By: Kirana the Tok'Ra

Prologue

"War cries can be heard for miles. Death and the smell of blood are always present. The cries of children for their parents ring through the air as all the males are killed, and the children and women are used as slaves. Most women being forced to be a slave to the ruler of the Invaders. Few people dare to defy the Invaders for fear of their power, yet there are always those few who escape, who fight, who refuse to die! They are rebels, part of the rebel group named 'Celestial Fighters'. We are the rebel group 'Celestial Fighters.' We refuse to fall into the power of the Invaders and We will fight till the end even if it means our lives!"

-Celestial Fighter ID289354X

Dark clouds rolled in as the sun faded beyond the horizon. Color faded from everything in the dense forest surroundings making all blend into dark shades of blacks, browns, and grays.

Leaves crunched loudly underneath the feet of the rebels who were running again, but this time they may not be as lucky as before.

A woman panted while carrying a boy on her back, her spouse and partner running in front of her. The little boy's face was buried in his mothers back. His tattered clothes waving in the wind like his mothers long golden hair. He watched his mothers staff curiously as the gem in the center of the frame shone brightly. He knew it as his mother's Celestial Staff, the weapon given to all rebels. That made him think of his fathers celestial item. His eyes soon wandered to his fathers back where against his brown leather tunic lay a sheathed sword. He couldn't see the blade but he remembered it from the last time he saw his father use it.

They were being ambushed by a group of Invaders, himself and another little boy his age were being pushed into a center while a few women stood around them all holding different staffs, and he could see men, including his father, fighting off several large Invaders threatening to

kill them. He could see the swords silver blade shining in the sun, glimmering like nothing he had seen before. Other men had swords as well, some of gold blades and some two-toned. Many of them adorned with engravings of ancient symbols for protection and power, even a symbol to help guide the sword wielder's spirit to the other world if death fell upon them. His father was a well known fighter and loved by many. He was awarded the Celestial sword of light which was a silver blade engraved with symbols of strength, love, and guidance. The symbols were majestic and beautiful.

He remembered that day vividly, he remembered the death of the warriors and the women. He escaped but he mourned the death of his kind, and he could hear his fathers voice telling him that he should never dwell on the past but he should move on knowing and believing that their death was not in vain. From that day forward he never cried for death, but deep inside he felt sad, he felt that every time another died a piece of him died with them. Yet he did what his father told him to do because he was also told that mourning meant weakness. As young as he was he was trained to be strong even if he wasn't old enough to fight he had to be emotionally stable and show strength in heart, where it truly mattered.

Boys were trained by their father and girls by their mother when they reached the age of ten. Girls were trained with their assigned staff and boys with their swords. Under ages had the celestial pendant which was the only protection that they held. His was a silver celestial sign with a red gem inside that hung from his neck on a silver chain. Each celestial pendant had a different colored stong representing their chosen element. It was given to him when he turned five and was able to run and defend himself fairly well.

His mother stopped when she heard a scream cut through the air like a hot knife to butter. The little boy knew what it was. It was a celestial fighter falling under the hands of an Invader. He gripped his mothers Tunic tightly feeling her death.

"Neona!" his mother whispered sadly. "May you travel safely elsewhere," she prayed until her partner urged her forward.

"We cannot dwell on her death, we must move. They are close and moving fast!" his father said in his low husky voice.

"Adalyn wait! Take our son, I can't carry him and run as fast," she said, and before long he had run to her lifting the boy and letting him climb onto his back.

"Your getting heavy," he said before taking off into a run, his wife closely behind.

It soon became visible, the refuse they were heading for was less than a hundred meters away. They ran as quickly as possibly sensing the Invaders. Their celestial gem would glow brightly when one was near. The refuge was made of wood on the outside and looked like an abandoned cabin from the years before. The wood was worn and rotting. From the outside it seemed unliveable. That was the point.

Soon enough they reached it and Adalyn burst open the door running in letting his wife get in before closing and locking the door.

"Everyone okay?" asked the father looking at his son and wife. They nodded looking around. A high ping repeated its self constantly and the glow of control panels, buttons, and computer screens reflected off of the chrome walls of the inside. What looked old on the outside was new and magnificent inside. This was one of the rebel refuges.

