Ad Astra - The Alagore War

AA V1 Alagore, Chapter 14

Voices echoed as Darkness, like that from the deepest corners of space, enveloped the Captain of the Comanches. He felt motionless; however, he saw himself falling into an abyss, his body rippling before him as if he were the pool itself. Once one form was complete, a new one formed, one after another.

Above him, he saw what looked like waves rippling through the Darkness before a bright light encompassed everything, blinding him.

Captain Mathew Ryder was running through a dark forest. Seeing a dark form appear in front of him, he stopped and fired three shots from his M31. The shadow suddenly disappeared, but a loud screech echoed from all directions.

He looked around and saw more shadows, at which he fired. The shadows disappeared, and everything went dark, making him panic as he looked around with his rifle at the ready. The screech faded and was replaced by a giggle. That was when he noticed a golden glow deep within the forest.

Everywhere else was nothing but Darkness, so Ryder ran toward the light.

As Ryder ran closer to the golden light, he started to notice that there was a figure within it. When he got closer, he saw it was a girl, but noticed she had different features. That was when the world around him split into two and folded into itself.

The world reformed, and all that could be seen was him looking through a pair of eyes. Everything was in color as usual, but Ryder could see that the right eye's iris was gold and the left was blue. Somehow, he knew this was Assiaya's vision—the irises inverted from what he saw when viewing her perspective. Her eyes were focused on a vampire boy holding her up by the neck.

"I might not be able to kill your kind, but I can punish you for shaming my family name."

"No...."

Feeling the terrifying sensation through her eyes, Assiaya looked down as the vampire bit into her neck and fed on her blood. Suddenly, her eyes filled with a gold, blue, and white glow, fuzzing the vision. The vampire boy suddenly blinked as if he had a severe migraine, staring ahead with a dazed look as he held a hand to his forehead.

Assiaya's gold and blue eyes parted, and dust filtered through the air as heat and sunlight returned.

Feeling the ground tremble, Ryder rushed past his company of airborne soldiers fighting off the Republican Guard. Anti-air missiles flew through the sky as the enemy attempted to prevent friendly aircraft from providing support.

An explosion from an enemy tank destroyed one of the buildings that the company was utilizing. Rushing over, he saw the company captain lying on the ground, killed by the explosion. Taking command, he went to help directly with the defense. By a ruined wall, he saw Lieutenant Colonel Hackett, who was ordering the other special forces in the defense. The two met and began fighting against the attacking force.

A mortar round impacted a machine gun position, and Ryder rushed over. When he arrived, all the soldiers were gone. He saw a golden girl again, this time with tiny wings on her back and two small antennas on her head.

When the girl saw him, she flew away, and he chased her.

The sandy ground disappeared, and Ryder found himself hovering, unable to move. The desert vanished, and below was a grassy field in Poland. There were two caskets, one for an adult woman and the other for a child. On the adult's tombstone was Carlie Ryder, and the child's was named Nelka Ryder.