1 Prologue: The Distress Call

The two hooded figures, a man and a woman, stood on the barren surface of a small moon, their cloaks floating in the low gravity. One would assume that these two were looking at the curving, crater-riddled horizon that separated the pearl-white surface of the moon from the blackness of the space. But that assumption would be dead wrong. They were looking up at the blue and purple planet named Grevat--only half of the Grevat was visible from their vantage point. The night shrouded the rest of it.

"The invasion went smoother than we had calculated," the woman, who was the taller of the two, said. "The scanning will be a success too."

"I hate waiting," the man replied, his voice solemn.

"We have waited for two star-days for the scanning to complete," the woman said. "I bet you can wait a little bit longer."

"I can't--I want this to end--" A blue light started flashing on the man's right hand. He held it up. "What is it?"

"Master," a voice said. "The scanning is complete. We were w-wrong. It's not here."

The man didn't say a word in return. It was as if he had lapsed into some kind of a dazed state.

"Master? Master? We are awaiting your orders."

The woman kept a hand on the man's shoulder and the man said. "Alright. Tell everyone to leave the surface. I'm going to do it."

"Wait! Master, give us a few hours to evacuate. Master--" But the man had already closed the link. He then raised his left gloved-hand, spread his fingers wide, and aligned it with the planet overhead, as if trying to grab the celestial object in his hand. "Time to get rid of another corrupt race. I can feel them crawling on the surface of this stupid rock--so many of them that thinking about their numbers makes me vomit." His voice was now cracking. "Please take care of me after I pass out. Considering the size of this planet, I'll probably be out for several days."

The woman sighed. "You should wait. Our men are still on the surface."

"Didn't I tell you... I hate waiting," the man said and closed his hand into a fist.

***

"Grevat sent the distress signal ten star-days ago," the assistant general of the second division of The Galactic Allies said, marching around the spacious bridge. "Ten star-days! It doesn't matter if the enemy had jammed the signal... What were our technicians doing?" he shouted in his commanding voice that he regularly used to assert his dominance.

His men just watched him walk around, too afraid to say anything. The second division's fleet consisted of twenty ships. When the distress call hit them, they had been in the middle of their training drill.

"Sir, we are there," the pilot said. "But..."

"But what?" the general asked and took his seat in the middle of the room.

"You need to see this," the pilot said, and a big holographic screen appeared in the center of the giant room. It showed nothing but black, star-filled space.

"What am I looking at?" the general asked. "Where is Grevat?"

"I can't find it," the pilot said. "I just scanned the whole star-system... We should have picked up something that big by now, but we haven't."

"There must be some kind of technical error. Check aga--"

"Hold on," the pilot said. "I've located one of its moons. It has been tossed out and is now on a path to escape this star-system."

"Are you s-sure?" the general asked. "Was the planet destroyed?"

"Negative," the pilot replied. "I don't see any floating debris. I don't believe that it was destroyed. It just... disappeared."

The general looked up at the screen showing the pitch-black space. A shiver ran up his back. There used to a planet there, a world full of life. But now it was gone, all gone. "W-what happened here?" he said, his voice no longer that commanding. "Who could have done this?"