The Retribution Chronicles: P Y R E & Ser Issac of Clarke

[Archmagos Issac]

“Mom, you have to get on that transport. I will find my way off the-” he began. Gunshots rang out and caught Will’s attention. They stood in what had once been a wheat field, now trampled flat and leveled to make an evacuation center. The horizon had once been covered in trees, now it was filled with flickering red light and the screeching of distant crickets, screams of those unlucky enough to get to the evacuation point as fast as possible. The Swarm was coming, time was running out. If they didn't get off the ground soon, no Thoran was going to survive this. They couldn't be slowed down it appeared as they were seemingly without end. A force that slaughtered millions in hours. Time was against the Alliance and everyone knew it.

“The transport is leaving! Last chance kid!!” barked the door gunner. Will looked at his mom, sadness in his eyes and a sad smile on his face. “It’s okay Mom. I’ll find my way back to you” he said. He didn't wait for his mother to reply, just pushed her onto the transport and motioned for the ship to leave. He stood quietly as the transport's engines began to hum at a higher pitch, slowly lifting off the ground and taking aim towards the stars. Will watched and hoped his mother would forgive him. This was one promise he couldn't keep. This was where Will was destined to die, on a trampled field of wheat and his body torn to shreds by the endless scourge that was the Swarm....

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________​

Will awoke with a start. The young man (a boy really) was sweating, a frantic look in his eyes. Another nightmare. His last night on Thora. Only this time he did what he should have done. Mom…. Every time he woke up from his nightmares, he always expected to be back home, see his mother, Dad, his older brother; Michael. All of them alive and life proceeding as normal as it should have been. Instead, he woke up knowing the truth. They were dead, torn to shreds by monsters like something out a child's story book. Then it happened. Sadness turned into fear, fear into anger, anger into determination. He’d kill every single creature that got in his path. Nothing short of the hand of God would stop him. Tear them to shreds with his bare hands if he had to. Thankfully, the Alliance was happy to put a gun in his hand.

William Hendricks was one of the few survivors of the Fall of Thora. 1 of almost 2,300; 1 of almost 700 Thorans who were set on retaking Thora back and killing as many Swarm as they could find. Unlike those 700, Will was untrained. Merely a new recruit who joined the Alliance’s ranks. That was where Will was going. He was aboard a transport nearing the infamous Hell’s Gate, the Alliances training ground on the desert planet of Arkon. The ship was filled to capacity, almost 60 men and women in all. Will only knew one of them, a fellow Thoran who’d survived the massacre. A childhood friend. His very last connection to Thora. He'd known them since they were kids, looked out for them like they were his own sibling yet they looked almost nothing alike and (at least in his mind) acted nothing alike.

William was rather tall, standing at just 6 feet tall. His build was lean, muscles like rip chord; tight and strong. A product of his days spent playing sports in school. In the time since the Fall of Thora, Will had begun growing a rather scraggly beard that was the same color and consistency as the hair on his head, curly and almost black as pitch. The most striking feature about him was his eyes. God his eyes..... Such a deep shade of brown that in the right light it was as though his eyes were black. He had a face you could imagine laughing, smiling, enjoying life; but hardship had turned him into someone else. Not the same boy who left Thora, but a young man seeking to avenge his own people.

 

[Neopyric]

Sierra has taken a sea at the edge of her bed in thought. Her eyes went to her hands, worn, cracked, the nails bitten. The room she had called home for several years had become claustrophobic. She was alone, though she could hear the countless hushed whispers and conversations of neighbors through the thin walls. She laid back her hands rested on her stomach, her head tilted to avoid the duffle bag which rested, packed full of clothing and mementoes. She had one day to go, tomorrow she would be boarding that ship to Hell’s gate; Where she would train, and prepare. Her muscles already hurt, and under her plain black sweatshirt she could feel her muscles and the skin rolling over the tightness. The ache lulled her to sleep and finally after an hour of staring at the ceiling and the one docked light overhead, which flickered relentlessly, she curled up on the bed and fell asleep.


