August 13th, 2026.

Logan Preaker

Somewhere in the middle of the Stanislaus National Forest of California is a dark, descending sunset. Boots thud on the ground, sure-footed and blood-thirsty.

Zlocu spaceships surround most of the forest, casting demonic shadows. It is as if darkness clings to their shapes.

Logan races through the forest, forcing his chest to take in more air even as he burns with pain. Branches and roots trip him up, and the axe strapped to his belt weighs him down, but he runs, swifter than ever.

On the ground, Zlocan machine walkers are moving fast like a cheetah chasing its prey. The "prey" they are chasing is the young teacher. He looks tired and dirty, covered with dust and mud, yet he continues to run as fast as he could as the axe in his belt dangles around him.

The walkers, even with their bulk, can keep up with the chase. They continue to advance towards the young teacher.

The young teacher turns backward, the walkers still on his back. He looks in both directions until he sees some bushes on his left. He sprints rapidly and turns left towards a bushy field.

"Ha! Turning left to everything is the first sign of their doom!" one of the pilots says as he continues to advance and turn to the direction of the escapee. But before he can react, he sees nothing. Not even the escapee running far away.

"Where did that pest go? Let me check outside," the pilot says.

"Why not simply use Galga to ram through the forest?" another one asks.

"The trees are too thick for me to enter with this, and I don't want to risk it."

"Understood. Also, set the gun to stun, you know the orders," the CO of the platoon says.

He exits from the walker and pulls out a gun from his holster, now ready to find the lost Human. As soon as he approaches a tree where the Human might be hidden, he steadily aims his gun at the shadow, but finds nothing.

He turns around in every direction to find him, all with extra precaution.

Soon he jumps and shoots some bushes where the Human could be hiding. The laser beam hits the ground on the other side as the bushes waver from the impact. But the target is not there.

Bewildered at such an unexpected occurrence, the pilot tries to scout again. But before he can try anything, someone grabs him from below. It's Logan who camouflaged himself by crawling to the ground to hide from them.

Both men struggle to gain the upper hand, with the pilot trying to press the teacher's arm as hard as he can. The teacher then kicks the pilot to his face, which throws him away from Logan.

But as he tries to approach him, he reaches for one last resort as he unsheathes a knife from his pocket, swinging it around in an attempt to stab the teacher. The latter then dodges every move he can see from the Knight.

"Stay still already, low scum!" he says.

Logan picks up his axe and proceeds to chop the head off of the Zlocan pilot within a matter of seconds, blood gushing all over the place.

The other pilots, who are hearing the commotion approach the forest to see what happened, all unaware of the fate of their comrade. They see Logan himself, with bits of dirt and blood around his body while giving the Zlocans a long stare. He is holding the head of the dead pilot.

"Dare to come closer," the teacher whispers as he tosses it near the walker.

He then throws his axe in front of the other pilots in an attempt to strike one of them.

It's however shot aside from one of the walkers. He then runs away, now lacking a tool to use against them.

The pilots grunt at this while reloading the blasters, as one of them tightly grips the control pad.

"Damn him! Requesting immediate order to shoot!" one of the walker pilots says.

"Negative, our orders are simple and clear, capture any surviving Humans to ensure they can join our ranks," says another. Maybe it was a higher up.

The pilot hesitates for a moment to talk, as he clearly has the urge to kill any opposing enemy in his path. Their path.

Ultimately, he sighs at such an order as he and the rest continue to advance towards the deeper parts of the forest once more just to chase the human down.

Seiner Butch

On the other side of the forest,  Seiner runs as fast as he can, also from the servants of the Zlocu Empire, the platoon of Zlocan Knights, all with red and black streamlined armor and t-shaped visored helmets. He does not look dirty like the young teacher, but he still didn't look spotless. He is also covered in multiple cuts around his shoulder and his forehead is bloody.

While the Knights are pursuing him, he sees a nearby lake, which he sees as an opportunity to hide. And yet, he's just Human, he surely can't hold his breath for that long. Now he has to resort to a technique not perfected by many but still worth an attempt.

