The Rise of Angulus

Chapter one:

Alex

My name is Alex Festus. I'm sixteen years old, and I am the reason my planet no longer exists.

When I was a little kid, my planet was one of the very few planets not under the Empire's control. Gods, I hated those guys. Bunch of dictators. They had 75 planets at their disposal at the time, but their sights were on Korin next.

Korin was a peaceful place, full of forests. We were the lumber capital of the galaxy. Massive forests covered the otherwise barren planet. Yay. However, snow covered most everything, including the small huts we called home. But I was never very tolerant to cold, so, on an arctic planet, I was pretty useless. Unlike most of the other boys on my planet, I didn't have the short blonde hair, or tough, tan skin. Quite the opposite, actually. My mother always said I could be such a pretty girl with my long red hair and INCREDIBLY pale skin. But I had one thing no one else had.

I have the power to control fire.

I was known as "the human campfire" by my friends. During the cold summers and even colder winters, I was the main source of heat. I never thought about the potential threats of having fire powers on a densely forested planet. That never really occurred to me. But I wish it had, because when the Empire came for us, I was far from ready.

The first thing I remember was their massive ships landing right where our sister village used to be. The large, white ships, that closely resembled giant pods with wings, flattened the entire group of pine huts without even hesitating. Then, of course, I got upset. REALLY upset.

Then there was fire. There was a lot of fire. Next thing I remember was my older sister, Alice's, face. She seemed rather panicked. With good reason, everything was ablaze.

The pine forests I played in as a child were being devoured by the roaring flames. Did I do this?

I was only able to produce small bouts of flame before, this couldn't possibly have been me. Could it?

Alice started screaming something that I couldn't understand, but I assume it was something like "We need to get out of here". Yeah, that sounds about right. She told me to destroy all but one ship. I had no idea why she cared wether one remained or not. The only people capable of flying these things were the soldiers, and they had their hands full. Full of burning debris. Still, I want one to disobey a direct order, so I did as I was told.

The satisfaction. Even the small amount of flame I was able to produce was plenty to make each ship explode. Watching each vessel transform into a flower of heat and destruction. I could feel the heat press against my face, as the wind howled and the smell of burning pine filled the air. I love fire. As each ship exploded, I had to be reminded not to blow the last one, as I was about to really let loose on the thing. We boarded the ship and, somehow, Alice had a pretty good understanding on how to fly it. I never found out why, she hadn't flown one before... had she?

We got out of there.

No one else did.