Orbital Fire
The stars came back into view as my small scout ship dropped out of warp speed. Right in front of me was J978, a massive gas giant with huge, swirling storms of orange, white, and brown bands, lightning flashing deep inside its thick clouds. My scanners started beeping loudly before I could even take a breath.
There it was. The anomaly.
Deep inside J978’s upper atmosphere, something was pulsing with energy. It looked alive. My commanders back home called it “the Nest.” If we could understand it or use it, it might finally give my people a chance to win the long war against the Elyrian Empire. Vortan Prime was poor and running out of everything. The Elyrians had all the good planets. This Nest could change that.
I was the one they sent alone to check it out.
“Thorn to Command,” I said into the comms. “I’m in orbit around J978. The anomaly is exactly where you said. Starting quiet scan now.”
Only static came back. I was too far away for anyone to talk to me in real time. It was just me, my ship, and the giant storm world.
Then another alarm went off. A second ship appeared on my scanners. Clean lines, strong shields.
Elyrian.
Anger hit me hard and fast. Those spoiled, glowing Elyrians were already here, trying to steal what might be ours.
I pushed the engines forward and flew close to their ship, close enough that they would feel the heat from my thrusters. It was a clear warning: get out.
They didn’t leave.
Instead, they shot at me.
A bright purple beam flashed past my wing. Alarms screamed.
Direct hit. My rear shields dropped to almost nothing.
My blood boiled. I didn’t think, I just acted. I rolled the ship, released decoys, and turned my guns toward them.
“You want a fight?” I growled to the empty cockpit. “Fine.”
The battle was fast and fierce.
Their ship was quicker and more graceful, the way Elyrian things always are. But my ship was tough, built to survive rocks and explosions in deep-space mining. I took their shots, got in close, and fired torpedoes straight at their engines. One hit. Their ship started leaking bright plasma.
They hit me back hard. A beam cut right through my balance controls. My whole ship shook. Gravity flipped for a second.
Warning lights flashed: I was falling out of orbit. I had less than ten minutes before I hit the planet below.
Their ship was falling too, on fire as it entered the atmosphere first.
The planet below was blue and green, covered in clouds and large oceans.
I sent one last message.
“Command, the mission failed. Elyrian ship attacked. Crashing on E898. If I make it, I’ll still try to get information on the Nest. Thorn out.”
Then everything turned to fire as my ship burned into the atmosphere.
I woke up tasting blood.
My safety harness had kept me alive, but my ribs hurt with every breath. The cockpit was tilted sideways. Green vines were already crawling through the broken windows. Hot, wet air poured in, thick and full of strange smells.
I forced the emergency hatch open with a kick and stepped outside.
Sweat ran down my cobalt-blue skin right away, tracing the silver scars across my chest and arms. I’m tall, six-foot-eight, and built heavy from years of hard work and fighting. Heat doesn’t scare me. But this air felt different. Alive.
My flight suit was torn open down the front from the crash, showing my scarred chest and stomach. I checked my rifle, made sure it still worked, and looked around.
So this is E898, the forbidden planet.
Long ago, thousands of years, this world had been the perfect home for a species that called themselves intelligent. They built huge cities, flew machines, reached for the stars. But their own cleverness destroyed them. Endless wars, massive explosions of nuclear fire, experiments that poisoned the air, water, and ground. They wiped themselves out in their greed and hate. Even now, after all that time, the land is still sick. Radiation lingers in places. Strange, twisted creatures, mutated descendants of old animals, roam the wild ruins. No sane colony goes near E898 anymore. It’s quarantined. A graveyard world.
And now we were stuck here.
My scanners said the Elyrian ship was only two kilometers away.
The jungle was thick. Huge leaves, fallen trees, old broken buildings covered in vines. This used to be one of their great cities. Now it belonged to plants and monsters.
I moved quietly. Something big watched me from the shadows but stayed away.
When I reached the other crash site, smoke was still rising. Their sleek ship had cut a long scar through the ground before stopping against a crumbling wall of ancient concrete.
The hatch was open.
I walked into the clearing with my rifle ready.
She was there.
Her back was to me. She was kneeling next to a broken engine part, trying to fix or save something. Her dress, thin, light Elyrian material, was dirty and badly torn from the crash. It hung low and loose, barely covering her large breasts. Every move made the fabric shift dangerously.
Her skin was pale, almost white, with a soft pearl shine. Thin violet veins glowed faintly under the surface, pulsing with her heartbeat.
She heard me too late.
I was behind her in two long steps. I pressed my rifle gently under her chin.
“Hands up. Slowly.”
She froze. Then raised her arms and turned around.
Up close, she was the most beautiful enemy I had ever seen.
Tall, almost six feet, with long black hair that fell in wild waves. Full lips, high cheekbones, and big violet eyes that glowed softly. Those glowing veins lit up brighter when she saw me, running down her neck and disappearing under the torn dress.
“Vortan beast,” she said. Her voice was low, calm, even with a gun at her throat.
“You shot first,” I answered.
“Your flyby was an attack.”
“It was a warning. You turned it into war.”
Her eyes moved over me, taking in my height, my blue skin, the open flight suit, the scars, the muscle. Her veins glowed a little stronger. She swallowed.
I stepped closer. My body heat reached her cool skin. Her glow answered, veins pulsing faster.
“Name,” I said.
“Lira Voss.” She lifted her chin higher. “And you’re Kai Thorn. I saw your ship’s name before you tried to kill me.”
“I tried to warn you.”
She gave a small, cold smile. “Same thing.”
I kept the rifle up, but I didn’t shoot.
“We’re both stuck here,” I said. “This planet is dangerous. I felt things watching me on the way here. You want to die quick, keep fighting me. You want to stay alive a little longer… we call a truce. Just until we get off this rock.”
She stared at me for a long moment. Her violet eyes searched my face.
Then she nodded once.
“Truce,” she said. “Temporary.”
The rifle stayed ready.
But my finger moved away from the trigger.
She tilted her head slightly, studying me.
“Hey, brute!”
I raised an eyebrow. “Name’s Kai.”
“Yes, Kai.” A small smirk touched her lips. “Do you know what name the old species of this planet gave to their world?”
“No. What was it?”
“Earth.”
The word hung in the heavy air between us.
Far away, deep in the sky, the anomaly pulsed again, stronger than before. It felt like it had come with us.
Something inside me answered that pulse.
This forbidden planet had plans for us.
And it was only getting started.
