildlife protection zone", so that the primitive species there could fully evolve. The end goal was for it to become a civilization strong enough to survive in the nasty sea of over-powered-ness that was the rest of the galaxy. Someone had slipped up some time ago and now another planet called Cier was a chaotic and warring mess, filled with alien technology and powerful magic that wasn't meant to be wielded by such a technologically undeveloped species. 

   The hyperdrive whirred as the ship jumped. Streaks of blue light passed by him and soon after, the world around him turned black again as he came back out into realspace. But something was off. The scanners told him that the system in the distance didn't have any planets even remotely similar to Li'cera. 

   Ferro cursed. The hyperdrive must have malfuctioned. He stood up and walked out of the cockpit, heading toward the engine room. That was when alarms started going off. Ferro's eyes widened as he saw a large asteroid even bigger than his ship hurtle toward him. He scrambled back to the pilot's seat, but it was too late. The ship spun out of control as the impact sent the tiny vessel flying straight at one of the planets he had scanned earlier. There was only one option left. Ferro rushed toward an escape pod, and closing the hatch, jettisoned the pod off of the damaged hunk of ceramic that had been his living space for so many months. 

   The escape pod would send him to the closest habitable planet, but something had been nagging at the back of his mind for some time now. At the moment, Ferro was the only one that knew about Li'cera. If he were to go down to the planet his escape pod was sending him to, that would mean that it would be longer before Li'cera became protected. 

   What if a marauding band of rogues found the planet first? what would happen to its people then? Looking at the second escape pod, He got an idea. If his computer was right about his current coordinates, Li'cera was probably between Ignia and His current location. After some tinkering, Ferro set the second escape pod on a course to his own home world, Ignia, with all his research material. In case it found Li'cera on its way, the pod was also given orders to drop by and make contact with the Li'cerians, and confirm some of his speculations and theories before continuing on to the Ignian system.

   Now that that was done, Ferro fidgeted with anticipation as the small spherical ball that his life depended on dropped toward the planet. A few minutes later the pod reached the surface, and with a splash, it dropped into a bay. Gasping, Ferro climbed out of the ball, retching and coughing. He swam toward the shore, and toward a forest, where several pillars of smoke were billowing out from the tree tops, and deafening explosions and screaming people could be heard. Confused, Ferro wandered around the forest, until he happened by a group of running men and women in ghillie suits, all grimy and covered with blood. 

"A new type of Somnian?" someone yelled.

"They've flanked us!" another shouted.

"What...what do you mean...? Somnian? What's tha-" Ferro's words were cut off by a bayonet as it sank into his leg. The soldier grinned as Ferro screamed, crumpling to his knees. 

"A rookie aren't you? Welcome to Cier!"