Firstly, he takes his glasses off and puts them in his pocket, then he dives into the lake, which was luckily deep enough to hide him from the Zlocan patrols.  But before he submerges himself underwater, he exhales and inhales two and four times, with the last ones being done from his diaphragm. He dives deep enough before one Knight can notice him under the waters.

He is lying still underwater, to ensure a relaxed state of mind in order to ensure that the oxygen inside his body can flow properly alongside the blood. A small while passes by, though still trembling and looking down away from the surface, he keeps holding his breath underwater. The Zlocan Knights keep on checking the lake, using their lights to spot the escapee. The scientist responds by diving deeper and deeper underwater.

Another few moments, and just when the Scientist can't hold any longer.

Fortunately, he sees the Knights backing off from his direction, looks like the trick worked after all. So advanced, yet they fell for the oldest trick in the book.

I've endured enough danger in my life from anything, but this... would I be even the same anymore? My family... I'm deeply sorry about this.

The scientist emerges from the lake. He is extremely drenched and shivering, but at least he is safe from the Zlocu, as he sees the searchlight in the distance.

"That should do," he says before he runs off once more.

Amira Dhorian

Near the lake, Amira flees from an animal-like creature pursuing her. Suddenly, the creature leaps towards her, almost trying to bite her in half. The creature is wolf like, but most of the surrounding fur is now covered with metal pieces, both near the legs and head. Like an experimental horror of a creature, with the eyes replaced with glass ones and the wolf's body twitching a lot, giving it an uncontrollable sense of movement.

With no choice left, she picks a metal hilt in her belt, igniting a red-looking blade made of light.

She then uses it to swing towards the vicious wolf-like creature.

While it tries to maul her alive with its metallic teeth, she holds its mouth shut from the struggle. In the end, the alien finds the spot for the kill as she then swings her blade vertically, beheading the wolf.

She pants heavily afterward, with her red eyes looking watery.

Then, just as she thought she was safe, a Zlocan patrol approaches near her position, noticing that the wolf is killed. In a state of panic, she runs away as fast as she can from the Knights. Unfortunately, they notice her and the commander gives the order to chase her.

A short, simple one.

"Catch her! If we do so, it will please the daughter of the Kujar!" he says before he and his troops continue to give chase.

Tania Maestas

Deep among some bushes, Tania rushes as swift as the wind evades every move she can from the Zlocan drones. They all have aspects similar to a dark crane overlooking the prey to chase, all while trying to fire nets at her, which she swiftly dodges. Like the rest, she looks dirty and tired, but likewise, also running bravely from her hostile pursuers.

She hides near a tree full of plants and bushes, perfect for camouflage, to prevent the drones from seeing her. It's briefly successful as some drones drop the chase, but not all, as she hears a bit of noise from the nearby tree.

After a moment of nervousness, she notices a cluster of rocks in front of her. Smirking from her discovery, she picks up a large one, ready to do something more daring. She whistled high enough to make one drone notice her, but before the drone spots her, all it sees is a giant rock approaching it at high speed, soon supposedly ending the miserable existence of a tool like the pitiful drone.

She then briefly blows a raspberry to the wreckage of the drone.

But to her misfortune, it turned out that the drone activated itself, eventually flying again, and worse, signaling the others who now are coming back with a vengeance.

"Oh, nutty!" she says before she runs off again.

***

As all the four escapees run to safety, they look around them at each corner of the forest, no sight of the captors in sight. Despite this, they still rush onwards deep into the forest.

With the whole place being dark, the darkness can provide the perfect cover to vanish in sight yet risking losing themselves, leading them to find somewhere else to keep on evading the troops.

They converge in a spot where they feel safe, but fate takes matters in its own hands, colliding with each other as they trip over a nearby trench in the forest.

They are briefly dazed until they wake up simultaneously, each feeling dizzy. It's like a slumber party gone wrong.

After a moment of recovery, Logan turns towards Seiner who's also noticeably hurt, holding his left hand over his forehead.

"Ugh, my head, huh? Hey, are you OK, man? Feeling lost as well?" Logan says as he tries to approach him.