The little boy climbed down from his fathers back standing straight against a wall awaiting any order from his father or mother. A rebel child never did anything without a parent order, and did everything a parent ordered or their lives would certainty end in the hands of the Invaders. He watched his father run to one of the control panels as he typed wildly on buttons watching the screen on the wall.

"Shields at fifty percent," he recited. "Scanners at seventy-five percent," he said. "Safety artillery at ten percent," he continued. "This place is not well equiped. It must have been used recently," he stated.

"Main power at sixty percent," his mother said working on a screen on the opposite side of the room.

"All systems ready for charging," he said.

"All systems ready for charging," she repeated.

"All systems at seventy percent," Adalyn updated.

"Copy," she said walking from the computer and sitting in a chair. "Now we wait," She said quietly looking at her son. "Come here," she motioned to her son to sit with her.

"Waiting is all we can do," Adalyn said joining his wife on the couch putting an arm around her. "We are lucky that we are all together. We could be like the others, lets be thankful for now," he paused and turned to his son. "You are becoming nine soon, I know training doesn't start till you are ten, but we must start. Things are getting worse. The Invaders are learning about us and finding information out. How they are doing this we don't know, but we must be prepared," he said looking his son in the eye.

"Sierra, Its time we showed him how to use the escape pods," Adalyn said through pain filled eyes.

"Yes, I agree," she said in equal pain understanding what her husband meant in his message. They weren't going to live much longer and Adalyn knew it. Sierra understood her husband and accepted the truth calmly. When caught by an Invader they would kill themselves so as to not let information leak into their hands. They were going to get caught. It was only a matter of time.

"Mother? What do you mean?" he asked cautiously with a hint of what was happening.

"Son, follow me," his father motioned and he followed silently to a farther part of the refuge in another room. His father stood before a door that opened in a spiral motion. He stepped in and turned on a florescent light that lit the room dimly. He waited for instructions as he stared wearily at what looked to be a suspended animation pod ship. The kind that ran auto. He had seen them before.

"Is that a ship father?" he asked quietly.

"You are bright son, yes it is," he said. "I need to teach you to use it in the proper way so that you can travel away if the time comes," he stated.

The boy nodded and watched his father open the door which opened from the roof of the ship. Inside was black and had a rather complicated instruction board.

"Please state name," a computer voice beeped.

"Name is Orlando, son of Adalyn and Sierra of the Celestial Fighters," he recited calmly.

"Orlando, son of Adalyn and Sierra," The computer paused. "Computing," another pause. "Please state destination for auto pilot," the computer beeped again.

"Twenty-thousand gelts north. Coordinates are Fifteen geltines and Twenty Geltites," he recited again as if he had this planned for a long time. And he did.

"Destination set twenty-thousand gelts north, fifteen geltines and twenty geltites, Orlando son of Adalyn and Sierra. Information set. Path set. Auto pilot set. All systems ready when activated," the computer clicked off.

"Son, when the time comes, when I tell you, you will come here and turn the computer on. You will say auto pilot activate than you will lay back and go to sleep," he said sternly.

"Father, what is the point? Won't the rebels win? Won't life go back the way it was in the before years?" he asked.

"Son, I cannot lie to you. Bad things are happening, and you will have to leave. Escape. If the time comes. Do you understand? You must remember this!" his father said sternly.

"Yes, father, I understand," Orlando said to his father hurting inside understanding the truth as his mother did. Just as she did too, he held it in and accepted what was happening, even if it hurt he couldn't show it. That showed weakness.

He looked up and met his fathers blue eyes and looking at him nodding. Adalyn knew what his son was feeling and he wanted to help to say everything would be okay, and that they would live like a normal family. But he stopped and didn't. He knew that would be lying at it would only make a false sense of security and safety. With that they would surely fail and fall under control forced to die by their own weapon in their own hand.

"You are dismissed," he told his son and he walked into the other room to see his mother. He walked over and sat beside her, she was looking into a screen with horror in her eyes.

