The Fate of Etheria

Prologue

April 19, 2030

Armageddon finally arrived. 8 billion people gone, except for a lucky few who, let's be honest, weren't really that lucky. It started with strange broadcasts on television and the radio saying that we would all be "saved". I figured it was just some religious nonsense trying to get more people to devote their lives to God. A pale, skinwalker-looking alien had shown itself in the media after a month. He almost looked like God, but a distorted image of what a sickly mind would conjure in place of the human-like older man from paintings. From what I had learned from years in Catholic school, God didn't have four eyes and silvery skin. He was like a bad car wreck, you wanted to look away but you just couldn't.

"I am Lord Prime and I have come to save you. Join me in the light of Prime. Join me, brothers and sisters, and be reborn in my image."

It didn't take long for some people to realize it wasn't just strange commercials for a bad sci-fi series when the government confirmed the propaganda was interrupting regularly scheduled television. Like everything else in our world, no one agreed. A lot of people didn't believe there was another life form we didn't know about and, though they didn't have an explanation for the events occurring, they refused to believe it. Those who did believe were either scared or had been preparing for this their entire life. Some said Lord Prime reminded them of Hitler, which didn't bode well for the human race.

It all happened so fast. I received a letter that I had been drafted into the army a week after a state of emergency had been declared. I was horrified. When I arrived at camp, they had me turn in my phone and legally changed my status to deceased on my permanent record. I was never allowed to see my family or friends again, I hardly got to say goodbye. After being told I wouldn't be on the battlefield, I felt no relief. I was already legally dead and everyone I ever knew believed it. They told them I had died in an accident and that they'd spare them the details. Fucking liars. They told me I would be living at the Pentagon undergoing medical treatment to have me cryogenically frozen.

During the two months I spent there, I learned everything about the U.S. government. Every conspiracy theory, every secret. Everything was available to me, but only because they said I wouldn't remember any of it anyway. The government had known about the alien empire's rampage throughout the galaxy for years, but all they could come up with was to preserve a few people to replace all of humanity after they destroyed the world. For about two months I experienced the worst pain of my life, physically and mentally. I was put through astronaut training, ate a diet of supplements and sugar cubes, and had multiple invasive surgeries to prepare my body to be frozen for a century or two. When the time came for me to be put in the capsule, I had already accepted my fate. This would never work and all of humanity would die, my comrades included. We had a good enough run, it could've been worse. At least most people dying had done awful things, though many didn't deserve to die. I was directed to take a capsule that would put me to sleep and keep me asleep until the chamber had completely frozen me. After that, I would wake up and feel as though no time had passed, likely in a world entirely different from when I left it.

Surprise surprise! It didn't work. I was frozen for about 97 hours before crash-landing on a planet completely isolated from the rest of the universe. When the capsule crashed, the safety mechanisms checked the atmosphere for oxygen levels and other conditions that would allow me to survive, and when it was confirmed I would survive without any extra equipment it opened and I woke up. Unfortunately, my freedom was short-lived. An army called the Horde found me outside the Whispering Woods as they called it and took me in. They questioned me about my background and searched the small ship I had arrived in but I couldn't remember anything, at least not then. Shadow Weaver took me in and put me through cadet training. When she was pleased with my performance, she reported that to Hordak and I was sent into the field. I immediately ran as soon as I got the chance and the farther into the woods I got, the safer I felt. I had found an abandoned treehouse and decided to crash there. It's been almost a year since I escaped but the treatments from Earth and Shadow Weaver's manipulation I had undergone made my memory hazy. I started to forget why I was hiding and from who, but the fear in me stayed. All I knew was that I had to survive.