Crimson Skies And Starry Nights

It was horrible. Everything is in ruins. Nothing can describe it, no words are match for the mixed feelings blended among the tears of the men, women and children. After the war, there was hope, to live. Now pieces of rubble again, scattered. While the quake stopped, something etched deep unto man's heart. No tears man can handle as they watch their redemption after the war befall unto their feet.

Heinz quickly dropped the little girl on an open ground while his tears dripped from his chin. He then ran and ran as fast as he could to the train station. He no more cared about the little girl nor the cries in which people are squished by the rubble. Minutes felt like hours. As he arrived near the underground train station entry, he saw an immense amount of people scattered, running out of the underground station. Smokes of dust can still be seen evaporating up to the crimson skies. Yes, the skies are crimson red like fresh blood.

Though such mysterious red sky was above the country, only some seemed to notice. The others paid no heed, and helped the squished and the injured. Whilst Heinz skimmed through the panicked crowd, he could not see his beloved. With his chest pumping hard like a mule, he rushed down to the underground station as he searched for his wife amidst the debris and smoke dust.

"Erika! Erika! Where are you?!" He shouted.

"Heinz? I'm here!" A sweet voice sounded. It was enough to make Heinz much calmer. Before, he was afraid. Afraid of losing his beloved. He almost pissed his pants.

"In Jesus's name thank you, thank you, oh thank you dear lord!" He couldn't stop weeping.

"I'm here my love, I'm here." The couple then proceeded exit the underground station.

"Worry not about me, I'll be just here by the field. You go help the others."

"I'll be back in a while, be careful." Heinz replied.

"Before you go, Isn't the sky very odd? Is it always this crimson on the afternoon?" Erika asked curiously.

"What? Shouldn't 3 o'clock not be this red? It's much more crimson then any other afternoon I know of." Heinz muttered.

About 40 minutes passed by since the earthquake started, yet the sky is getting much redder by the minute.

"Hey isn't that odd? My watched pointed out that it's 3.40! Hey Johann, what time is it?" A civilian muttered while clearing rubble.

"Same as you said, 3.40." Johann replied.

"Then it shouldn't be this red should it?"

Suddenly something unimaginable happened for the next minute. Light pillars suddenly appeared from the sky, a bunch of them! It's headed straight down. All across Germany, people could see these light pillars decending to earth. Little did they know, these light pillars stood by the borders of Germany, may it be the Soviet occupied, or the Allied occupied part of Germany.

The people of Germany who saw this opened their jaws as wide as possible. Their minds unable to process what is going on. No one know whats going on. Suddenly, the crimson sky darkened. The skies turned dark, then darker, then pure black. But the light pillars all over Germany's border still shone brightly, illuminating the now dark sky.

Suddenly the light dimmed, then it vanished out of sight. While the dark sky suddenly shone twinkles of bright dots across the skies. Clusters of stars and galaxies and moons twinkled through the dark night.

"What...." German civilians muttered.

"Are those stars?"

"How did it become night time?"

"Why are the moon so huge? Wait, what? 4 Moons?"

"The stars looked so clear! And beautiful!"

Heinz who looked at the starry night above him opened his jaws in agape. It's too much to process what happened in the past hour. But when he looked at the skies, it somehow calmed him. The skies looked dazzling. It's so beautiful, bright, and not anything he had ever seen in his whole life. But yes, the fear still takes him whole. He was afraid of the unknown, he was afraid of this unexpected, unexplainable yet bizzare phenomenon. The people of Germany who regained their senses knows that they are not on earth anymore. But to Heinz, the biggest fear that he felt, was that the earth which lived under these skies reeked blood, very thick blood indeed.

-

Far 2732 KM east from the 'coast' of where Germany will stood, in a city port, inside a tavern, a lively crowd embraces the night. Some were drinking and chatting, some singing and dancing, some playing darts or a deck of cards. The tavern was filled with laughter and joy. The tavern itself is bright, it was recently installed a light bulb. Musicians played organs and trumpets while the song that was sang was cheerful and lively. The building itself was made out of concrete, with a brick fireplace.

But one could feel more joy then most of the crowd inside this tavern.

"Gee, my man's getting married next week!" Shouted Ul'Ambar

"He's a grown up now!" Cheered Ra'Ali.

"Invite all of us will you?" Asked Usamri.

"Don't invite Usamri! I tell you! He will eat all the food!" Ra'Ali interrupted. The crowd laughed.

