2 The Black Harbinger

After the planet was completely decimated, the shuttle that Kyle and the girl were in took off and headed towards the Black Harbinger. The shuttle landed inside the hanger bay, and the door of the shuttle opened. As troops walked out of the shuttle, Kyle took off his helmet. He was covered in sweat and had terror in his eyes. He was a young man who had black hair and green eyes. Suddenly he heard footsteps coming up the shuttle's ramp.

"Hey! What are you doing? Get off the shuttle! And why did you take off your helmet?" said a familiar voice.

Kyle turned around and saw Captain Tsavong. He couldn't really see him inside of the shuttle at the start of the mission, because the captain was in the front while he was in the back. The armor Captain Cross wore looked similar to the standard Zeta Trooper, but instead of being primarily gold and black being the secondary color, his armor was mostly black with some gold-colored parts. He also wore a red cape.

"I... just needed some fresh air. This was my first mission, and I am in shock. Also, Chaos Bringer ordered me to take this young woman as a prisoner." Kyle explained.

Captain Cross replied, "So you're the one who just stood around did nothing as the others did their job! Chaos Bringer told me about you. I will guide you to where we hold prisoners. Since this was your first time on a combat mission-"

"That was not a combat mission! They had little to no weapons to defend themselves! We were killing innocent civilians!" Kyle shouted.

"No more words! Let's just take the girl to her prison. Since you wish not to be on the battlefield, I will later reassign you to be a guard at the hanger bay. Now put the damn helmet on!" Said Cross.

As they exited the shuttle, they saw the many fighters, bombers, interceptors, shuttles, and other vehicles of war that the Zeta Empire had to offer. The girl was still unconscious and was held in the arms of Kyle. They climbed up a long set of stairs and made their way through many dull-colored corridors. Zeta Troopers and officers were seen walking all over the halls. After fifteen minutes of walking around and taking several elevators, they finally made it to the prisoner sector.

Here the halls were jet black with green lights emitting from the ceiling. A door on the left opened up, revealing an empty prison cell. There Kyle was commanded to leave her inside. In each prison was a small bed, sink, toilet, and a giant table, where prisoners are restrained and get experimented on. There was also a large vent on the wall near the bed.

Several hours later, the girl woke up. She was still injured from her encounter with Chaos Bringer. She felt that she had a concussion, and she at first did not know where she was. Then she concluded that she got abducted by the Zeta Empire. She had no idea exactly how long she was inside the prison, but as time went on, she was underfed and experienced all kinds of torture from scientists whenever they strapped her onto the table.

Often, they would inject unknown chemicals into her eyes, which would cause her to scream in agony. Other times she would randomly have guards bust into her prison in the middle of the night and physically abuse her. She would scream and cry for help whenever this happened, but nobody ever came.

It has been two weeks since the assault on Clizora, and Kyle just could not stop thinking about the girl. One day after his shift, he decided to sneak into her prison cell. The girl was absolutely terrified, but Kyle took off his helmet.

"Hey, I am not going to hurt you. My name is Kyle Savo. I was ordered to execute you on Clizora by Chaos Bringer, but I was unable to, and he knocked you unconscious." He said.

"Why…why didn't you kill me? If you just killed me that night, I wouldn't be in this situation! I have been beaten and experimented on. I barely get any food or water, and my life has been a living hell since that night." The girl said.

Suddenly, she started to have a panic attack, but Kyle decided to hug her.

"Listen to me, the reason I did not kill you that night was that I believe what the empire is doing is wrong. When I was a child, I saw my parents get killed by Zeta Troopers on my homeworld, and I was taken and trained to be a soldier. I know what it's like to lose everything."

This helped the young girl calm down. "My name is Arrua Veronis. I was not a native to Clizora, but my family and I went there for a vacation to explore the city and the beautiful forests. Then the Zeta Empire came and now I am here. My parents are presumed dead, and if they are still alive, they probably assume that I died." Arrua began to tear up.

"It's okay Arrua. I know this is going to be very difficult, but I want us to escape from the Zeta Empire together. Just hang in there, I promise I will sneak in extra food and water, and I will visit you as many times as possible when nobody is around." He said.

Arrua nodded her head, and Kyle stepped out of the prison cell with his helmet on. A guard slowly approached him.

"What were you doing in that cell?" said the guard.

"Who, me? I just did a little interrogation, to see if the prisoner had more information about one of the planets we recently attacked." Said Kyle.

At first, the guard looked confused, but he did not think much of what Kyle told him, assuming and walked away. On his way to his personal quarters, Kyle decided to sneak into a weapons room. Inside the room, there were racks full of various rifles used by the Zeta Troopers. Kyle tried to look for a weapon suited for a young girl like Arrua. Then, he noticed a door at the other end of the room that focused on flame weapons.

As he walked inside, he noticed a small, red wrist-mounted device with a few buttons on it. The device was locked in a glass container, and in front of it was a high-tech suit of armor. The armor looked more advanced than any of the armor he saw being used by troopers. It had a maroon and grey color scheme with pointed shoulder pads. The helmet was bulky, and the visor was shaped like a silhouette of a phoenix.

Kyle Savo knew he could definitely use that armor and the wrist-mounted device if he were to escape with Arrua Veronis. But if they were to make an escape, they would have to learn more about the layout of this colossal ship. He was only aboard the Black Harbinger for less than a month.