With shifting eyes under tired lips, Sierra was plagued with memories. She had watched as the world seemed to fall around her, in haze of green and golden embers, lifting into the Thoran sky. The sound waves had taken on that of the cicada, yet that could not be, that insect had been one of Earth, a planet long forgotten. She had read much of the old world, the original civilization— one of colonized terraformed lands and foliage. She couldn’t possibly know the sound of the cicada, but she had imagined the annoyance of chirping to be similar. She was but a child, unable to comprehend the wrath of the creatures which invaded. What she did understand was loss. As her family ran from the destruction, she watched as they had been ripped from her tightly clenched hands. Her family was just one of countless which left the planet in an orphaned state.


It was in this chaos she found Will. Sierra couldn’t recall how often she ran over features of her parents while in a dream like state. Her mother's unruly chestnut hair roaming a tanned sculpted face; Her father’s dark, near charcoal colored high and tight, matched with stern brows always watching and calculating…. but her mother's eyes, all she ever saw were the golden hue shrouded in sunlight. Did she look like her parents? Did she exhibit the same qualities.


As sunlight stretched across the dusty floorboards of her small apartment, and once again sierra was already awake staring that ceiling. She blinked, then pushed her aching body up. A rush of blood caused her to wince and she immediately placed her hand on her forehead. With the duffle bag already packed she stumbled off the bed and pulled it from the mattress. Shuffling to the door she flung it open and continued down the hall, her hand tightening on the strap, only to pull it up and across her shoulder and chest. She passed by countless doors, some open, music blaring, others sealed right, their occupants already on the ship ready to enter their new lives as defenders of Thora.


The journey to the ship didn’t take as long as sierra had hopped. Of course she had been lost in her own thoughts, wondering, trying to remember, frustrated and tired… She yawned at the idea of being tired then shook her head, her messily tied pony’s tail brushed against her cheeks and she tightened her grip on the strap of her duffle bag. She searched faces, each one reminding her of her parents, but that wasn’t what she was searching for, she needed to find Will. Walking through the crowd she lifted to her top toes, cursing her small stature as it had become difficult to see over the towering men and women around her.


“Will?” She whispered over the chatter then jumped here and there when she thought she saw him. However, this was pointless. There were nearly sixty people boarding this ship, she worried now that in the sea of faces she would never find his. Finally the gates opened and the crowd of people shifted forward sweeping her along with them. Stumbling along in worn down sneakers and joggers she followed, glancing back every now and then to see if she recognized anyone. It seemed almost robotic as citizens of Thora loaded their items over head, strapped themselves in to rows of seats and readied themselves for the journey. Sierra, however, was restless. Sitting up in her seat, then finally gathering herself up onto it entirely to look back at the wandering eyes which seemed to zero in on her. Finally, she saw him, immediately she started crawling over laps and landed in the walkway, tripping though gradually collecting herself. With her head down she hurried quickly to an empty seat by his side completely dismissing the fact that she had left her bag in overhead containment zone on the complete opposite side of where she now sat.


“ I was looking all over for you.” She said somewhat annoyed, flicking the flyaways of her chestnut brown hair from her sun kissed cheek. Her hazel eyes followed her hands as she pulled the safety harness over her chest and then set her hands on her thighs patiently. “Too many people…”She finally concluded as she brought her gaze up to him. She needed to memorize his features now catalogue them in the event… she shook her head again before rolling her neck and head, working out whatever kink may have settled in her awkward sleeping position the night before. “Also, don’t forget I’m doing this for you. Someone has to keep you out of trouble.” She shot him a quick smirk before looking to the side at another passenger fiddling with their harness.


Sierra wasn’t hard looking like the rest she had been surrounded by. She was only 5’4”, had a very slim, lithe frame; She looked so young, though she was on the cusp of her nineteenth birthday. Her features were flawless, free of marks or stress, it was simple when she truly hadn’t smiled much after the attack; Though she did have a soft spot for William and couldn’t pass up any opportunity to tease him, even in the most stressful of moments.