Suddenly, Seiner shoves his hand away.

"Don't touch me, you could have me and the rest killed!" Seiner yells back.

"Hey, it was simply an accident!" he protests back.

"Accident or not, we would have been dead already for that clumsiness of yours. Now, out of the way."

"No, no, no, no, no! Don't argue now! Just don't, pretty please, gentle boys! In fact, don't you see there is danger around us right now? And who do you think you are, some sort of edgy guy?" Tania says, mainly towards Seiner.

"Who are you calling a edgy, cranio-rectal idiot?" Seiner retorts.

"Look, does it look like the time to argue in the middle of a war or not?" Logan asks.

"Why do you rush to death when you're not even thinking?" Seiner barks.

"Cut it out, or else I'll sing the old Macdonald to you all!" Tania shouts back.

Seiner turns towards her. "What the hell are you blabbering on about, are you dense or something?"

Amira trembles for a moment, stepping back from them, thinking they're going to attack and beat her until she dies if they notice her. She's crawling back, afraid of the arguments being held by them. On the verge of tears, almost clearly whimpering in fear at them.

The three of them notice her, causing them to stop arguing, all to stare at her in confusion yet awe.

"Don't move scum," Seiner says.

"Oh, I just found a goodie looking being! Uh, right?" Tania says.

"Please, Don't-t-t hurt-t-t-t me, dear h-h-humans.." the humanoid girl stutters nervously.

"She-she can speak to us?" Seiner inquires, in a tone much more laced with gobsmack as he widens his eyes.

As she's about to get up, the strain is too much for her, feeling too weak from both running endlessly and the fear of facing the wolf.

"I think we can get a few words out of her and know what the hell is going on with those aliens out there," Seiner says as he gets up to approach the alien.

Then, Logan approaches him and blocks him with his arm.

Seiner gets startled by such action.

"What the?"

"I don't think it's a good idea to jump to conclusions just yet. I can tell she's different from them."

"How the bloody hell do you know?"

"Cause, I know what they look like. And while some of her facial features are similar, she looks very distinct."

"Oh, maybe we are safe, right?" Tania asks, looking for a shred of hope in her statement for the well-being of herself and the rest.

"I still don't trust her, so get out of the way!"

"Stop it! I know why you cannot trust her now, I'm not sure if I can, but sometimes a bit of discovery is needed if you need to understand better," the Logan says as he steps beside Tania, shielding her from Seiner. He notices Amira as she moves away from them.

He saunters to the trembling Amira, who stops as she notices the young teacher's interest. Tenderness even.

But even with his newfound sympathy for her, Logan slinks towards her. His arms and legs feeling tense, his hands shaking and almost stepping back from her. He glances back to the other two, who look at him with some frowns or even wide consternation at what's going on.

After a moment of reluctance or two, he steps forward, almost feeling ready to meet the alien.

"No... no..." she whispers.

Logan extends his hand towards her.

"There, there, don't be scared."

Amira hesitates at first, still feeling insecure about what he may bring to her.

"Calm down. And I'm truly sorry for what you saw. Whatever you are, the thing is that these aliens kinda messed things up, OK?" Logan asks

"A-aliens?" Amira whispers again.

"I can try to explain. Just maybe..." the young teacher says sheepishly.

As he stands still, the scientist is preparing to hurl things near his position towards her in case she does something suspicious.

A miracle then happens.

The alien grabs the young teacher's hand.

She feels the warmth in the hand. She'd always wanted to know what Humans felt like.

That makes her smile while her eyes still remain watery.

Logan does as well, while narrowing his eyes and blinking, looks as she examines him in every way, almost showing no discomfort at all.

This is nice... maybe a bit too much from someone I've never seen in my life. But yet, I can feel some innocence in her... or rather wait, after all.

Never in her life, she felt a hand so warm from other beings she knew in her life.

"How daring," Seiner whispers, still unconvinced as he rolls his eyes.

"Such beauty... from an alien, haha!" Tania.

