City of IF

[Kalanna Rai]

Prologue: Alpha Protocol

It all began the day the stars fell...

Vashik had wandered away from the nest. Mother told him not to on a daily basis but the young drake didn't listen. Crest fanned out as he skipped and skittered across the rocks, wings testing and grabbing at the sky with every leap. Not quite ready to fly, but soon. He couldn't wait for the day when he would soar among the rest of the clan in the high heavens. A shadow passed over the sun and he craned his head upward, chirruping with joy at the sight above him. One of the Great Ones passing by with wings so mighty they seemed to span the clouds. They didn't really but to a tiny drake of the tiny Ipla species the fully grown Kyrrul overhead was the biggest thing alive. Vashik's entire form was smaller than that Kyrrul's eyeball.

He watched until the Great One was out of sight before puffing out his chest and hopping down the rocks again until he reached the waves of soft grasses that signaled the start of the meadow. He paused again, crested head turning this way and that as he made sure his mother wasn't flying down to scold him from their nest in the rocky hillside. Satisfied that he'd gotten away clean, he proceeded to hop through the tall grass, flapping his wings as he went. In his mind he was that Great One, larger than life and everything that gazed upon him did so in awe. He sprang with all his might, closing his tiny eyes and stretching out his tiny wings. For a moment he was sure, absolutely sure, he was finally flying. Then he hit the ground in a graceless tumble, rolling through the tall grass tail over snout until he came to a halt in an ungainly heap.

Shaking his skull, he untangled his limbs and righted himself, standing up to make sure that nobody had seen his graceless moment. What greeted his eyes was terrifying and wonderous. The sky had grown dark but not with the passing shadow of a great one. No a great plume of smoke was fanning out over the horizon as stars came hurtling down toward the ground. They struck with a rush and roar, a booming noise as light blossomed and the ground shook. Vashik was suddenly terrified and he gave a shrill squeal of distress as sparks of flame began to lick at the meadow grass. He ran, tiny legs scurrying across the ground as he bounded along as quickly as he could. Another loud booming explosion behind him made him leap straight upward and this time, this time Vashik was indeed flying.

His joy of first flight was forgotten in his sheer terror though as he bolted back up the rocky hillside. There was another roar and rushing boom, this one close enough that the shock wave sent him hurtling out of the sky, crashing into the pebbled ledge only feet from where his mother was huddled over the nest, her wings fanned out to protect his brothers and sisters. She wasn't even mad when he scurried back in under that protective shelter and huddled up against her side.

Together they watched more fragments of fire rain from the sky. Dead stars collapsing to the ground and setting all before them ablaze.
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The Star Seeker had broken apart on entry of the planet's atmosphere. The scattered capsules of the escape pods raining down on the tiny five mile radius of the alien world. The system had worked perfectly, leaving the crew that had escaped close enough to find each other. Though they'd been seeing images of this planet on the holo screens for years now, none of them could fully comprehend it when they popped the hatches on the pods and stepped out. The landscape around them was pristine, perfect. To William it looked a lot like the wooded hills behind his grandparents house. Just unbelieveable. Earth Two, it really did exist. It wasn't just data that was too good to be true.

Rounding up the other survivors in his party they turned and looked toward where fragments of the Sky Seeker were raining down like hell fire several miles away. The flames painted the sky behind the distant mountains a lurid orange color telling of the fires and destruction that were no doubt spreading beyond that craggy ridge line. But that wasn't his concern. His concern was finding the other men of his detail and then finding the goddamn scientists. Somebody out there had to know why their ship had suffered the failure she had. One of those scientists had to know how to get the supplies out of the pods, salvage them, and begin the process of building a transmitter that would let the rest of the Fleet know what had happened to Sky Seeker.

He turned away from the burning skyline and directed his gaze at his second, waving a hand to get the man's attention. When that failed William moved to shake him, turning his had slightly to see what had captured his comrade's attention so thoroughly. He nearly shat himself when his gaze landed on the creature that was climbing down from a nearby crag, slightly singed and looking none too pleased about it.

Sir...Sir...what is that thing?!

William couldn't answer the man, not realistically. All he could do was bring his rifle up to bare, clicking the settings to maximum. It wasn't rational, it was training. But somewhere in the back of his mind his primitive brain was screaming at him to run in sheer terror.

Because that dragon looked mad enough to eat him...

[sagittaeri]

Ahhh! Dragons!!! :D

*Composes oneself.*

This looks pretty awesome, Rai!

[Seraphi]

Ooooh! *sparkle eyes* I would like to second Sagi's "Ahhh! Dragons!!!" and add a hearty YAY!

This looks great, Kalanna! :D

[Chilvarous Misogynst]

I like! The idea of starship troopers riding the lizards from star wars came to mind, but I'm betting your's will be infinitely more badass.

[Kalanna Rai]

Thank you all. Hopefully here soon I'll actually have time to get the next installment of this posted up!