"Relax, I will invite you all to the wedding." Gurk announced with blushes appearing on his cheeks.

"Cheers for Gurk!" All began to cheer.

As Gurk and his friends still chatted through the night, getting drunk, and laughing, a tall man approached them.

"My word, getting married? That's one in a lifetime opportunity son. I wish you a happy marriage." Announced Griz while smiling at Gurk.

"Ah! Lord Griz The Protector! I am honored to be blessed by the Lord Protector himself." Gurk then bowed.

"Cease the formality for now. Today you drink! Fill your stomach!"

"Thank you your grace." Replied Gurk.

"I told you not to... Ah never mind. I'll get going to my quarters then." Lord Griz then left the tavern.

"Gee, you even got blessed by the Lord Protector himself!" Ul'Ambar teased.

"By the way, to tell you the truth, your future wife is pretty, very pretty indeed." Usamri commented.

"Yes, yes she is." Gurk replied.

Lord Griz and his men were a part of the reconnaissance team for the Igar Event. The Igar Event is an event where a self proclaimed kingdom from other human worlds gets transported to this world every 10 years. This phenomenon had happened since 400 years ago.

It was told long ago that the Gods were envy of the Goddess Valerie's beauty, so they cursed Goddess Valerie's worlds that she created into a never ending war. For the past 400 years new empires rise, fall, and appear. Those 400 years are filled with bloody battles.

Everytime when a new kingdom emerged, light pillars appeared on their borders. These light pillars can be seen from 15000 KM away, notifying the nearby continent or island that a new kingdom had emerged.

These transported kingdoms are sometimes small and sometimes very big. In their own worlds, these transported kingdoms are probably part of a continent, some probably didn't have access to sea, but when they are transported to this world, their territory turned into an island in the middle of the ocean!

The reconnaissance unit is tasked to determine if any newly transported kingdom would are worth to be colonized. If they do, the Albatross Empire will send a massive fleet. Why deploy such massive fleet? Because other superpower empires are also competing to colonize the new emerging continent. Most of these colonized islands are filled with primitive, medievalish swords and bows. While the Albatross Empire and any other superpower nations have developed cartridge guns, steam engines, and the most proud of them all, the recently developed iron birds.

The last reconnaissance mission which was 6 years ago, discovered that the newly transported kingdom was a small island, it was too far from the Albatross Empire in which the Empire didn't bother to fight for it, neither other empires. Only the Ingrauss Empire, whom was the closest overtook it and turned it into a naval base.

Colonizations are mainly exploiting iron, steel, rock, sand and the most important, coal. Coal is used for industries and electricity, very crucial. Not just resources, but manpower. Slaves are very useful to one's infrastructure, they don't have to pay, just need to be fed, besides, they work until they overwork and die. While the good looking slaves... You know.

Suddenly, on the 3rd day of the 2nd week of the 9th month, on exactly midnight, trembles could be felt. It's not harsh, just a small tremble. Suddenly from the horizon, pillars of light appeared on the distance. It's so bright.

"What? is that the light pillar?!"

"Impossible! It's should've wait for another 4 years!"

"What? I'm not seeing things am I? It's just been 6 years since the last Igar Event! How come!"

"Incredible!" The city port citizens looked amazed.

The men on the tavern who heard the ruckus outside when on a look, and to their surprise it's the light pillar!

"What the hell?" One of the men said.

"Aren't it out of schedule? I'm surprised." The men wondered in excitement. By that time, Lord Griz had finally arrived at the crowd. When he heard the ruckus he immediately exited his quarters and rushed.

"Incredible! It' very close to our Empire! Probably less than 2000 Arlem(Units=1.523 Meter) Yet that continent seemed very big!"

For a while, the crowds looked at the pillars of light until it vanished, and the horizon returned to darkness where the only light is the starry night.

"Send a letter to the capital! A new large continent has just appeared, roughly 2000 Sims from the Empire's shore by the Amunkra Ocean. The reconnaissance team will dispatch as soon as possible with 7 voyager ships and an iron bird carrier ship. Reconnaissance leader, Lord Protector Griz Eridas the fifth. Write that."

"Yes sir, immediately." The messenger then left.

"My boy Gurk, this is your first time on this kind of mission yes? And you want to get married next week? You can choose to come or not to come." Lord Grimz announced to Gurk

Gurk then fell into a deep thinking. He then softly said while smiling.

"I am loyal to this team, I will go."