"Huh?" Amira turns to her as she then lets go of the young teacher's hand. "What do you mean by 'alien', dear human?"

"Well, an alien is a term we 'Earthlings' use to describe beings that are not from our planet, for instance, you. I mean, the surrounding Universe is supposed to be something around 14 billion parsecs with a dim chance of a life form like you to appear. Now we have seen that they weren't the only ones as well, unless you can convince me otherwise," Seiner says.

"Really? Well, with that description I think it also fits you in my world. After all, we are aliens in every way," she says sheepishly.

"Haha haha! That's a pretty statement you got there, dear girlie! But hey, tell me, what tricks do you have, do you fly, do you fight, do you fly, do you breathe underwater, anything?" Tania says rapidly, like she has been running.

"Well, I can fly with these wings... And another ability specific to my race, but I can't do it right now. I'm not old enough to do it."

"And what could that be?" she asks.

"The Norai technique. A force shared among the Soranians. It involves being able to manipulate objects around the area with the simple power of thought. But I'm not old enough to have it yet, I need a year to gain such power. Yet, I feel that I really want to experience it."

"I see, but can't you use your wings for anything yet?" Seiner says.

The alien can only shake her head in response.

"Why the bloody hell not?" he asks.

"Because I'm injured, and I don't want to attract their attention towards us."

"Their? The Aliens?" Seiner asks once more.

"The Zlocu," she says as she looks away from them.

Seiner then wonders for something for a moment.

"Let me guess, you're a mutant out of them, or not? Gimme some quick answers if you want to live!" He barks at her. She whimpers in response.

"Shut it!" Logan says.

"I'm a Soranian, an inhabitant of the planet Sorania- or rather, I'm what's left of my people..."

"Just get straight to the point," Seiner still demands.

"The thing is, all of this happened even though we only wanted peace. The rest of the galaxy was in peace for a long time, providing the security and services for the well-being of the other beings in the Galaxy. But I never expected a poor race like the Zlocu could turn to war like this. And all in the name of the next step of 'evolution'. They've become stronger in the years that passed, taking control of most of the spaceports, colonies and warp gates to their advantage, and slaughtering anyone deemed weak to their cause... my race included."

"All of that for despising peace? And now, you believe the whole galactic community could have followed a stronger yet stricter model if they could have survived longer?" Logan asks incredulously.

"Unfortunately, yes."

All of them can only stare in silence worriedly, every one of them has lost everything dear to them, all for the common goals of the Zlocu: evolution and eradication of the weak. Perhaps the nature of war itself could expand to other races after all.

"Well, now, let's keep the rest of the story for later. Can someone build a fire pit, please? It's getting very dark here," Logan asks.

"Are you kidding me? We'll get spotted. Not to mention that the Zlocans may just hear us at any minute. We should move further away into the woods. I may still use my flashlight though," Seiner whispers.

"Roger that," the young teacher says.

Soon, he and the rest move further into the woods while hiding beneath some trees that obscured them.

"By the way, can I know all your names? It's strange that it's our first day together and we haven't known each other that much yet, but I guess it would be fun to have some new fellas around here," Logan asks.

"S-sure thing. I am Amira Dhorian. Former princess of the kingdom, now a fugitive," Amira says.

"Seiner Butch, and before you ask, no I'm not a freaking skint," Seiner replies.

"I'm Tania Maestas, but you can call me Tany. Nice to meet you all!" Tany says.

"Well, my name is Logan Preaker Hijikata, but you can use Logan Preaker if you like. Also, at your service," Logan replies.

With a faint smile, Amira leans near him, something he expected as he holds her tight.

This is so sweet. Maybe this can work."It's very nice to know you all, dear humans," she replies.

"Don't bother with that, we've just met," Seiner replies.

"Yeah, sweetie! You will have lots of fun having moral lessons from all of us!"

"As if we're good enough." Seiner scoffs.

"Well, my years in teaching High School and camping might help her in her situation. Perhaps. But if we're careful enough, then she'll know us better, and perhaps we will know her, too."

"As if... oh screw it," Seiner says as he realizes he