The Scarlet Wars

The crowd swayed as one in the square. High up, a bell tower cast a large shadow across their heads. Birds circled in the sky above, the sun shone down. It was all but silent, the breeze rising and falling. A low hum began at the back, slowly evolving into song. As the singing moved forward in the group, the people began raising their heads, revealing their white eyes and scarred faces.

Above them, a huge, blackened craft hung in the balance. As if suspended on an invisible line, it rotated slowly. It dwarfed the city below it, a dark, misshapen object. The people below began to sing louder, raising their hands to the craft. Hundreds of blistered, worn fingers clasped together in reverence, in prayer.

The ship emitted an almighty blast of alien sound, deep and long. Nearby wooden stalls collapsed, plates cracked, water churned. The crowd buckled, some falling to their knees. They looked up, terrified. Out of nowhere, another sound in the distance drew closer, a smaller engine. Another ship, a single craft, shot over the crowd. Standing atop of it, a lone woman, fixed to it by a harness. The fighter headed straight for the black ship, and the woman raised her hands in surrender.

It plunged into the hull of the black ship, and it erupted. Rocked by a huge explosion. The crowd screamed in terror as the colossal vehicle began falling from the sky. Their saviour, a lone fighter pilot, had brought down the leader. It crashed into the earth, turning part of the city into ruins.

From the sky, massive black ships poured down. They fired upon the city, they’re blistering cannons sweeping through the streets. Hundreds of fighter jets responded, soaring into the air to meet them. The crowd roared. The battle had begun. For too long they had been oppressed.

The fighters screamed upward, their engines pushing. Protecting the city below, many of them were destroyed by the black ships with their withering fire. The crowd chanted. The sky was being torn apart by light.

The battle lasted many hours, fiery debris falling to earth. Ship upon ship fell, defeated. Bodies of the fallen were recovered by the city-dwellers and taken away. Day turned into night, and the battle moved out of the city into the deserts, wide and abandoned. The city-dwellers cowered, listening to the fading sounds.

The lead fighter pilot struggled with his controls. His instruments sparked, his readouts failed. He grunted, forcing his ship to turn. He knew there wasn’t time left. With a great effort he turned his fighter toward the nearest black craft, heavily damaged. On full power, he sent the ship flying toward an opening. The black ship had an open section, that led to what he supposed was a hangar.

The ship outflew the cannons that attempted to knock him out of the air, entering the hangar at a tremendous speed. It hurtled inside, and slid across the floor of the black ship. His wings broke and the glass of the cockpit shattered. The ship spun several times and came to a slow stop, powering down.

The pilot, quickly jumped from the ship, as it burst into flame. He brushed himself off and scanned his surroundings. The hangar was silent, nothing in sight. The pilot pulled of his helmet, his long hair falling down in front of his eyes. He edged forward, his fists clenched. Out of nowhere, the deep alien blast that had sounded before came again, rattling the ship. In the hangar, a door at the back opened, a brilliant white light coming from it. The pilot heard the sound of marching.

He dashed across and hid behind a pile of sleek, black containers. The marching grew closer, until a large group of armour-clad figures came into view. Communicating in a sharp, nasal language, the leader stepped forward and addressed the alien soldiers. Their armour had red symbols emblazoned on them, like binary code. The leader rasped, and the fighters roared, thirsty for blood.

The entrance to the hangar opened, and the group, line by line, dove out. They were flying down to the ground, as an attack force. The pilot had to act. Once all the soldiers had jumped from the ship, he left his hiding spot and ran towards the door with the white light. He bolted through, and the door closed behind him. The white light had gone. All that lay before him was a small strip of lights illuminating at pathway. The pilot followed it, breathing heavily. His mind was reeling. No one had ever boarded one of these crafts, the closest anyone had come was the woman strapped on top of the fighter that had collided with the ship before.

As he crept on, he could hear the muffled rumbles from the battle outside. His comrades still fighting for the city below. Just as he approached the end of the pathway, the whole room lit up. All around him, were weapons, designs and plans unlike anything he had seen before. Tech from the long lost battles, The Scarlet Wars.