"Son, did you listen to your father?" she asked. He nodded. "Did you remember everything he told you?" she asked strongly. He nodded again. "Good," she said but grabbed her husbands hand and told him to look in the screen. Orlando saw the fear in both their faces and soon felt the same fear when he saw the screen.

Through the pale colors on the computer screen and the dark of the night it was hard to see, but the warning light was blinking furiously. Outside lurking around the refuge was a group of about five Invaders investigating. Their long arms hung low, and in the grasp of their bony gray fingers were their weapons. Long rods of metal that not only cut, slice, and surly kill, but they exert a poison that knocks out the one who breaths it. They use that on the rebels so that they can't kill themselves. They take their weapons and enslave them until they speak of the rebels whereabouts. That is how they are being discovered. Its terrifying to them. Their height alone was scary as well. the Invaders stood as tall as two rebels and had bulk the width of a medium tree trunk. Their immense muscles were capable of massive damage, even to a rebel refuge.

Adalyn placed an arm around his wife's waste and held her close. He was scared, Orlando couldn't believe it. His father was never scared, at least he never showed it. that made Orlando extremely worried if his father was like this. He looked and noticed a tear running down his mother's face. That was something he never saw and it scared him even more. His mother was the bravest woman he knew and to see her and his father in the state they were in meant only one thing, there was no escape. For them at least. Now he knew why his father was so urgent to program the ship.

Orlando jumped when he heard a banging and a ripping at the walls of the refuge when he heard his farther speak. "It will take them a while," he said. His mother's face was soaked when he said that. She bent down to embrace her son. What seemed like a tender moment faded instantly. His mother grasped him hard and whispered fiercely, harshly into his ear. "Run Orlando," she paused and than screamed. "Go now! To the ship!"

"Go!" his father echoed.

Orlando stared at his parents wide eyed. He never saw this coming, not this way, not this soon.

"If you want to live Orlando go!" his mother said. Orlando was in shock. This was the first time he heard his mother speak his name. The day he thought she would speak his name, he thought it would be warm, happy, the day he started his training like every child. He was awoken painfully into the reality that the Invaders had caused.

"GO!" the shouted as his mother shoved her staff into his arms. "Take this, remember, use it well," she wasn't about to tell her son that she was going to die under his father's sword just as his father would too. She thought he knew, but didn't want to tell him.

He took the staff and ran to the pod. He heard a loud battle cry behind him. A battle cry he heard only when the Invaders had found a rebel. They were discovered.

"Auto pilot activated!" he yelled into the speaker. "Orlando son of Adalyn and Sierra!" he shouted.

The computer beeped to life. "Auto pilot activated, please sit back, destination pre set, time until destination reached, ten years," the computer said. Orlando laid back and closed his eyes, the staff if his mother beside him and his celestial pendant around his neck. He waited as a thick fog filled the black chamber he was in. It was thick, hard to breath, hard to open his eyes. Finally everything went black, everything went out. The drum of the engines was a mere tapping in the back of his brain as he fell into a deep, deep sleep.

A chamber door opened and the ship shot out into empty space. The Invaders did not notice because they were too occupied trying to get into the refuge. Even though they were strong, they weren't very bright, and a ship taking off was the last thing in their mind.

Adalyn held up his sword standing by the door waiting for them to open it, his wife standing behind him. He was going to fight, and if he knew he could not win, he would kill his wife and himself. He exchanged glances with his wife and mouthed the words 'I love you.' She nodded and mouthed back, 'me too' she paused before continuing and than added, 'I am ready to die.' He nodded in agreement as the door burst open exposing two Invaders with their glowing red eyes and pale gray skin. They held up their sticks prepared to fire the smoke to knock them out. Sierra saw it coming and grabbed her husbands sword stabbing it into herself.

Adalyn watched in horror as his wife died. He was prepared to do the same, but it was too late, the smoke had reached him before he could kill himself.

Before falling to the ground he whispered. "I am sorry Sierra," he paused and then got out the words. "Orlando too, and the rest of the rebl-" than his world went black. The Incaders now held the key the needed to conquering the Rebels.